Mac & Cheese Dinner

Had some friends over for a very simple dinner. This recipe for Mac & Cheese will easily feed 10-12 people. Served my favorite sparkling wine, Freixenet Cava Cordon Negro (brut), to go with our meal...

Green Salad

Macaroni and Cheese
(adapted from Gourmet magazine, Dec. 1999)

Chocolate Pavlova with Strawberries

MACARONI & CHEESE WITH GARLIC BREAD CRUMBS & CHIPOTLE CHILI

For bread crumbs:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs or Japanese panko breadcrumbs

For bechamel:

1 teaspoon powdered chipotle chili (or to taste)

1/2 stick unsalted butter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon dry mustard

1 lb macaroni

2 lb extra-sharp Cheddar (preferably white), grated

Make bread crumbs:

Heat butter and oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then cook garlic and bread crumbs, stirring, until crumbs are golden. Transfer to paper towels to drain and season with salt.

Make macaroni:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter in a 3- to 4-quart saucepan over moderate heat, then add flour and cook, whisking, 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, cream, chipotle chili and mustard and simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes. Strain to remove any lumps. Add sauce to large bowl of cheese and stir until cheese has completely melted.

Cook macaroni in a 6- to 7-quart pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 11 minutes. Drain in a colander and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in white sauce, cheese, and salt to taste.

Fill a large shallow casserole with half of macaroni mixture. Pour half of cheese bechamel on top of first layer. Repeat with another layer of macaroni and cheese bachamel. Sprinkle top with bread crumbs. Bake casseroles in middle of oven 30 minutes, or until bubbly.

Cook's note:

Macaroni and cheese may be made 2 days ahead, put into casserole, cooled completely, and chilled, covered. Do not add bread crumbs until ready to bake. (Baking may take longer than 30 minutes.)

Casual Dinner for 5

I've been eating out more often than usual since H, my good friend and cousin, arrived from the States a month ago and I thought it would be nice to have dinner at home for a change. H was really showing his age and new lifestyle by falling asleep on my bed on the way to use the bathroom. He is a single father of two one-year-old twin boys and despite the two nannies still gets exhausted. I had a good laugh about that while he was sleeping because we had actually planned (his idea) to party all night (his words). Ah well, there's always another time.

My other guest K, also a relative, was good to see after quite some time. Also a new mother, her lifestyle has changed as well (although she claims otherwise). The last time the three of us were together was in San Francisco painting the town red till five in the morning. Wow, things have changed!

Indonesian Fish with Sweet & Sour Sauce

(adapted from Cooking Around the World: Indonesian)

Chicken with 40 Cloves Garlic
(adapted from the Barefoot Contessa)

2 Kinds of Rice

Eclairs
(from Australian Gourmet Traveller: Chocolate)

This was the menu for last night's very casual dinner for five. My sister baked, for the first time, the mini Eclairs, which had a Creme de Cassis cream filling. The fish looked really good in a turmeric almond sauce dotted with cherry tomatoes and green onions, it tasted good too. And if you're a garlic lover like I am then the chicken dish was perfectly seasoned with lots of garlic cloves, some rosemary and white wine. Everything was fairly easy to make and delicious.

I served two kinds of rice - a white and a purple rice from the mountains of Banaue. Purple rice happens to be my favorite and is quite rare. There's only one place I know that sells it in Baguio and even they have a limited supply. The purple rice is grown, harvested and packaged by a cooperative of indigenous Batad women farmers in Banaue's rice terraces. They also grow several other varieties of rice like red, brown and sticky white rice.

Fish with Sweet & Sour Sauce
I doubled the spice paste and sauce ingredients called for in the book and used 2 cups of water instead of 1.5 cups to make the sauce.

serves 4

2 fillets of red snapper (about 1 kilo)
cornstarch for coating
oil for frying
salt & pepper

for the spice paste:
6 garlic cloves
4 lemongrass stems
2-inch fresh langkawas (galangal)
2-inch fresh ginger
1 1/2-inch fresh turmeric or 1 teaspoon ground
1/4 cup ground almonds

for the sauce:
2 tablespoons brown sugar
6 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 cups water
4 lime leaves (optional)
1 bunch Tagalog onions, peeled and left whole or 8 shallots, quartered
2 cups cherry tomatoes or 6 tomatoes, quartered
6 scallions, sliced thinly at a diagonal
2 red chilies (optional)

Grind all the ingredients for the spice paste in food processor.

Season the fish fillets with salt & pepper. Lightly coat in cornstarch and fry in hot oil, about 8-9 minutes each side. Drain on paper towels. Place on serving platter.

