Bourbon Old-Fashioned with Cherry-Orange Simple Syrup

It's a new twist on an Old-Fashioned! Har!

When it comes to our kitchen, Joef is our drinks, desserts, and spice guy (I really wanted that alliteration to work...). This weekend, he made two amazing drinks, experimenting with making his own naturally-flavored, fruit-based simple syrups. This one he made up on his own, after we had something similar at a restaurant in San Francisco, Agricole. The simple syrup takes a little time, but is easy...you might even call it simple...and it really gives a ton of flavor to the drink. Delicious!

To make the simple syrup (makes about 2.5 cups):
2 cups turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
2 cups water
15-20 pitted Rainier cherries
1 navel orange, peeled

Combine all the ingredients together in a small/medium pot, and bring to soft boil. Boil for about 10 minutes, mashing the fruit as it softens, and stirring.

Remove the mixture from the heat and strain out the fruit pulp (it's delicious, btw!). Return the remaining liquid to a medium boil for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently. (Reduce the liquid while making sure it doesn't burn.)

Remove from heat and allow to cool. (This makes much more simple syrup than you need for one drink - you can save it for a bit, and use it in other drinks, or in fizzy water to make frobscottle!)

To make the Old Fashioned:
2 parts bourbon to 1 part simple syrup (if you like it sweeter, you can do 1:1)
Ice

Stir and enjoy!

Homemade Jam

Joef and I recently discovered the joys of making homemade jam. On a whim one night, we went to the local grocery store. I asked the first staff person there where I could find the jamming jars. We found them, and then she hovered around. "What kind of jam are you making?" "Oh, I donno...we were thinking peach?" "Oh." "....Do you, um, have any suggestions?" Did she ever! About twenty minutes later, she had sent us off with recipe ideas, guidance on how to seal and purify the jars, instructions on how to make jam without pectin, proportions...pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about jamming. Including the fact that it's called "jamming", and those who jam regularly are called, as she referred to herself, "jammers".

Well, we've made three jams so far, so we're getting there! They are so delicious and fresh. And it's really not that hard. Especially when Joef does most of the work. We're still experimenting a bit with consistency, probably the toughest thing to master - we've had two that are a little runnier than ideal, and one that's a little chunky, but all three have legitimately been jam. We eat it on toast, waffles, even as ice cream topping.

The three we've made to-date have been: Strawberry-Rhubarb Bourbon, Blackberry-Raspberry Petite Syrah, and Mango. The instructions are essentially the same each time:

7 lbs of your fruit of choice (we pared and halved the strawberries, and cubed and mashed the mangoes)
7 cups of sugar
2 cups booze of your choice (or, in the case of the mango, none at all)
Juice of 1-3 lemons, depending on the sweetness of the fruit and your personal taste
12 jars

Preheat the oven to 260, and wash your jars. Put the jars and the part of the lids without the rubber into the oven for the duration of the cooking.

Combine all of the ingredients into a massive pot. The liquid will obviously boil down faster if you use a wider pot with more space for evaporation. Stir and cook on very high heat until it reaches a rolling boil, then turn down the heat slightly, while still keeping it at a rolling boil, and stir constantly until it thickens and starts to appear somewhat oily and shimmery on the surface (at least 30 minutes). To test its readiness, put a small drop on a spoon and place it in the freezer for three minutes, while continuing to cook the jam. If it's the consistency you'd want your final product to be when it comes out of the freezer, it's done. Otherwise, keep on cooking and freezer-testing as needed.

When your jam is done, take the jars out of the oven, but keep the oven on. Spoon the jam into the jars, and tighten the lids. Place back into oven for twenty minutes.

Your jam is ready when the lids pop and you can't push them down again (it means they're sealed). Once you've opened a jar, store it in the fridge. Enjoy!

Frozen Mint Juleps

(adapted from Emeril Lagasse)

Attention all: I LOVE this drink! Joef made a great mint julep last year for the Kentucky Derby, and this one - for me, at least - and this year he topped it. It's probably a little sweeter and mintier, and the frozen/blended factor was a nice change of pace. If you wanted to go more traditional, you could probably use the same recipe and just not blend the ingredients with ice at the end, instead just adding ice cubes. In any case - fantastic!

For one pitcher:
3/4 cup sugar in the raw
1/2 cup water
1 cup fresh mint, coarsely chopped, plus additional sprigs for garnish
1 cup bourbon (we used Noah's Mill - soooo good, and as Joef would like me to note, 57%)
3 cups ice

In a small pot, heat water and sugar over medium-low, stirring until sugar has fully dissolved. Remove from heat. Add mint and set aside to cool.

When mixture has cooled, strain out the mint leaves with a fine mesh strainer. This is your syrup.

In a blender, combine ice, syrup, and bourbon. Blend until smooth. Serve with mint garnish and it's off to the races!

Kentucky Derby Mint Juleps

Who says a food blog can't do drinks, too? Joef is a master drink-mixer. This is his own recipe, and a must for derby-watching. (I won, by the way: both first and second place!)

Let the guest blogging begin!
"Serves 4:

8 oz. Bourbon (140 proof) – George T. Stagg – Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
8 oz. Water*
4 oz. Sugar Cane Simple Syrup
30 mint leaves, plus mint to garnish
Paper Towels
Ice

1. Soak the mint leaves in 3 oz. of bourbon in a small bowl for 15 minutes.
2. Remove the mint leaves from the bourbon and roll them into a paper towel.
3. Soak the portion of the paper towel containing the mint in the bourbon and wring the towel into the bowl; resoak and repeat several times. The bourbon should smell thoroughly minty after repeating this process multiple times.
5. When complete, discard the mint and paper towel.
6. Add an additional 5 oz. of bourbon to the minty bourbon along with 8oz. water and 4 oz. sugar cane simple syrup.
7. Stir the mixture with a spoon.
8. Freeze for 30 minutes.
9. Pour contents into four highball glasses filled with ice.
10. Garnish with mint sprigs.
11. Cheer for your horse of choice!

*I used an especially strong bourbon. Hence, I chose to cut the mixture with water. If you are using a lower proof bourbon, I would recommend using less water and more bourbon, aiming for a water/bourbon mixture that is approximately 40% alcohol."

Because this drink is primarily the bourbon, it's probably worth biting the bullet and getting a good one. Here's what we used, along with the sugar cane syrup: