"Cooking With Spirits" - Martinis In Suspension (Jell-O) for National Martini Day 2017

Date I made this recipe:  June 19, 2017  - National Martini Day

Cooking With Spirits by Ruth Vendley Neumann

Published by Reilly & Lee

© 1961

Purchased at Curious Book Shop, East Lansing, MI

Recipe:  Martinis In Suspension – p. 52

I am a gal who knows what she wants and what she wants in a beverage when out for dinner and drinks is simple:  a dry gin martini, up, with (preferably) pimento-stuffed olives.  The choice of gin depends on where I am and what's available, but favorites include, in order of "toxicity," Tanqueray, Hendricks, Blue Coat (made on the east coast) and local favorite Gunner Ghost which is really paint thinner in disguise.  Gunner Ghost is 114 proof or 57% alcohol – whoa! I save that one for special occasions.  Bombay Sapphire used to be my absolute "go to" for years and years until a few years ago when I started getting headaches every single time I drank it.  It didn't seem to matter if I ate or not, or whether I drank copious amounts of water which I did.  I suspect it has one "botanical" too many as I have sensitivity to those things; "Nature" is not my friend.

And call me picky, but a proper martini is not a proper martini unless and until I see a toothpick skewered with small pimento-stuffed olives resting in the gin bath.  I will accept large green olives sans pimento but rather reluctantly, and I will also accept green olives with pits (as served in a few favorite restaurants) but small pimento is what I grew up with and I want what I want.

Furthermore, and I've said this before:  gorgonzola-stuffed olives are an abomination and are completely and totally unacceptable and yes, I will make the server return to the bar to fetch me a proper martini.  This hasn't happened in a while which is good, but there was a time when these olives were all the rage in martinis and...no.  No.  I am also not fond of a lemon twist in my drink and it's gin, not vodka, period, end of story.

Now the good people associated with the National Martini Day (if they exist—they may not) did not give any guidance to what kind of a martini to make but I have no doubt they envisioned everyone the world over, even expats, making the standard, liquid version.  Could I have made a liquid martini?  In my sleep!  In fact, I enjoy a martini every day during the cocktail hour.  It's just how I roll.  I thought though, that it would be more fun to cook something with gin, and so selected Cooking with Spirits to do the job and it did it admirably.   Fifty-two pages in, I found this spectacular dish -  Martinis In Suspension – and we were ready to roll.

Do we not love this title? Translated, this 1961 recipe for Martinis In Suspension is really an early attempt at a Jell-O shot only fancier. And the Jell-O comes with olives – how sophisticated!  I hear the applause of the good people associated with National Martini Day – if they exist – golf clapping at the brilliance of it all!

  

Not only does this concoction have a great name but the recipe is ridiculously simple:  mix a little lemon gelatin with unflavored gelatin, add your desired mix of gin and vermouth and when that mixture is slightly chilled, insert your skewered olives.   You can, if you want, make a salad garnish to surround the upturned martini glass (ingredients and directions below) but nah—we concentrated our efforts on making sure the mixture itself was sound and it was, and we loved it.  In fact, I may have to repeat this dish every year because when something works, it works.

Now if you like gin but would rather not make the suspended martinis, consider also "Stuffed Celery" (p. 23) with blue cheese and gin, and "Cold Curried Shrimp" (p. 29), also containing gin.  There are likely more gin recipes that followed but once I found what I didn't know I was looking for, I stopped!

If gin is not to your liking, be not afraid because this book has a ton of recipes from soup to nuts made with everything from beer to bourbon and beyond.  Had I not been so singularly-focused, I saw many recipes that likely would have been fantastic. 

The only downside or challenge if you will to this book is that you won't be able to look up a spirit by name (e.g. vodka [recipes] or brandy [recipes]) as neither the table of contents nor the index breaks things out by spirit.  Instead, here are your Table of Content choices :

• Spirited Coffee 'Round the World
• Spirited Appetizers and Cocktail Dips
• Spirited Soups
• Spirited Salads and Salad Dressings
• Spirited Fish and Shellfish
• Spirited Meats
• Spirited Relishes and "Window Dressings" for Meats and Fishes
• Spirited Poultry
• Spirited Egg and Cheese Dishes
• Spirited Pasta and Rice
• Spirited Vegetables and Vegetable Casseroles
• Spirited Sauces and Gravies for Meats, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables
• Spirited Breads, Waffles, Pancakes and Popovers
• Spirited Cakes, Frostings, and Fillings
• Spirited Pies, Cobblers, and Tarts
• Spirited Desserts (Gelatin and Refrigerator Desserts; Custards and Puddings; Dessert Sauces)
• Spirited Fruits for Cocktails and Desserts
• Cookies and Confections

Now then readers, did you spot an error in the above list?  Note that every chapter titled begins with the word "Spirited" except for Cookies and Confections.  I thought that was hilarious and so of course I had to double-check and am quiet relieved to tell you that cookies and confections are indeed loaded with booze.  In fact, page 199 contains a recipe for "Cognac Butter Cookies," and I think we can all agree that cognac is a spirit, no?  (A very good spirit!).  Two words: editorial error!

