Playing with Vodka!

A couple of weeks ago I had a great liquid lunch at Sens, in downtown Phoenix. It was, ahem, definitely not a workday. I was lured in by their infused vodka drinks, specifically a lychee vodka-guava juice one. So when faced with a plethora of extra Thai ingredients after last week's AFC cooking class, it dawned on me to booze it up!

Yesterday I whipped up one bottle of ginger vodka, and one kaffir lime (from the leaves). I considered doing a garlic and bird chile version for bloody marys, but DH pointed out I don't ever drink bloody marys. He is very logical. The vodka takes a week to infuse, so I was going to wait until it was done to post, but I'm too excited!! Here's some pics, I'll be back in a week to let you know how they turn out.

I only had one nice bottle so I had to break out the pickle jar

Limoncello, part 2

_____________Before _________________________After

The saga continues...

So far I have been marinating the peels of 20 lemons in a vodka/everclear mixture in my cabinet for 80 days, as blogged about here.

Tonight I started step 2: filtering the liquor, making a simple syrup and combining the two.

To filter the liquor infusion, I first strained out the lemon peel by pouring it through a metal sieve. The lemon peels were now pale and brittle, their lemon essence and oil long since gone. Next I put a paper coffee filter in a funnel and (slowly) poured the infusion through the filter/funnel into a glass pitcher, then repeated. The coffee filters quickly got clogged and had to be switched out. Altogether I went through about 10 paper filters. This went slowly, so meanwhile I made the simple syrup. And sucked the vodka soaked lemon peels.

Simple Syrup:

750 mg water (fill up one of the empty bottles, or measure out 3 cups)

3 cups sugar

Bring water to a slow boil, add sugar, stir with a spoon. Continue to boil about 5 minutes, and then let cool.

When the filtering was complete, and the simple syrup cooled, I combined the two.

The flavors need to continue to mellow and blend for another 1 week-40 days. Not sure how long I'll be able to hold out. I don't know whether to put it in the freezer/fridge at this point, or leave it at room temp, especially becuase it is starting to get hot here and room temp gets up to 82 during the day. But I think it is too early to put it in the freezer, so I'll risk leaving it out.

See you in 1 week-40 days for step 3: final filtration and bottling. Note to self, buy bottles.

Limoncello

Had the best run this morning! Not only was it a perfect 74 degrees, but I also came upon a giant box of lemons with a sign that said something like "Free Lemons" "Please Take All of Them" "For Real, We Have A Ton More." They even had bags! I guess it's that time of year here in Arizona, where you break into your neighbor's car to hide citrus in the trunk. I took 2 shopping bags full, and may go back tomorrow.

So far I've been cranking out lemonade (Epicurious has a great ginger and mint recipe) like I'm battling scurvy, and have my first batch of limoncello marinating in the cupboard. I think I'll try my hand at lemon curd or candied lemon peel next, as the limoncello will take a couple months to finish. And that's assuming I remember it's there. I am the same bad news bear who forgot about her sourdough mother in the cabinet over the fridge for a month a couple years ago. Yeasty! Anyway...


Limoncello
adapted from Deborah Horn, Slow Food Italy

1 bottle Everclear
1 bottle vodka
20 unwaxed lemons, zest removed in strips (with a veggie peeler)

Combine zest and liquor, let sit in a cool dark place, gently swirling every few days for 2-8 weeks. The longer it sits, the more lemony the result will be. Before you move on, test a lemon peel, ideally it should break like a potato chip.

Dissolve 4 cups sugar in 4 cups water, boil for 5 minutes, and then let cool. Remove zest from alcohol mixture with a spoon, then strain liquid through a cheesecloth or coffee filter. Clean and sterilize a large glass jar, and strain liquid one more time into the jar. Add sugar syrup and mix. Return the jar to your cold dark place, and let sit for at least one more week, but ideally longer. Strain again using coffee filters, and then transfer to sealable, freezer-sized bottles.

So far I'm only on step 1, but I'll report back on how things go from here.

It is hard to make wheatgrass juice with only a blender

There is a YouTube video that claims it is easy to juice wheatgrass using only a blender. It's actually pretty laborious, and dirties a lot of dishes. If you do it, make a big batch. This one shot was not worth the trouble. That's it.