Leave a little oil from frying in the pan, add the brown sugar, vinegar and water and bring to a boil. Add the lime leaves, Tagalog onions and spice paste, simmer for 1 minute. Add cherry tomatoes and simmer for 3-4 minutes until sauce has thickened. Add scallions and pour sauce over fried fish.


Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic
adapted from Ina Garten's recipe on the Barefoot Contessa

1 whole chicken, cut into parts
40 or more cloves of garlic, unpeeled
fine sea salt
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups white wine
fresh thyme or rosemary leaves
1/4 cup cream - optional

Rub the chicken pieces with salt and set aside while you heat a Dutch oven or large pan on medium heat. Add the butter and oil. When the butter has completely melted, brown the chicken pieces. When all the chicken has been browned, set it aside on a plate. Saute the garlic cloves in the oil remaining in the fry pan until slightly caramelized. Add the chicken and any juices that have accumulated in the plate. Try to get most of the garlic on top of the chicken pieces. Add the wine and thyme. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes.

Remove the chicken and garlic with a sloted spoon to a serving platter. Reduce the remaining sauce to a syrupy consistency, then add the cream. Season to taste. Pour over chicken and garlic.

Chocolate Eclairs with Creme de Cassis Cream
M didn't make the chocolate glaze and instead sprinkled the eclairs with confectioners sugar before serving.

Alternatively, the cream can be flavored with orange or coffee liqueur.

choux pastry:
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 stick butter
90 grams or 6.5 tablespoons flour
2 eggs

filling:
300 ml thickened or all-purpose cream
40 grams (1/4 cup) confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon Creme de Cassis

glaze:
100 grams dark couverture chocolate, chopped
30 grams liquid glucose
2.5 tablespoons thickened or all-purpose cream

Combine sugar, butter and 3/4 teaspoon salt with 185 ml of cold water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add all the flour at once and, using a wooden spoon, stir vigorously until mixture is smooth, then return mixture to a low heat and stir for 1-2 minutes or until mixture comes away from side of pan. Add eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 15 mm plain nozzle and pipe 4-inch lengths, about an inch apart, on a silicon sheet placed on top of a cookie sheet. Bake at 220 C for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 180 C and bake for another 10 minutes. Turn off oven and cool pastries in oven with door slightly ajar.

For filling: beat cream to soft peaks, add confectioner's sugar and Creme de Cassis and beat until well combined. Cut pastries lengthwise with a serrated knife and fill with cream mixture.

For glaze: combine all in ingredients in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until well combined. Cool for 5 minutes, then spread over top of each eclair.

Place eclairs on a tray and refrigerate for 1 hour or until glaze is set. Unfilled pastries can be made a day ahead and stored in an airtight container. Filled eclairs are best served fresh.

Happy New Year and a Wonderful 2007!

A Bridal Shower

Weddings are my favorite kind of party. The romantic ambiance, the warmth of relatives you haven't seen in ages, the boisterous children, the flowers, the food, new friends made, the celebration of an important step towards disaster (just kidding!). Whatever happens afterwards, the wedding celebration is one to remember forever. I for one remember my wedding reception of 300 guests. Whether this number seems small or big to you, the party was an intimate one of close friends and family. I have to say it was the best party I ever attended.

My second to the youngest cousin, the only male in our brood of cousins, is about to be married to a sweet and lovely girl. To start of our cousin-in-law relations well, my cousins and I gave her a bridal shower. I was quite surprised when the-bride-to-be called to ask if she could invite ten of her friends! After the initial confusion among the cousins (we had planned a small party), we decided it was a good way to meet her friends before the wedding and told her it would be our pleasure to host them. There were fifteen of us in all, a mix of relatives and friends on both sides. Not all of us made it however, one cousin was stuck abroad because of a legal matters concerning her business, another cousin had to stay home because of pregnancy symptoms. Despite these set backs we went through with the shower and made the best of it. The Cava was flowing, the food delicious and the guests were interesting. The shower's theme is Books, so my cousins and I gave her a gift of three cookbooks which I think will help start her out in becoming a good home cook.

1. Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver
2. Ken Holm's Top 100 Stir-Fry Recipes by Ken Holm
3. 365 Ways to Cook Chicken by Cheryl Sedaker
   

I made a buffet of cocktail food and two substantial dishes since the party will lapse into dinner time. Lots of cocktail drinks all around and the Christmas decor gave of a festive ambiance to the shower.

