Channeling Julia

The healing properties of chicken soup have been known for many centuries. It is one of the most effective home remedies for all sorts of problems because the fats coat the throat and temporarily relieve some of the symptoms of flu or the common cold. Some researchers also believe that chicken soup has an anti-inflammatory effect but this is difficult to clinically prove.

Regardless of the possible medicinal properties, chicken soup is widely considered a comfort food. Many of us keep several cans of chicken noodle soup in the pantry for those times when we are sick and need something simple and tasty.

The simplest form of chicken soup is chicken broth. Almost every cuisine has at least one or two recipes using the broth in some way. Flavorings and seasonings are added to give a unique taste. Rice, flour, noodles, dumplings, crackers or potatoes are common additions. Vegetables, fruits, eggs and dairy products also have a place in the preparation of many varieties of chicken soup.

Some religious dietary restrictions may forbid the use of eggs in soups made from egg laying animals - a result of the chicken vs egg quandary - which came first?

Happy New Year!

A toast to 2010 - may your new year be as sweet & delicious as this drink!

Above has Kahlua, creme de cacao, Southern Comfort and whipped cream, with cocoa powder sprinkled on top and a piece of solid chocolate standing in the cream.

The mixture is a good example of a cocktail using liqueurs produced with grain alcohol. All start with one or more solid beans, fruits and/or herbals - using the alcohol to extract the flavors, then add a sweetener. Kahlua = coffee beans, creme de cacao = cocoa beans, Southern Comfort = vanilla bean, lemon, cinnamon stick, cloves, cherries and orange peel. Sweeteners were originally honey or cane sugar, but rising costs have driven the makers to use corn syrup in recent years.

Of these three, creme de cacao has the oldest recipe and Kahlua the youngest. Creme de cacao is available in both clear and dark - which has color added for visual appeal. Kahlua is associated with Mexico, but was invented by a Spanish sherry maker.

Today we venture to the Middle East and north coast of the Mediterranean Ocean in search of traditional ingredients for a cocktail.

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This is an Italian prosecco spumante (sparkling wine from Veneto) with a dash of grain alcohol (alcohol distilled from grain), grenadine syrup, and a frozen strawberry.

Grenadine syrup is bright red and is traditionally prepared from pomegranate (or cherry juice) and sugar. The word is of French origin (grenade)

Grain alcohol (aka. neutral spirits because it has no flavor) is usually grain based*. Distilled alcohol was first produced in the Middle East in the 9th century and today is most often used as an ingredient in foods and cooking. Vodka (80 proof) is diluted grain alcohol and is more commonly available in the United States. Use two dashes of Vodka.

The garden strawberry was first bred in France from cross breeding a North American with a South American wild strawberry.

Note the similarity to a Champagne Cocktail. We used Grenadine syrup instead of sugar, grain alcohol instead of bitters and a strawberry instead of a cherry.

* Distilled liquors are commonly considered to be either wine based (brandy) or grain based, though other starches may be used. Any alcohol distilled five times loses whatever flavors it might have had and will reach a purity of 95%. Since it has no flavor it can be used to extract flavor from herbs or fruits - vanilla extract is an excellent example.

One brand of grain alcohol is Everclear, memorialized in books and movies. In Dr. Strangelove, General Jack Ripper drinks only pure grain alcohol with distilled water.

Today we're looking at impromptu drinks.

These are the ones you make from what's on the kitchen shelf.

Our example is a "Spikey Moo", which is brandy & cream. The nice thing about this drink is that the taste of brandy is unadulterated against the rich texture of the cream. Yum.

Brandy is distilled wine - wine has 8 to 12% alcohol, brandy is distilled to 70%. The distillation process changes the taste. Distillation was initially used as a method of concentrating the alcohol for transportation, but the flavor change was popular - the improvement from aging was also accidentally discovered.

My image of brandy is of a St. Bernard with a small cask rescuing a lost traveler in the snowy mountains. The brandy was meant to thaw you out so you could be led to shelter by the dog.

There seems to be a tradition that drinks with tequila have names that end in ita. Thus we transform a Frozen Banana Daquiri by substituting tequila for rum for a south of the border flair instead of the Caribbean original.

New drinks are often born of necessity. A frazzled bartender runs out of rum and uses tequila instead. A customer describes something new that he wants and the bartender comes up with the mix. The same drink may have many different names until some "official" publication chooses a name and publishes the recipe.

Daquiris are a family of drinks containing rum, lime juice and sugar. A descendant of the British Navy's "grog ration", the "official" origin of the name seems to be around 1905 near Santiago, Cuba by a group of mining engineers. It spread to Washington DC in 1909 and became very popular in the 1940s because rum was readily available during WWII in the US.