SUMMER COCKTAIL SERIES #9: AN IMPROPER MINT JULEP
LET US CANDIDLY ADMIT THAT THERE ARE SHAMEFUL BLEMISHES ON THE AMERICAN PAST, OF WHICH THE WORST BY FAR IS RUM. NEVERTHELESS, WE HAVE IMPROVED MAN'S LOT AND ENRICHED HIS CIVILIZATION WITH RYE, BOURBON, AND THE MARTINI COCKTAIL. IN ALL HISTORY HAS ANY OTHER NATION DONE SO MUCH?:
From occasional commentor Finch:
You wouldn't know it to look at me - although you might have guessed it 35 pounds ago - but I'm a big fan of good food and drink. When I go on vacation, I could give a damn about sightseeing or the pool, I just want to know where the good restaurants are. I was the guy at the office who had dining recommendations for every city where the company did business. I got into wine at 23, scotch at 24, and had a brief fling with three-martini lunches at 26 (it ended quickly - I kept passing out after lunch).
When I moved to South Carolina three years ago, I started throwing myself into the local cuisine. I learned to make biscuits and gravy, chicken-fried steak, cobblers, grits, and any number of things containing okra. But I didn't get into Southern drinks. This was mainly a function of laziness; one can buy beer and wine at the grocery store in SC, but the liquor store requires an additional stop. If you want a store with a decent selection, well, that's a forty-minute drive from where I live. Add to that my grad-student budget and the fact that my girlfriend that first year wouldn't drink anything besides beer (and didn't like many beers besides Natty Light, but that's a story for another time), and I was an unhappy gourmand, beverage-wise.
Last summer, my then-girlfriend (and now-fiancee) and I had spent the day in Greenville, and decided to splurge on dinner at one of the nicer places downtown. We sat at the bar, and when the bartender came to take our drink order, I asked for a "good Summer drink." "A mint julep it is!" he responded. Halfway through my first, I was hooked. My kitchen has had a bottle of bourbon ever since.
Now, there are a lot of ways to make a mint julep. Some folks like to use seltzer water, some folks like plain tap. Some folks muddle the mint leaves until they're paste, others barely bruise the leaves. Auric Goldfinger, apparently, liked his with sour mash. Personally, I like to get my mint and sugar into the water beforehand - it may not be a "Proper Mint Julep," but I get a sweet, minty syrup that I can mix with bourbon for a julep, or with rum and lime for a mojito.
An Improper Mint Julep
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint, plus extra sprigs for garnish
1 cup water
bourbon to taste
Put the sugar and mint in a small saucepan. Stir the ingredients briefly - this will get more of the oil out of the mint, and mix it witht the sugar. Add the water, and heat the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the mint syrup into another container, straining out the mint leaves, and chill for at least an hour.
Fill an Old-Fashioned glass with ice (preferably crushed, but this is, after all, an "improper" julep). Pour bourbon over the ice, followed by the mint syrup (I use roughly a 2:1 proportion of bourbon to syrup). Add a sprig of mint, and stir. For best results (on non-Derby days, anyway), sip slowly whilst sitting on your veranda just as the sun is setting.
Makes enough syrup for eight good-sized juleps
No comments:
Post a Comment