If I used this cookbook again, in addition to the above-mentioned cookies, I might make  also "Mexican Arroz Con Pollo with Beer and Tequila" (p. 121), "Cheese and Mushroom Soufflé" made with Dry Sherry (p. 127), or a "Sweet Potato Casserole" with Curacao (p. 157) because they all sounded delicious.  Frankly, most of the book sounded delicious.  Potentially deadly perhaps, but delicious and who doesn't like "delicious?"  That said, do remember that this is adult Jell-O so perhaps it's best if you eat this after the kiddies have gone to bed?  Even then, be warned that these pack a punch!

This concludes my National Martini Day 2017 cookbook and recipe review report.   I almost missed the whole thing (a childhood friend tipped me off), but then again, every day in my house is martini day so there you go!

Martinis In Suspension (Gin and Vermouth) with a Garnish – serves 4

For the Martinis In Suspension

1 T. unflavored gelatin

1 T lemon gelatin

1/8 tsp. salt

1 tsp. granulated sugar

¾ cup of your favorite martini mix (or ½ cup gin and ¼ cup dry vermouth)*

1 cup boiling water

1 T. lemon juice

Stuffed green olives

For the Salad Garnish

3 cups very finely shredded cabbage

2 T. white vinegar

¼ cup dry vermouth

2 T. granulated sugar, or more, to taste

1 tsp. salt

White pepper to taste

Few dashes of Tabasco

Small stuffed olives

*Ann's Note:  Oh dear god, ¼ cup dry vermouth, what?  No.  No properly made martini on this planet contains that much vermouth ever.  Since I made a half recipe, I added "some" vermouth for good measure, emphasis on "some" as in about an eyedropper full.  But that is my martini preference not yours, so if you want to add that much vermouth, by all means do it.

Combined gelatins, salt, and sugar, then dissolve them in martini mixture.  Add boiling water and lemon juice and mix thoroughly.  Pour into very lightly buttered cocktail glasses (for easy removal at serving time).  When aspic has partly thickened, press a stuffed olive into each glass so that it will remain suspended part way down.  Ann's Note:  "One" olive?  Surely, they jest!  So. Not. Happening.  I put about four olives on a toothpick and stuck that into the mixture instead and it looked exactly as a martini should only it was made of Jell-O. 

Chill until very firm.  To service, run a thin sharp knife around molds, then unmold each in the center of a salad plate; leave the glasses in place, upside down in the center of the plate.  Encircle each inverted martini with a ring of the following:

To Make the Salad Garnish

Marinate the cabbage in a mixture of all other ingredients, except olives.  Drain thoroughly, then make a wreath of it around the martini glasses.  Garnish here and there with the stuffed cocktail olives. Have these martini salads in place as guests are seated.  Then, when the oh's and ah's begin to subside, remove glasses.  This makes for a really dramatic presentation of your edible martinis.

By the way, and for the first time ever - the finished product!  I've had those plastic martini glasses for decades now - aren't they fun?

"The Steak Book" & "Burpee's American Harvest Cookbooks" - Steak, Butter-Gin Flambe and Fricassee of Asparagus, Peas & Ham for Father's Day

Date I made these recipes:  June 16, 2013 (Father’s  Day)

The Steak Book by Arthur Hawkins

Published by:  Doubleday & Company, Inc.

© 1966

Recipe:  Steak, Butter-Gin Flambe – p. 88

Burpee’s American Harvest Cookbooks – the Spring Garden by Perla Meyers

Published by:  A Fireside Book Published by Simon & Schuster

© 1988

Recipe:  Fricassee of Asparagus, Peas and Ham – p. 14

It’s felt to me that much of this year has gone by in slow motion, so imagine my surprise when Father’s Day came, I cooked and it went!  Talk about your “blink and miss” moments!

Although my dad is no longer alive, I found two perfect cookbooks to use on Father’s Day, all thanks to the St. Paul Public Library.  One of the branches I use, St. Anthony, closed for renovations in early June but before they closed, they held their annual used book sale.  And kids, for a whole buck and a half, I purchased these two books along with a third, Duncan Hines Desserts.  I do believe that aside from books that I’ve been given for free, that is the best deal ever!  So thank you, St. Anthony Library.

Given how much my dad adored steak, it was almost cosmic that this book was included in the sale.  And one of my father’s other passions, gardening, made the purchase of the Burpee’s cookbook (from the famous Burpee Seeds Catalog) a no-brainer. 