Berry Iced Tea

Frozen Margarita

Cava

assorted bread

Caramelized Onion Dip with Vegetable Crudites

Pithale (Indian Dip)

Egg & Nori Finger Sandwiches

Bisteeya (Moroccan Chicken Pie)

Vegetarian Burritos

Baked Brie with Dried Fruit & Nuts

Burnt Butter Cupcakes with Sugar Frosting

Egg & Nori Sandwiches
Nori sheets are sheets of seaweed used in Japanese sashimi. You can buy the shredded variety in any Japanese grocery, or use sheets.

hard-boiled eggs, sliced
Japanese mayonnaise
shredded nori
white sandwich bread, crusts removed

Spread a thin layer of mayo on one side of all the pieces of bread. Place a layer of the sliced egg on a slice of bread, top with nori and sandwich with another slice of bread. Cut sandwich in half to make finger sandwiches.


Baked Brie with Dried Fruits & Nuts

1 round of Brie or Camembert
apricots, diced
raisins
sultanas
muscovado or brown sugar

Toss the dried fruit in a bowl then mound on top of cheese round. sprinkle tops with brown sugar. Bake in 350 F oven until sugar caramelizes, about 10-15 minutes. Serve with French bread or crackers.

Burnt-Butter Brown Sugar Cupcakes
from The Domestic Goddess

These cupcakes are unbelievable good. This is the third recipe from Nigella Lawson's bake book that I've tried and all were incredibly successful. Another keeper.

12 bun muffin tray lined with muffin papers

for the cupcakes:
150g butter
125g self-raising flour
60g golden caster sugar
65g light brown sugar (or muscovado)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk

for the icing:
150g butter
250-300g golden icing sugar, sieved
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 200c and start burning the butter. Put butter in a small saucepan on medium heat, stirring all the time until it turns a dark golden colour. Take the pan off the heat and pour the butter into a bowl or cup. In other words, this is like clarified butter, but with a smoky note. Let the butter solidify again, so it remains soft for the cupcakes (although the book says not to refrigerate, I did or I would have been waiting for days for the butter to solidify, stir well to soften before adding to the rest of the ingredients).

When the butter is solid, but still soft, put all the cake ingredients except the milk in a food processor and blitz to a smooth batter. As normal, add the milk down the funnel, pulsing sparingly to form a soft, dropping mixture.

Divide between the paper cases, and cook for 15-20 minutes. While the cupcakes are baking, get on with the icing. It's the same procedure for the butter - burn, sieve, solidify - then beat it with half the sieved sugar or enough to make it stiff. Add tablespoons of the milk and the remaining sugar alternately to reach a good consistency, and finally the vanilla.

While the icing's still soft, smear messily over the cooled and waiting cupcakes.

Sugar High Friday #26: Sugar Art

Sugar High Friday is a foodblogging event started by Jennifer of blog The Domestic Goddess. As the title suggests, the event centers on a theme for the month based on sweets. Last month's theme was Chocolate Truffles and what a selection of entries! This month's host for SHF #26 is Danielle of Habeas Brulee and the theme is Sugar Art.

My last post was of cupcakes I made for my godson's fourth birthday. The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess. These cupcakes were buttery, moist, fluffy and fun to make. I decorated the tops with colored sugar icing and an assortment of soft candies. They were so easy to make I almost felt guilty when I got oohs and ahhs from the adults.

Birthday Cupcakes

Cupcakes for My Godson

It's was my godson Xavy's fourth birthday and I made some cupcakes for his party. Xavy is a twin, the younger twin born minutes after his brother Alexandro. They are so cute! I don't know why, but I'm one of the very few who can tell them apart. Some say my powers of perceptiveness are exceptional seeing as I only see them once a year. And even then, they we're more interested in the balloon art being created by a very talented balloon artist (I'm thinking of using him myself for one of my parties).

Birthday Cupcakes
from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess"

I used candies found at the grocery to decorate these cupcakes, for a girls birthday party you could use mini marshmallows and color the icing in pastels. For adults, leave the icing white and decorate with a single sugar flower. The possibilities are endless, but a good rule of thumb would be to use decor with some height for these almost flat tops.

1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk

2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons water or milk
assorted candies

12 cupcake papers


Preheat oven to 200 C.

Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pulse while pouring milk down the chute. Spoon batter evenly into cupcake cases placed in muffin pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Make the icing by stirring the icing sugar and water until smooth. Divide icing and color each with 1-3 drops of your choice of food colorings (I used blue, green and violet). Decorate tops with candy.

Onion Day!

