Stir & Strain

tangelo

Mixed Citrus Margaritas for Margarita Day Learn to make a squash syrup (no, not the vegetable!)

by Leave a Comment

Mixed Citrus Margarita // stirandstrain.comThis post was made in partnership with Tequila Cazadores. Recipes and ideas are my own.

We have a tangelo tree in our backyard. It’s the only citrus tree that has not succumbed to years of neglect in the jungle outside our backdoor; it is tenacious to say the least. This year, after finally cutting back the honeysuckle that was blocking most of the sunlight from hitting its leaves, it produced an insane amount of fruit. Smaller than what we’ve got in years past, but abundant. It’s not a fruit I like to sit and just eat, so I make things like Tangelo-cello out of it, or use it in syrups, or just put in a box marked “free” in my driveway and pass on the burden to my neighbors.

Mixed Citrus Margarita // stirandstrain.comLast month I wrote about making squash, a syrup whose liquid content is comprised primarily of juice, for Simply Recipes. And that got me thinking about juice content in Margaritas. Now, a straight up Margarita with just enough lime juice is a beautiful thing, but sometimes I like to change it up with flavors. My biggest pet peeve though in restaurants and bars is when they up charge you for a fancy Margarita in a big ass glass and what you realize you’ve gotten is mostly orange juice with a teeny tiny amount of tequila in it. Blarg!

Mixed Citrus Margarita // stirandstrain.comWhat I wanted to do here is recreate some of those sweet and flavorful citrus notes without watering down my Margarita to the point of making it a breakfast drink. That’s when I thought that a squash syrup might work in this case. And then I could celebrate National Margarita Day on February 22 with a big batch of these! Oh yeah, it’s that wonderful time of the year already!

As many of you know, we partnered with Tequila Cazadores, an authentic Mexican tequila brand, last year because we have been big fans of this tequila for years and love their commitment to sustainability and ethical business practices. We’re using their Blanco expression here for this Margarita, made with 100% blue agave, because of its clean taste and soft finish. It doesn’t fight with the other ingredients, but also doesn’t get lost in the flavors. It’s just a straight up delicious tequila.

Mixed Citrus Margarita // stirandstrain.comLike I mentioned above, a squash uses a high ratio of juice to water in making a syrup. So, you can do 4:1 juice to water, or 1:1 juice to sugar with no water, something like that. Then you either shake it up until the sugar dissolves (cold process), or warm your mixture until the sugar dissolves (hot process). Today I went a step further and reduced the syrup down almost by half to get a thick, viscous syrup to use in drinks. By doing this, it’s the consistency of a rich syrup, and there are deep, caramelized citrus flavors while still also tasting tangy and bright.

Mixed Citrus Margarita // stirandstrain.comI am using mixed citrus here since I also had a delivery of Meyer lemons from my grandparents I did not want to let go to waste. Honestly, any mix of lemons, oranges, or other citrus could be used here so feel free to experiment.

When used in this Margarita, the drink is sweet, tart, with sharp caramelized flavors from the Meyer lemon and Tangelo squash syrup. Subtle agave and grassy flavors from the Tequila Cazadores Blanco contrast with the floral hints from the lime. There is a juiciness to the flavor without tasting watered down, and a nice mouth feel from the viscosity of the syrup.

Mixed Citrus Margarita // stirandstrain.comMixed Citrus Margarita

2 ounces Tequila Cazadores Blanco
1 ounce Tangelo-Meyer Lemon Squash (see recipe below)
1/4 ounce lime juice
small pinch kosher salt

In a shaker filled 2/3 with ice, add in the Tequila Cazadores Blanco, Tangelo-Meyer Lemon Squash syrup, lime juice and small pinch of salt. Shake well 20 seconds and strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice. Serve with a tangelo wheel.

Tangelo-Meyer Lemon Squash

1/2 cup freshly squeezed tangelo juice
1/2 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar

In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan, combine both fruit juices, water, and sugar. Stir to combine and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Once a boil is reached, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until syrup reduces by half. Depending on your stove, that can take anywhere from 15-30 minutes. Let cool to room temperature when finished and either use right away, or store in an airtight container in the fridge up to one month.

Mixed Citrus Margarita // stirandstrain.com

Let’s Get Fresh! what to make and drink with all that winter citrus

by 1 Comment

Winter is officially citrus season, which always seemed so bizarre to me. Why would this bright, summery feeling fruit be a winter crop? Maybe to cheer us all up during those dark winter days? Well, drink (or make!) a few of these citrus concoctions and you’ll be smiling soon.