So to start:  in my house, there was STEAK and there was steak.  We had STEAK – a huge cut of sirloin about 3-4 inches thick that my dad broiled to perfection.  His perfect steak was practically blue – in other words, almost raw.  My mother, on the other hand, thought she would surely die of cooties if she had any red showing and so my father very reluctantly broiled hers to medium.  If he overdid his steak, he fumed the entire meal and if he was asked to redo my mom’s steak, he fumed even more.  STEAK was serious business.

This book has lots of “steak” recipes such as Swiss Steak, steak with a cream sauce, steak with other sauces and the worst, chopped steak. We had one steak in our household and that was sirloin and that was that!  My mother watched the local newspaper adverts like a hawk and when the price went down, we got a treat.

This recipe also includes one of my dad’s favorite ingredients – gin.  A good steak and a great martini is the elixir of life, trust me on this.  But a word of caution:  the recipe calls for you to add four tablespoons of gin and then flame the pan.  Well, reader, I got as far as two tablespoons and that pan went up in flames.  Luckily, my husband was right there and so he took the pan off the stove and called for me to get a lid.  By the time I got the lid, the flames had gone out but sheesh, we could have been incinerated and what a waste of good meat and booze that would have been.  Don’t try that at home!

My favorite vegetable accompaniment to most meals is asparagus and the Fricassee of Asparagus, Peas & Ham was absolutely perfect for this steak.  I do not remember much of my grandparent’s farm in New Jersey but I do remember asparagus.  (New Jersey is the Garden State, don’t you know.)  My dad also grew asparagus in his vast garden along with peas, beans, all kinds of lettuces, potatoes, corn and the like.  And I often think of dad when reading the comic strip, Crankshaft, as that loveable curmudgeon, Ed Crankshaft has a love affair with seed catalogs that rivals my dad’s.  When that seed catalog came in the mail, it was like Christmas for Men in our house. (My favorite, of course, was Sear’s Christmas catalog.)

According to the internet, Burpee Seeds was founded in 1876 in Philadelphia and started its mail order business in 1915.  That’s pretty darned impressive considering that home gardening endeavors took a bit of a hit for a few decades before roaring back to popularity in recent years.  Of course, Lou Verme never let up on the throttle and continued to plant and tend to his garden almost up to the day he died.  I cannot say I shared his enthusiasm for gardening (dirt is Nature and Nature is not your friend) but I loved looking through the catalog as the illustrations were pretty.

Like the steak recipe, this one is very easy to make and very yummy.  I thought the sugar (2 teaspoons) might make the dish too sweet but it was perfect.  The recipe calls for fresh peas but ha! - good luck with that this year, probably the wettest growing season we’ve had for years.

So there you go dad:  we feasted on your favorites and tipped a martini glass to you in your honor.  And almost burned down our house but details, details – the important thing is that we saved the rest of the gin from further destruction! 

Steak, Butter-Gin Flambé – serves 4

*2 ½ pounds steak, 1 inch thick

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons gin

*the author lists the preferred cuts of meat for each recipe.  In this case, sirloin, porterhouse (our choice as it was on sale), club, Delmonico or file mignon are the best cuts for this recipe.

Trim excess fat from steak and pan-broil in heavy skillet to desired doneness.

Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and remove to heated platter. 

In the same pan, melt butter, stir well, add gin, and warm gently.

Ignite (watch yourself!), pour over steak, and serve while sauce is still blazing.

Fricassee of Asparagus, Peas & Ham – serves 6

*The author notes that this dish is a delicious accompaniment to poached eggs.

2 pounds fresh peas (about 2 cups shelled) (or use frozen)

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Salt

1 ½ pounds thin asparagus, trimmed to 5 inches and stalks peeled

4-6 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup cubed smoked ham

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons finely mined fresh chives

Place peas in a medium saucepan with water to cover.  Add a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until barely tender.  Drain and set aside.

Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a vegetable steamer.  Add asparagus spears, cover, and steam until barely tender.  Remove and reserve.

In a large nonstick skillet, melt the butter, add the ham, and cook for 1-2 minutes without browning.

Add the cooked peas and asparagus, sprinkle with the remaining sugar, and toss lightly for 2-3 minutes or until nicely glazed.  You may need to add more butter.

Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with chives and serve hot.

"Pasta Presto" - Scallops and Mushrooms in Martini Cream Sauce

Date I made this recipe:  September 17, 2012

Pasta Presto – 100 Fast & Fabulous Pasta Sauces by Norman Kolpas

Published by:  Contemporary Books

ISBN:  0-8092-4676-7

Recipe:  Scallops and Mushrooms in Martini Cream – p. 16

Many people often dream about being a restaurant reviewer because “how fun would that be, right?”  Well, often it’s not – fun, that is.  Not only do you have to find people to go with you (not as easy as you think), but you have to make repeat visits and then, of course, you have to write about it.

