Red Rum: Homemade Jello Shots

It's a bit hard to miss that nostalgia is at least part of (if not all) the rage lately. Superhero movies target thirty-somethings (and older). Cocktail bars are recreating prohibition-era drinks with homemade bitters and the like. And restaurants/cookbooks are playing on childhood flavors and memories as, for example, with the "cereal milk" at Momofuku Milk Bar or Joanne Chang's recipes for homemade Oreos and Pop Tarts in her oft-lauded-on-Pearwise Flour cookbook.

What's fun about the food-related nostalgia is that the re-creations are often much, much better than the childhood memories they're trying to evoke. Have you tried a Pop Tart lately? If not, trust me. This is what excited me about the idea of doing some homemade, very high quality Jello shots. Jello shots are a classic sugar-laden and potent undergrad-era (and, ok, a bit after that for some) party accessory. The idea of making them with fresh fruit juices and infused liquors was -- at least to me -- quite appealing.

Not surprisingly, I'm certainly not the first to have this idea. There is, in fact, a whole blog (the Jelly Shot Test Kitchen) dedicated to the topic, and the author's creations are actually pretty incredible. As you can see, the site has spawned a book and generated quite a bit of media attention. My goals are not nearly so lofty, but I did want to play with the concept.

Infusing rum with berries.

I started with some rum that I had infused with fresh New York strawberries. I sliced up a quart of strawberries (removing the tops) and left them in a sealed jar with enough rum to just cover the berries for a month or so. After straining out the berries, you can see in the photo that the rum turned a delightful shade of bright red (which actually surprised me).

Red rum!!

Using a recipe for an Elderflower Mojito jelly shot as a model, I first made a simple syrup of sugar and water and dissolved 4 packets of plain gelatin in this syrup. I then added an equal (to the amount of syrup) amount of freshly squeezed lime juice, followed by a cup of the strawberry rum. After stirring it all together, I separated it into tiny paper cups and let them set in the fridge overnight.

Dissolving gelatin

The result was very stiff, so I probably could've used less gelatin if I wanted. They were tasty, tasting clearly of strawberry with a hint of rum flavor. The lime and syrup really provided accent; you couldn't taste them. And to taste much of anything, you had to eat it slowly...which sort of defeats the purpose of a shot.

Shots about to gel.

Still, they were fun. And brought back memories of shots made with actual Jello; without having to eat actual Jello. That was the goal, so I declare mission accomplished.

Lots of Little Things

It's once again been a few days since my last post. There are times when I don't post because I just haven't made any food. This was the case for much of the spring. Then there are times when I don't post because I just haven't made any one thing that's post-worthy, despite making lots of relatively uninteresting little things. This has been one of those weeks, so today's post is focused on those little things, and on making them as interesting as possible.

Indian Spanish Tortilla, cooking

I'll start with my lunch for this week, an Indian-Spanish tortilla. (If I haven't mentioned this before, I mostly cook for myself; so make enough to eat lunch and dinner for 4-5 days at a time. It's a great incentive to make things that are tasty, but the cost of failure [i.e., eating bad food for 4-5 days] is high).  One of my favorite easy lunches is a Spanish tortilla sandwich -- slices of a potato/onion/egg concoction sandwiched on a nice roll. This week I decided to put an Indian spin on that, adding some cumin seeds, curry leaves and nigella seeds to the oil (3/4 cup or so, later drained off) before cooking the potatoes (1.25 pounds, diced to 1/4"). I also added some kashmiri chili powder to the eggs along with some salt and black pepper. A delicious spin on a classic dish.

Yesterday I celebrated Canada Day with some Canadian and American friends, and brought a couple of nice summer desserts. I knew they had s'mores planned for the kids, so I made my own vanilla-flavored marshmallows to appease the adults at the party too. Marshmallows are actually pretty easy to make, with the right gear and a little patience. I just boiled 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water and 2/3 cup corn syrup until it reached 240 degrees. I then poured this into my stand mixer with the whisk, where I had already placed 3 packets of gelatin powder into 1/2 cup cold water to soften for 15 mins. These were beaten together at high speed for 15 mins until the mixture was firm, fluffy and, well, marshmallow-like. Then the white mixture gets poured into a 13 x 9" pan lined with foil and non-stick spray to set. Finally, I sliced them into small squares, which was tossed in a blend of corn starch and powdered sugar to keep them from sticking to each other. No pictures, unfortunately, but they disappeared pretty quickly.

Overly dramatic shot of watermelon
and wine concoction

The marshmallows were for later in the evening, though. We needed a refreshing afternoon treat, too, so I made a couple sorbets. Watermelon sorbet is super easy and delicious: just a bunch of watermelon pureed with sugar and some lime juice, and a tiny bit of vodka and stabilizer to improve the texture. I also made a bit of lemongrass-lime leaf sorbet, by steeping lemongrass (3 stalks) and lime leaves (5) in a sugar syrup, to which I then added the juice of one lime and some stabilizer. Again, tasty. In a possibly ill-advised from a purist's standpoint, but still delicious, move the watermelon sorbet was incorporated into a glass of wine with some basil, shown here as the sun was setting.

Stay tuned for more summer treats!