When you have too many Meyer Lemons:

Meyer Lemon Rosemary Syrup // StirAndStrain.com

Meyer Lemon Rosemary Syrup

Meyer Lemon Bitters

What about Tangellos:

Tangelocello // stirandstrain.com

Tangelocello

Rosemary-Tangelo Shrub

Lots of Mixed Citrus…make some punch:

Smoky Sage Punch

Brûléed Grapefruit and Mixed Citrus Punch with Vanilla and Piloncillo Reduction

Smoked Rosemary Rum Punch

9 Ladies Dancing Scotch Punch

And then there’s always the cocktail option:

Sugar, Spice and Citrus Play Nice Cocktail

Smoky Citrus Rum Old Fashioned Cocktail

Hot Ward 8 Cocktails

Fresh Lime Soda Sweet, Salty and Boozy

Chamomile and Tangerine Sparkling Cocktail for Two

Make It: Rosemary-Tangelo Shrub

by 3 Comments

Rosemary-Tangelo Shrub // stirandstrain.comThis post should have been up days ago. Alas, I was struck down by a nasty cold. The kind where getting up from bed is unheard of and the only thing you can muster the strength to do is hit ‘next’ to continue binge watching episodes of Midsomer Murders on Netflix which quite frankly are much too long to hold a sick person’s attention as you always fall asleep before they discover who the murderer is. But now that the fog is clearing from my brain I figured I’d grab a chance to get this up, a reposting from my article on the Serious Drinks site from last week.

In an effort to try more herb-forward shrub recipes, I turned to the most prolific herb in my garden. You guessed it: rosemary. I also have a tangelo tree that won’t quit; so that was going to be put to good use too.

The end result was a more savory shrub with an aggressive, woodsy nature to it. The tangelo sits in the background offering a lingering note to the flavor. Mainly though, you’ll want to taste test every few days while making this until you get the flavor YOU want. The vinegar,which as I said in the Blackberry shrub, will always be very present, but it does soften as it sits.Rosemary-Tangelo Shrub // stirandstrain.com

6 sprigs 5” long rosemary
1 cup sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed tangelo juice from approximately 3 and a half medium sized tangelos
1 cup apple cider vinegar

  1. Combine rosemary sprigs and sugar in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit 8 hours or overnight.
  2. Add juice to the bowl and stir to help start to dissolve sugar. Let sit, covered, overnight, occasionally stirring sugar every few hours. Fine strain mixture into a bottle or airtight container. Add apple cider vinegar and shake well to combine. Seal and store in fridge. After 3 days, start tasting for desired flavor. After 6 days, shrub should be ready to use.
  3. Use within 1 year for optimal flavor.

The rosemary-tangelo shrub works well on its own with some sparkling water, or with an ounce of gin too over some ice. The strong flavors do more favorably with less ingredients added to them.

Make It: Tangelocello

by 4 Comments

Tangelocello // stirandstrain.comTangelocello. The name makes me think of some late 70’s disco/synth band but there wasn’t any other way to describe this liqueur.

As I mentioned in this post, I was able to pick quite a bounty of tangelos from my backyard this year. The problem with these tangelos? They’re SUPER tart. It’s not like you can just peel and eat them. Unfortunately with a bag full of them I wasn’t quite sure what I’d do with them all. Then I recalled my Limoncello experiment (found here and here) and realized if you can make tart lemons drinkable, then tart tangelos should also work.tangelocello-3

And you know what? It did work! In the end I had a sweet, citrus liqueur with some tang, but not enough to make my cheeks pucker and spit it out.

One small caveat. You’re going to need 8 weeks. It is a project, but really, let’s be honest. It’s a project where you barely put in any effort and you’re rewarded with liqueur you made with your hands that tastes awesome. That should be reward enough!

Making tangelocello falls into two major steps, and one small half step. I’m including everything here on this one post for convenience purposes.tangelocello-2

4-5 medium sized Tangelos
1-1/2 cups high proof vodka (I used Belvedere Vodka INTENSE 100 Proof)

Wash a jar large enough to hold the vodka and dry well. Add the vodka to the jar. Zest the tangelos and add those to the vodka. Juice the tangelos, put the juice in a ziplock bag, and throw that in the freezer. You will need it in two weeks. Seal the jar and place it out of direct sunlight. Shake the jar once every day for two weeks. I find putting it someplace in sight will help you remember to do this. After two weeks strain the zest from the vodka and get ready for Step Two.tangelocello-1

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
juice from the 4-5 tangelos, defrosted (if you had left it in the freezer)

First, make a simple syrup by combining the sugar and water over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Cool and add that and the juice to the vodka. Seal and keep in a cool, dark place for 6 weeks. No need to agitate this time.

After 6 weeks, strain again into a bottle and seal. Keep in the refrigerator so you always have chilled Tangelocello on hand for a digestif. Aren’t you fancy!?

 

Love our serving pieces? Check out what’s happening in our Etsy shop for props, vintage pieces, tiki mugs & accessories, and assorted entertaining must haves!