Some reviewers pride themselves on waxing poetic about the food while others, like my late friend, Tall (Carol), can summarize a dish in one word for example, “goopy.”  Yes, folks, with one word, Tall told you everything you needed to know about the taste of a dish and if you want to be cool you’ll add this to your food vocabulary as well. But you should know that “goopy” isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means the dish is rich, often containing cream or cream cheese or just cheese – or maybe, if you are extremely fortunate all three.  This is the essence of “goopy” in “Tall World.”  It was oh-so-good going down but after a while, she’d feel guilty about eating it and would switch back to something healthier to “cleanse” the system.

This dish – Scallops and Mushrooms with Martini Cream - is goopy but in a good way.  I can almost see Tall downing the dish then stating she was full (as was I) and that it was “goopy” but then I hope she’d also give me her other trademark phrase:  “This is exxxxxxxxxxx-cellent.”  Just so you know “This is exxxxxxxxxxx-cellent” was high praise coming from her.  So was “I can’t believe I ate it all, but it was sooooo good!”

The reason I’m telling you about Tall’s food critic comments is that today’s book was from her collection.  She didn’t have as many cookbooks as I have, maybe a dozen compared to my 1,460 books (and counting) but they were reflective of her cooking interests. She tended to make things that she could freeze in bulk and the majority of her recipes were geared toward healthy eating.  In the summer, she grew many of her own vegetables and used them in numerous ways in various dishes. And that is why, when she was first diagnosed with cancer, she was so mad because she was always so careful about diet and exercise.  Sadly, cancer doesn’t give a rat’s rump about these things.  It was also very sad that her cancer manifested itself just outside of the stomach area making eating and drinking very difficult in the first stages of cancer and at the end of her days, impossible.  There is nothing sadder than seeing someone wanting to eat and enjoy just the smallest taste of food only to be denied that pleasure by her body.

 Without her around, I cannot ask her which of the recipes on the pages she bookmarked she actually made.  She either made Chicken with Lemon-Caper Cream on page 36 or she made Turkey with Peppers, Olives and Tomato on page 37.  On page 44, she either enjoyed Veal Sausage in Mustard Cream or the Bacon and Garlic Sauté on page 45.  And so on and so forth.  My guess is that she probably went with a healthier choice more often than not.  I do know for a fact though, that she made the Classic Basil Pesto recipe on page 88 with basil she grew in her garden.  She served it on a few occasions and it was delicious. 

And so I was all set to make one of her bookmarked items when I saw this recipe for Scallops and Mushrooms in Martini Cream and decided that this was definitely it.  When it came to imbibing alcoholic beverages Tall was first a beer drinker and then a wine connoisseur but then she was introduced to a classic martini (perhaps by me, but perhaps by one of her other friends) and we were off and running.   I must confess that my martinis are rather killer as I make them as dry as dry can be and by that I mean sans vermouth, but she adapted well to my version of paint thinner.

So “martini” cream sauce it was and how fitting was that?!  It’s like I was meant to make this dish.  That said, I do think that the cream sauce might have scared her off from making it herself because of the “goopy” factor.  I wish I could say the richness of the cream sauce was offset by the gin and vermouth but alas, no, but no matter, it was the idea of a martini that was important here.  Still, if I had to make it again, I would play around with the alcohol quantities, likely upping them just a wee bit.  And it should go without saying that I should keep increasing the booze quotient whilst sipping on my own chilled martini, no?  (Shaken, not stirred, “up” as opposed to on the rocks and with an olive or two.)

Now I also taught my husband to enjoy a good martini (and yes, there is such a thing as a “bad” martini) and he was all over the recipe and we both ate until we were stuffed.  And then of course, we paused for a moment of silence and guilt, remembering my fallen comrade and how we enjoyed something which she could not, in her last stages of cancer, enjoy along with us. 

If she had lived, I would have told her about this recipe and had she made it herself, I’m pretty sure she would have pronounced it “exxxxxxxxxxx-cellent.”  I hope you find it excellent as well.

Scallops and Mushrooms in Martini Cream – serves 4-6

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

6 ounces button mushrooms, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices

6 medium shallots, finely chopped

4 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped

4½ cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons gin

1 tablespoon dry vermouth

¾ teaspoon salt

¾ pound bay scallops

Pasta – angel hair, spaghettini or vermicelli

In a saucepan or skillet, melt the butter over moderate heat.  Add the mushrooms, shallots and garlic; sauté until tender, 2 to 3 minutes.  Add the cream, gin, vermouth, and salt.  Raise the heat and gently boil until the mixture is thick and reduced by a third t a half, 15 to 20 minutes.

Stir in the scallops and simmer 2 to 3 minutes more (for larger scallops, 4 to 5 minutes more).  Serve immediately over cooked pasta.