Niagara Food & Wine Expo ~ Barbados Rum Punch

Thank you to everyone who came out and stood in line to get a taste of Barbados.

We had an amazing time at the show and were thrilled that we got such a great response. As promised, I'm posting the recipe for the Rum Punch and the simple syrup I used to make it.

This is an easy drink to make in batches (it is meant to be a punch). Make it ahead, store in the fridge and pour over ice. This is a great patio drink to serve to guests all summer.

A traditional Rum Punch follows the basic formula;

One of sour
Two of sweet
Three of strong and
Four of weak.

The weak in the poem was meant to be water. In our recipe this weekend, we livened things up with the addition of fresh juice. And, when I say fresh, I mean I stood and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed, roughly a million limes and oranges, give or take. I had to do a late night run all over Niagara Falls to try to procure more limes because I was purchasing the limit from every store. It was insane but the people's thirst must be satisfied. The real point is, since we're using juice and water, the recipe needs to be balanced for sweetness, the bitters and a good diluting shake will help with this.

The first thing that must be done is to make the simple syrup.

This is a steeped syrup which means that after the sugar and water come to the boil, the ingredients are added and the heat is turned off. Much like making a cup of tea, the flavours will infuse as they sit in the warm liquid. Once the syrup is cool, it can be strained and stored in the fridge, all summer.

Basic baking spices.

Spiced Simple Syrup
1 C sugar
1 C water
2 cinnamon sticks (or 2 tsp)
6 whole cloves ( or 1/2 tsp ground)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground black pepper




Method
In a heavy bottom sauce pan, add sugar and water. Bring to the boil over medium heat. Add spices and remove from heat. Cover and steep until cool. Strain, discarding solids. Syrup will keep in fridge.





As I mentioned above, when it come to juice, fresh is best so you'll need whole limes and oranges, if you can get a good pineapple as well, go for it. However, here in Ontario a good pineapple is hard to get, so I use prepared juice. Be sure it is 100% juice with no added sugar. Tetra boxes like the ones used by Ceres, Sunrype, etc are much better than cans.

If you really want to recreate what we tasted this weekend, you'll want rum from Barbados. It was the Mount Gay Eclipse. As I discussed with many of you and talked about at the seminar, it is completely sourced, distilled, aged and blended on the beautiful island of Barbados. 

It's best served over ice for guests.
I was gettin' all fancy here.

Barbados Rum Punch
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz spiced simple syrup
1.5 oz Mount Gay Eclipse
1 oz fresh orange juice
2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz water
2 drops Angostura bitters


Method
Add all ingredients to a shaker, fill 3/4 with cracked ice. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds, strain into an old fashioned glass filled with cracked ice. Garnish with fresh lime and orange peel.













If you're a weekly reader you may notice that the recipe is out of order, it's meant to reflect the Rum Punch poem and proportions above.


If you came out to see us last weekend, or you just love Rum Punch share your comments below.

MXMO~TIKI IN THE SNOW

Blue drinks are back!

I have a brand new, not so full bottle of Blue Curacao in by cabinet to prove it.
Not just that, last week I created cocktails for a fancy design event and we featured a blue gin fizz. The gin, The London No.1 comes by its blue colouring honestly with a maceration of blue gardenia flowers. If you're thinking upscale, it's an amazing way to follow the trend with class.

But if you're feeling a little more laid back, you might just be looking for excuse to bring out that bottle of dyed, sweetened liqueur you've been hiding in the back of your cupboard. Secretly, you've been waiting for the moment when the drink police would lift the ban on blue drinks so you could bust out the recipe you were so famous for back in college. Maybe you've watched frozen with your kids one too many times and have been dying to make one of the Disney cocktails you saw on Pintrest. Or, it could be that like me, you love a great Tiki cocktail and being able to make your drink look like the Ocean takes you away from the snowscape you're buried under.

For all of our friends up on the east coast, we wish you well over the next few days. Making one of these for yourselves and your neighbors may help. You may as well have some fun on your snow day.

One of my all time favourite Tiki drinks is the Trader Vic's 1947 Zombie. It's a citrus bomb and I love the sweet and sour balance. It doesn't have much in common with earlier versions, that all include pineapple and papaya, so the name is a bit misleading. We went so far as to have a Zombie Face Off at one of our Tiki parties as a taste test. The crowd was equally divided. Both are good, one just focuses more on the citrus. Since it is the middle of winter, citrus is the only fruit I can get that is really good.

I've gone a step further and dropped the grenadine from Vic's recipe in favour of plain simple syrup. I wanted the drink to be really blue. I also changed the combination of citrus, opting for grapefruit, key lime and clementine.

This is where you can have the most control over your version. Any mix of citrus can work. It depends on your taste for sweet, sour and bitter. I also take no offense to basing it on what's in your fridge, especially if you're stuck in that blizzard. I hope the storm doesn't signal the beginning of the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse, but if it does you won't be concerned if you substituted oranges for clementines.

What you should end up with is a brightly flavoured drink that has some bite and is just sweet enough to create a full mouth feel. I got all fancy and used my hollowed out grapefruit because Tiki is all about fantasy. Yours will be just as amazing in a regular glass with a slice of orange or whatever is leftover from squeezing the juice.

Blue Wight
1 1/2 oz amber rum
1 oz white rum
1 oz blue curacao
1 oz simple syrup 
1 oz fresh grapefruit juice
juice of 1 clementine (3/4 oz)
juice of 1 key lime (1/2 oz)


Method 
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with cracked ice, shake to combine. Pour over glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with fresh citrus. Sip very slowly.








As always a big thank you to MXMO for another great theme. Having been absent from the last one and not having had a chance to post for a few weeks, I was really stoked for this one.

Don't forget to visit Ginhound. Our hostess for this month is to be thanked for giving us the perfect excuse to make blue drinks...in public. I can't wait to see all of the posts for this one (Update, they all look amazing!), you can find the roundup here.

Are you resurrecting your favourite blue drink from the 90's? Let me know in the comments below.
If you're stuck on the mystery of the name, you can also leave a comment. While I will respectfully respond, I warn you that people who DO get the name might be a bit fanatical, I can't be held responsible for their ridicule. They might even be a little upset with me too because technically speaking, a Wight is not really a Zombie.