The Yale Special

by Leave a Comment

Recently a copy of The Savoy Cocktail book arrived in the mail. It was a belated Valentine’s Day gift from my husband. Belated not because of him, but because Amazon couldn’t decide if they wanted to ship it to us or not. Emails kept popping up in the inbox saying things like, click this link if you’re really certain you want us to send this to you whenever it comes in stock; the outlook was grim that this would ever arrive. But then it did.

I’ve been trying to find drink recipes to use up the bitters I bought and I thought the earlier cocktail recipe books could help in that category since they were dropping them in to all sorts of drinks back then. Scanning the book I came across the Yale Cocktail. However, I realized that I would immediately have to make a couple changes as I have still not bought any Angostura bitters (I know… I know…). Also, the recipes are coming directly from the original book and the measurements are kind of all over the place. Sometimes there are just fractions and other times it just says to put in a wine glass full of something or in this recipe, a glass of Gin. Now, my idea of a glass of gin and Harry Craddock’s idea could be on opposite sides of the room. I’m sure out there somewhere someone has compiled the measurement translations… but why make it easy on myself?

Well, all I had in the house was Hendrick’s and for this cocktail, it just wasn’t working. So then I remembered that I had a 2oz bottle of Finlandia Tangerine Fusion (it came with a much larger bottle of regular Finlandia) and thought maybe that I would use it here. It worked! I had to up the amount of orange bitters to really give it the extra flavor I was looking for, and I went with 1/2 the juice of a tangelo instead of a squeeze of lemon. The end result: spicy and then fruity, which was the right combination for me. Next I need to work on proportioning glasses to the drinks.. I always seem to come up with too much room in the glass.

2 oz Finlandia Tangerine Fusion
6-8 dashes of Fee Brother’s West Indian Orange Bitters (original recipe called for 3 but the flavor was just not there)
2 dashes of Peychaud’s Bitters
1/2 juice of a tangelo
club soda to top

In a mixing glass with ice combine all the ingredients except for the club soda. Stir to combine, and strain into a small chilled cocktail glass. Top with club soda.

One Tart Squirrel

by 3 Comments

The first time we had to stock up for a Tiki Party I was introduced to a whole new world of liqueurs and flavorings that I’d never heard of. One of the those items was Creme de Noyaux. It’s an almond “flavored” liqueur (as far as I know, no actually almonds are used, just pits from apricots) that pops up in a variety of drinks in the tiki world. After we actually started experimenting with it my husband became enamored with it and now we own two large bottles of the stuff. So… I’m trying to think up drinks that will use it up and make some space for other bottles. No need to crowd the shelves with TWO of these guys when a bottle of Stranahans could easily take its place.

Joining my ever growing collection of citrus at the house this week is a bag of tangelos we harvested out of our own backyard. Long thought of as a dead plant that needed to be removed, all the crazy rains Los Angeles received recently ignited the spark of life back into this thing and we have now got a tree heavy with fruit. I’d never tried a tangelo before, so being the cautious type.. I gave a bag of them to a friend as a ‘gift’ and told them to get back to me quickly on how they tasted. The most important thing was that they came back alive the next day and I had not produced a big ol’ tree of poison. The verdict was that they were really sour but very juicy, perfect they told me for marmalade. Well, sour is fantastic for drinks, not on my toast, and then I decided to try and marry this flavor with the Creme de Noyaux.

When I cut my tangelo open the first thing I realized was that my idea of sour and my friend’s idea of sour lived in two separate worlds. These were slightly sweet and slightly sour, and crazy juicy. Cutting one open just poured liquid out. Trying to formulate a drink recipe out of this took a couple turns, and I think that I might even candy some jalapeños next time and add to this, just because I think it could use some heat. But anyways, I think that I was able to make a combination of flavors that was light, refreshing, and used up some Creme de Noyaux (albeit not nearly enough).

2-1/2 oz of light rum
1/2 oz of Creme de Noyaux
4 tangelo slices (cut about 1/4″ thick)
1 tsp of honey (I used some local orange blossom honey)
2 dashes of bitters
1/2 oz of freshly squeezed lime juice

one tangelo wheel for garnish

Muddle together the tangelo slices and the honey. On top of the muddled mixture, fill mixing glass 2/3 way with ice and add rum, Creme de Noyaux, bitters and lime juice. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Run a lighter over both sides of the tangelo wheel and drop into the glass.

I know, RUM. Again! These are all mixed drinks though, not straight rum. I think I need to take one of the Rum education classes at the Cana Rum bar here in L.A. to really get to know and appreciate rum. And why the Squirrel name? Creme de Noyaux drinks I learned are referred to as pink squirrel drinks. I don’t necessarily know if this fits the category, but I like the name so I’ll stick with it.