The Lush Chef

With the long holiday weekend coming up, you'll inevitably be throwing a Memorial Day party or attending one, which means either way, you'll be contributing some booze.  Regardless of whether you're the host or a guest, you can amp up the weekend and impress your friends with a super simple punch. No one wants to be shaking or stirring up individual cocktails during a big party.  Well, maybe you do, but then everyone's waiting for a drink.  I also like to stir these punches up in those 2-quart beverage coolers and slyly cart them to the beach.  It's The Lush Chef way. The below are some of my favorite summer recipes.  Just be careful, because they go down easily...

You can do champagne, and then you can really class it up and do champagne cocktails for New Year's Eve.  Whether you're hosting a party and pouring cocktails all night or want to do something special for that midnight toast, this Forbidden Pear cocktail is sure to impress your guests.  It's a slight twist on Liquor.com's Forbidden Apple recipe, which is also a slight twist on a traditional champagne cocktail (sugar, bitters, champs).  Isn't almost any cocktail a twist on something classic?  Liquor.com used Calvados, which is an apple brandy, Grand Marnier and some Angostura bitters.  Instead of Calvados, I used J Pear Liqueur, which I included in a Spiced Pear Margarita for last New Year's Eve.  I absolutely love this stuff.  It's made by J Vineyards & Winery in Healdsburg, California using Bartlett pears and has hints of cinnamon, vanilla and honey — perfect for winter.  If you can't find this particular liqueur, feel free to use any kind of pear brandy, as well as your favorite aromatic bitters.  I had recently finished making a batch of aromatic bitters for my little Bitter Revenge line to give out during the holidays.  I left out the orange twist, as I wanted to taste more of the pear notes.  I can't wait to make this drink for friends and really kick off the New Year, or just find an excuse to celebrate anytime this winter.  It's a rich, slightly sweet libation that makes any special occasion feel a little more luxe.

Forbidden Pear 
Ingredients:

• 3-5 dashes of Angostura or aromatic bitters (I used my Bitter Revenge "Et Tu, Brute" house bitters)
• 1/2 oz Grand Marnier
• 1 oz pear brandy (I used J Pear Liqueur)
• 4 oz champagne (I used Moet Chandon's Imperial)
• Optional - orange twist for garnish

- Add the bitters, Grand Marnier and pear brandy into a champagne flute.
- Top with champagne.
- Optional to add the orange twist.

This past weekend, a group of us took our friend's boat out for the afternoon to relax, eat and drink just off the coast of Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey.  If there's a beach or a boat involved, you can bet that I'll be bringing a punch.  This Boat House Punch from Liquor.com was just screaming to be made because of it's name sake.  Plus, all of the citrusy ingredients made it perfect for day drinking.  There are so many of my favorite libations in this punch.  Aperol always goes well with grapefruit juice, and St. Germain has such a lovely floral flavor that blends nicely with gin and champagne.  Yes, it's faster to just buy juice and dump it in, but this punch will taste so much better if you squeeze everything fresh.  To jazz it up, I even juiced some blood oranges and used them for the garnish.  I hope there will more boat rides this summer, so I can make this punch!

One of my favorite champagne cocktails to make is the French 75.  I was going whale watching a few weeks ago with some friends and wanted to bring a daytime cocktail.  I had been making blood orange bitters earlier that day which requires using just the peels, so I had ton of fresh-squeezed juice.  I decided it would be perfect for a twist on the French 75.  Instead of regular sugar, I used some lemongrass simple syrup, which matches nicely with those herbal and juniper notes you get in gin.  I made a big batch of just the gin, juice and syrup in a jar so the prosecco could be added later when we were on the boat.  Next time I make this, I'll need to juice more blood oranges.  I just added some regular orange juice to make up for the lack.  If you want to make this drink for just one person, then follow the recipe above.  We quickly downed this cocktail before the sun even set, but it was the perfect way to toast a productive day of seeing the whales.  I can't wait to make this again for brunch or another day of sailing.
Sunset French 75 - serves 10-12
Ingredients:

• 3 cup freshly-squeezed blood orange juice
• 2 cups gin
• 1/2 cup lemongrass or regular simple syrup
• 1 bottle of champagne or prosecco

- In a quart-sized jar or punch bowl, add the orange juice, gin and simple syrup and stir.
- If making in a punch bowl, add all the champagne or prosecco.  If making individual drinks, fill each glass halfway with the gin/juice mixture, then top with a slightly equal amount of champagne.