Onion Day takes place every year on the 4th Monday of November in Berne, Switzerland. Zorra, the creator of Bread Day last October, has made today's Onion Day a new blog event! I'm glad to hear the unassuming onion gets a day of recognition, as it is probably the most used vegetable in any kitchen. Onions come in many forms and sizes, you have red, white and green onions, pearl, Vidalia and the shallot. I use the red onion the most often and green onions (scallions) second. This relish recipe was in my collection of recipes to try out. I had some turkey breast in the freezer and all the ingredients for the relish were on hand. I thought this would make a great salad. Red onions can be pretty strong when eaten raw, a trick I learned to lessen its spicy pungency without loosing any of its flavor or crunchiness, is to soak the chopped onions in lemon juice or vinegar before adding it to the dish your making. In this case, vinegar is one of the ingredients in the recipe so I added the whole onion-vinegar mixture to the rest of the ingredients, otherwise the onions should be drained.


Turkey and Onion Relish Salad
Serves 6

Onion-Caper Walnut Relish
adapted from Marc Meyer's recipe

3/4 cup walnuts
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons salt-packed capers, rinsed and finely chopped
1 small red onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 tablespoon freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup aged sherry-wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup raisins, soaked in warm water until puffed

2 cups diced turkey breast

Mince garlic in a food processor. Add walnuts and pulse to a rough paste. Place walnut mixture in a bowl and stir in capers, onions, parsley, vinegar, olive oil and drained raisins. Season with salt and pepper.

Saute turkey in olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Add relish and toss to combine. Serve on a bed of salad greens.


Onion Day Roundup

Ladies Lunch Menu for 15

Although no one complained or noticed, I had to take the second course off the menu. The problem was the molds I used for the Chicken Liver Timbale, some of the timbales didn't unmold properly. Anyway, it's a good thing these ladies eat like birds and so there was enough food to go around twice.

Sweet Potato Soup

Chicken Liver Timbale with Tomato Bearnaisse

Lapu-lapu (Grouper) Fillet in Saffron Sauce
(from Time-Life Book of Hearty Home Cooking)

Chocolate Pavlova with Mandarin Oranges

Sweet Potato Soup
A velvety-smooth soup accented with Thai seasonings. Delicious!

1 tablespoon canola or peanut oil
1 onion—chopped
3 cloves garlic—chopped
2 teaspoons red curry paste
1kg (4 cups) orange sweet potato—peeled and roughly chopped
1 cup red lentils
5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

HEAT the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. ADD the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. ADD the garlic and red curry paste and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. ADD the sweet potato, red lentils, stock, coconut milk, fish sauce and brown sugar and bring to the boil. REDUCE the heat to medium and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. REMOVE from the heat and allow to cool a little. PUREE the soup in two batches in a blender or food processor until smooth. RETURN to the saucepan and stir in the lemon juice. SERVE in bowls garnished with cilantro.

Variations: Replace the sweet potato with butternut squash (pumpkin); substitute the lemon juice with lime juice; and use yellow split peas rather than red lentils (in which case you'll need to cook for around 35 minutes).


Chicken Liver Timbales
I placed this recipe here, despite the minor disaster, because it tasted good and I will add to a future menu. Use non-stick molds!

For 4 servings, you will need:

2 eggs,
2 tbsp. Madeira, sherry, or 1 tsp. lemon juice,

For the roux:
4 tbsp. butter,
4 tbsp. all-purpose flour,
1/2 c. undiluted chicken broth,
1/2 c. milk,
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves,
1/4 tsp. salt.

Butter and bread crumbs for baking dishes (optional, if using non-stick molds)
Tomato Bearnaise (recipe follows)
Chopped chives Parsley and tomato wedges for garnish

Tomato Bearnaise: Into blender or food processor with steel blade, place
3 egg yolks,
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice,
1 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves, and
3 tablespoons tomato paste.

Process until blended. While blender or processor is on, slowly add
3/4 cup hot melted butter.

Sauce will be thin while hot, but it will thicken as it cools.

Clean chicken livers, removing any fat, tendons or discolored portions. Place into blender or food processor with steel blade in place. Process until smooth. Add eggs, Madeira, or lemon juice. Set aside. In saucepan, melt butter. Blend in flour. Cook 1 minute. Slowly add chicken broth and milk. Cook until very thick and smooth. Add the thyme and salt. Blend sauce into chicken liver mixture. Press mixture through strainer and divide among 4 custard cups that have been buttered and sprinkled with crumbs.

Place cups into shallow pan with inch boiling water. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or just until a knife inserted in the center of a custard comes out clean. Meanwhile, prepare Tomato Bearnaise. To serve, unmold Timbales onto individual serving dishes. Spoon on the sauce and sprinkle with chopped chives. Garnish with parsley and tomato wedges. Serve hot.


