Tomorrow I'm hosting Booze Group, and the theme is small production local Gins. So many distilleries have popped up in the last few years! The format we've worked out over our many sessions is: tasting thru the flight (usually 4-6 contestants) with snacks, then dinner, after-dinner cocktail, then dessert.
The gins will be fun. They vary from one to 12 botanicals--and many contain things the others don't. One has huckleberry, another has grapefruit and lavender, another has almonds and seaweed, etc. None are exactly alike.
We're also celebrating the fact that in the past few weeks one couple became American citizens. To prepare the menu, as usual I sat down and made a list of things that are typical gin flavors, like lemon, lime, cucumber and tonic. Then I toured the produce department at a local grocer with this in mind in case I got inspired by something that I only rarely purchase, and I did: jicama! And I thought about making a compound butter using lime zest for steak, as I brought some California limes from a friend's tree back from California last week. Which made me think of a Chipotle rub and a whole Southwestern menu. What's more uniquely American than that?
So here's the menu:
Shrimp and cucumber ceviche
Blue corn chips
Jicama and Watermelon pickles
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Posole slaw (wilted cabbage, hominy, radishes with cheddar cheese topping)
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Chipotle-rubbed flank steak with lime butter melted over
Charred green beans
Black truffle and corn tamales
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Apple-tini tart with gin crust
Blackberry negronis
This salad has, btw, never existed before. It only occurred to me yesterday as I was thinking about all the add-in toppings typical of the posoles I had in New Mexico. And I love wilted cabbage slaw, so all that would actually go together as a warm salad!
The apple-tini tart is my own invention too, using gin to soften the crust in place of vodka in that popular treatment.