Back in the spring, my friend and I hosted a whiskey tasting, where we walked our buddies through the differences amongst bourbon, whiskey and scotch, and also taught them how to make Old Fashioneds and Gold Rush cocktails.  It was a huge hit and we vowed we'd do another similar gathering.  Well, it took us nearly a year, but this past weekend, we hosted a Bitters Cocktail Party to teach our friends about the beauty of bitters.  If you frequently read this blog, you'll know my passion for bitters - they're to cocktails as finishing salts are to food.  I'm fascinated by the history and also make my own line of bitters called Bitter Revenge.

For those who aren't big cocktail enthusiasts, bitters are still a bit of a mystery and most are only familiar with the major brands like Angostura and Peychaud's.  The bitters boom really started a little after the vintage and artisanal cocktail movement happened.  As bartenders started looking through old recipe books, they discovered all of these flavors for bitters that no longer were on the shelves, or even just created new ones.  Some enterprising cocktail lovers either tracked down old recipes or bought antique bottles of bitters with a few drops left so they could reverse-engineer the recipes.  Now, when you go into a liquor store, gourmet foods market or scroll through the menu at your favorite fancy cocktail joint, you'll see all sorts of flavors: orange, lemon, grapefruit, apple, celery, cucumber, lavender, coffee, chocolate and more.  It can be a little overwhelming to figure out how to accent cocktails with different flavors, so that's what we sought to teach.  


Rather than just throwing our friends blindly into pairings, we gave everyone a little direction by providing some basic cocktail recipes that highlight bitters, the best being an Old Fashioned because of it's simplicity and ability to really highlight the bitters.  We also had recipes for each kind of base spirit, so non-whiskey drinkers could have some options as well, and we kept them fairly simple.  Nothing had more than 3 or 4 ingredients and left room for experimentation.  Writing out the recipes on little cards (laminated are even better) encourage socializing amongst your guests without you having to explain recipes each time someone wants to make a drink.  We offered up Manhattans, Sazeracs, Martinis, Rob Roy's, Pink Gin (just gin and aromatic bitters), a Horse's Neck (bourbon, bitters and ginger ale) and Champagne Cocktails (we all agreed lavender was the best).

My friend and I didn't want to break the bank on alcohol, so we told everyone to bring their favorite base spirit, which could be whiskey, bourbon, scotch, vodka, gin, rum or champagne.  We provided mixers such as lemon and lime juice, tonic and soda water, ginger ale, sweet and dry vermouth, Pernod (for the Sazeracs), oranges, lemons and limes for garnish peels, maraschino cherries, white and brown sugar cubes and a bunch of flavored simple syrups.  Because I'm the Lush Chef, I always have a bunch of simple syrups stocked in the fridge.  In addition to plain and rich simple syrups, I also provided honey syrup, ginger, lemongrass and spiced.  Also make sure you set out enough mixing glasses, shakers, jiggers/shot glasses, stirring spoons and citrus peelers for people to make drinks.  Besides regular ice, we also had some King Ice Cubes and whiskey stones on hand.

When trying the bitters, I recommend that people put a drop or two on their top of their hand to smell and taste it, so they really understand what the flavor is on its own and how it would best accent a cocktail.  Darker spirits tend to go best with the more aromatic and warmer flavors and clear spirits go best with the citrus and floral flavors, but a lot of times you can cross the line.  I've had many a good Old Fashioned with orange or lemon bitters.

We had the following bitters out for folks to try: Angostura, Peychaud's, Fee Brothers' West Indian Orange, The Bitter Truth's Jerry Thomas, Bar Keep's Lavender, my Bitter Revenge bitters in Blood Orange & Rosemary, Coffee Pecan, Meyer Lemon and Apple Cinnamon.  There's also a new company called Napa Valley Bitters, and the founder was gracious to send a dozen samples for all of us to try in unique flavors such as Cucumber, Tamarind-Lime-Chili, and Love Potion (aromatic).  I would even encourage your guests to bring their favorite bitters as well.