Chocolate Pavlova
The Chocolate Pavlova was very good. I omitted the chopped bittersweet chocolate because I thought it would be too heavy a dessert and I doubled the amount of whipping cream. It turned out good with the orange segments. But, next time I will add bittersweet chocolate chips and Cointreau to the whipping cream. Alternatively, I could add mint to the chocolate meringue and use strawberries for the fruit. Or, sprinkle the whipped cream with banana chips, add some rum and drizzle with caramel sauce. What else...

A Birthday Brunch

My sister, the party girl, celebrated her birthday all weekend long. Friday and Saturday nights lasted till morning, ending with a Sunday brunch I hosted.

Bloody Geisha
Cava Mimosa

Pancakes
(from Gourmet magazine, Dec. 1993)
Orange Sauce
Maple Flavored Syrup
Crisp Bacon

Crustless Potato Quiche
(from the Food Network's The Barefoot Contessa)

Sausages Stewed in Red Wine

Lemon Cupcakes

Bloody Geisha
adapted from Ming Tsai's Bloody Mary
Sake, a Japanese rice wine, is a wonderful alternative to vodka for those who dislike the strong alcoholic component of the usual Bloody Mary's. Choosing a premium sake is of utmost importance and definately worth the price in terms of flavor.

2 11-ounce cans V-8
11 ounces tomato juice
1 1/2 cups Premium Sake
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar or Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon naturally brewed soy sauce
2 tablespoons wasabi paste
1 tablespoon horseradish

Ice

In a bottle or other container, add V-8, tomato juice, sake, lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce, wasabi, and horseradish. Shake vigorously and refrigerate until ready to use. Serve in glasses filled with ice.


Cava Mimosa

semi-sec Cava or Champagne, chilled
fresh orange juice, chilled

Fill champagne glasses with half oj and half Cava.


Pancakes
These are the best pancakes ever.

3 large eggs, separated
1 stick butter, plus more for cooking pancakes
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar

In a bowl, whisk all ingredients except egg whites, until mixture is smooth. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into flour mixture.

Heat a griddle or skillet on medium-high heat. Melt about half a teaspoon of butter and, using a small ladle, pour batter into pan and cook pancakes for 1 to 2 minutes on each side. A good way to tell when the bottom side is done is when top part is filled with bubbles, it then takes a few seconds for the flipped side to cook.

Serve with 2 kinds of syrup and a side of crisp bacon. Mmmmmmmm!


Crustless Potato Quiche
This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten's TV show The Barefoot Contessa. It calls for basil leaves which I didn't have in hand so had to omit, it was delicious anyway. I used a 10-inch springform cakepan to mold the quiche. The recipe's original title is Potato Basil Frittata, I titled it differently because it seems more like a quiche than a frittata to me.

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
2-3 cups peeled and 1/2-inch diced boiling potatoes
10 large eggs
15 ounces cottage cheese, drained
3/4 pound Gruyere or Emmenthaler cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a 10-inch ovenproof omelet pan over medium-low heat. Add the potatoes and fry them until cooked through, turning often, about 10 to 15 minutes. Place potatoes in the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan and spread evenly. Melt the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan or microwave.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, then stir in the ricotta, Gruyere, melted butter, salt, pepper, and basil. Sprinkle on the flour and baking powder and stir into the egg mixture.

Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes and place the cakepan in the center of the oven. Bake the frittata until it is browned and puffed, 50 minutes to 1 hour. It will be rounded and firm in the middle and a knife inserted in the frittata should come out clean. Serve hot on a round serving platter.

Mixology Monday #9: Bitters

It's time to get that shaker and cocktail glasses out of the closet and join Mixology Monday, a monthly blog event that follows a different theme each time. The host for this month is blog A Dash of Bitters and he chose the theme, what else? - Bitters. What a relief for that bottle of Angustura bitters sitting in my kitchen cabinet for more than a year now!

As I was perusing Dale Degroff's The Craft of the Cocktail, I read somewhere in the introduction that the first time the cocktail appeared in print was in 1806 in an American publication written by the editor about a new kind of drink. So this year could well be the 200 year anniversary of the cocktail. Cheers!

Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters. It is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion…

The Balance and Columbian Repository, 1806
(as quoted by The Craft of the Cocktail)

Adonis Cocktail 11
from The Craft of the Cocktail

1 oz dry sherry
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz fresh orange juice
dash of bitters
dash of simple syrup
orange peel, for garnish

Shake with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. Garnish with the orange peel.

See what others have contributed to this round of Mixology Monday... MxMo9 Roundup