Here are some of my favorite brands if you're looking to stock your home bar:
Fee Brothers - One of the oldest brands out there, after Angostura and Peychaud's.  Their Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters are known for selling out as soon as they're stocked on the shelves.
The Bitter Truth - Their Jerry Thomas Own Decanter bitters are an aromatic homage to one of the most important bartenders of the 19th century.
Bittermens - They have fun names and flavors for their bitters like Xocolatl Mole, Boston Bittahs and Elemakule Tiki.
Bar Keep - They're organic and delicious.

The 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards are coming up this Sunday, and all good awards show viewers should always have a couple of cocktail recipes up their sleeves.  Check out my earlier post on what I made for a Golden Globes party last February.  It's a long viewing session, because the full experience involves watching all of the pre-shows and commenting on the fashions before getting to the actual show (tune-in to ABC at 5pm PT/8pm ET). 

If you're looking to sip on the same Grey Goose libations that this year's nominees and guests will be imbibing at the Governors Ball, then you can shake up the official Grey Goose Emmy Cocktail.  It incorporates their Cherry Noir flavor, but if you don't have that on hand, use regular Grey Goose and do a floater of Maraschino liqueur to get some of that cherry flavor in there. 

The Grey Goose Emmy Cocktail
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz Grey Goose Cherry Noir (or regular vodka)
• 1 oz St. Germain
• 1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 oz pomegranate juice
• Champagne
• Black cherry, for garnish

- Combine all the ingredients except for the champagne in a shaker with ice.
- Shake, shake, shake and strain into a champagne flute.
- Top with champagne and garnish with a black cherry.

A Los Angeles summer tradition of mine is to gather a group of friends with a huge picnic spread and head out to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery for Cinespia's screenings.  There's usually enough wine for everyone to have their own bottle and enough beer for everyone to have their own six-pack.  This time, I decided to class it up and make some cocktails.  We were watching Breakfast at Tiffany's (best cocktail party scene ever—I aspire to throw a party like that), and even though they don't drink French 75s in the film, it just felt so Holly Golightly to me.

This cocktail was first made in 1915 at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, and the combination was said to have such a kick, that it felt like being shelled with a French 75mm howitzer artillery piece.  Lovely what a champagne cocktail can do to a grown man—and you guys thought champagne was girly...

Because of the picnic setting, I combined all the ingredients in a water bottle at home so it would just involve spreading amongst glasses and topping with champagne later on.  I'm ambitious, but not enough to start squeezing lemons on the cemetery lawn.  In honor of the film, I used rosé champagne.  My friend had brought raspberries and we tossed some in as an afterthought.  Classy, delicious and simple.

French 75 - serves 1
Ingredients:

• 2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 5 oz champagne

- Combine gin, lemon juice, sugar and ice in a shaker and shake well to make sure all that sugar is dissolved.
- Strain into a collins glass (or in our case, a plastic cup) and top with champagne.

Libations used: 2 1/2 cups champagne
Libations left over: 2 glasses
One of my good friends was recently celebrating her birthday and we held a wine and cheese party for just the girls at my place.  I wanted to make something light, pretty and girly and this Pink Champagne Cake from Booze Cakes looked like just the thing.  The consistency of the cake is between a regular white cake and Angel Food cake, and the champagne gives it this slight strawberry flavoring.  I had picked up some white and red raspberries at the farmer's market that morning and ended up decorating the cake with it.  It's the perfect dessert to make for your mom, your best girl friend, lush lady or future bride.

Pink Champagne Cake - serves 12

Cake Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 egg whites
• 2 cups champagne
• A few drops red food coloring

Frosting Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 4 cups confectioners sugar
• 1-2 Tbs champagne (start with 1 and add more as needed)
• 1-2 Tbs whole milk (start with 1 and add more as needed)
• 1 Tbs vanilla extract
• A few drops red food coloring

To make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350, and grease two 9-inch round cake pans.
- In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes or until fluffy.
- Add vanilla and beat in egg whites one at a time.
- Mix in food coloring (optional).
- Beat in flour mixture and champagne in 3 alternating additions so the mixture doesn't curdle.
- Pour batter into 2 pans and bake for 35 minutes.

To make the frosting:
- Beat the butter in a mixing bowl for about 1 minute.
- Add the confectioners sugar and champagne in alternating additions.
- Mix in milk, vanilla and food coloring.
- When cake has completely cooled, put one piece on a cake plate and spread a nice, thick layer of frosting on top.
- Add the second cake layer and cover entirely with frosting.
- Garnish with raspberries or strawberries.