December 24, 2004
Mmmmmmmmm, vinegar coolers and other neat vinegar ideas!
People's Daily Online (Found on Fark.com)
A waitress displays vinegar drinks in pleasing colors in a vinegar bar in Beijing, capital of China Dec. 22, 2004. Customers may taste over 20 kinds of vinegar drinks here, which is known to offer healthy drinks mixed with different vinegars.
Elegant Nonalcoholic Drinks
What do I serve with filet mignon and foie gras to a guest who cannot drink wine?
Copyright © 1998 Tanith Tyrr
Elegant nonalcoholic drinks
What role does wine actually play in a meal, since the point of drinking wine with good food has nothing to do with its alcohol content? And what can wine be replaced with, for the non alcohol drinker?
In most cases, the role of wine is that of an essentially savory sauce in highly liquid form that is pleasant to drink and offers complex taste sensations that complement the meal served. As soon as you start thinking about beverages that way, your own ideas and taste combinations may begin coming to mind. Here are a few suggestions you can start with.
* Unfiltered pomegranate juice, the imported Persian type —there is a depth and complexity in this stuff that actually comes close to wine. There are several American brands that are actually more expensive, but it's the thick, unrefined nectar that throws cloudy sediment on the bottom that you want. Local organic production will probably suffice. Decant it as you would a wine, and serve appropriately.
* Balsamic vinegar spritzers —Use a few drops of decent (or even extravagant) quality balsamic vinegar in a wineglass full of sparking water. You can also use champagne vinegar or flavored vinegars, depending on what kind of food you are accompanying. A balsamic vinegar spritzer with a curl of fresh mango on the rim to accompany a simple foie gras appetizer plate is a wonderful taste match. Hint: it doesn't take much vinegar to flavor the sparkling water, and you can adjust your taste proportions to better match the dish you are serving.
* Digestif herbal infusions —A strong herbal infusion as a concentrated tea can also be mixed with sparkling water, either with or without a drop or two of flavored vinegar. A few drops of slightly sweetened lavender infusion can add a haunting herbal-floral note to the drink, if you can get food grade lavender from your supplier. You can also go whole hog and make a strong, unsweetened tea with the Herbs du Provence mixture, garnishing with fresh basil and balsamic vinegar. Chamomile is also lovely, and there are some floral essences (check the Chinese markets for dried chrysanthemum) that work beautifully in spritzers. Rosemary essence is a fine complement for lamb. Mix and match and find your own recipes.
* Verjus cocktail —The intensely sour, fruity juice of unripe grapes, a precious condiment for sauces in Perigord, can be combined with other elements in a drink to tame it down to a level that can be sipped and savored. Verjus is valued as a salad dressing and sauce component because it effectively replaces vinegar with its intense flavor and sprightly sourness, but it does not clash with wine as vinegar does. Cut verjus half and half with sparkling water, and add a few drops of evaporated red or white wine syrup for a sophisticated cocktail that has much of the flavor of wine and none of the alcohol. I prefer this combination to any commercally marketed dealcoholized wine.
* Persimmon "beer" —Crush ripe, crisply firm Fuyu persimmons and strain them for their juice. Add verjus and a few drops of strong tea made with hops. Adjust proportions to taste. This produces a wonderfully smooth and balanced beverage with a faint, refreshing sourness and just enough of a bitter edge to be appetizing.
* Olive essence cocktail —Extract the clear juice from very ripe tomatoes through a fine strainer, and make a light gelatin or aspic - use unflavored gelatin, and follow the directions on the package. Reserve the tomato pulp for other uses, or discared it. Half fill a martini glass with the clear aspic cubes (if you set it hard enough to cut shapes out of) or tiny spoonfuls of the clear gelatin, and sprinkle with a well flavored vinegar - a vinegar in which you have been marinating olives and tarragon works beautifully. Fill the glass with a pour of rich, concentrated vegetable juice (tomato works fine, or you can blend tomato with some green vegetables or herbs for flavor variation) and add a good quality olive. A basil or other fresh herb garnish works well.
* Ocean cocktail —If your clientele is daring enough, try this one. Make the tomato water aspic, but do it with agar agar, a type of seaweed gelatin available in specialty Japanese stores. Reserve some of the clear tomato water ungelled. Sprinkle with a drop of soy sauce, a drop of balsamic vinegar and a drop of rice vinegar. Make your own "ocean water" to taste by dissolving some good quality sea salt (Fleur du Sel is good); in the reserved tomato water. The result should be slightly briny and minerally with a hint of savor, but not overpoweringly salty. Add enough to float the garnish, tender strands of various kinds of edible seaweed. There are some really striking kinds of edible seaweeds available in both fresh and dehydrated form, including some bright red and white ones, so you could have a really visually appealing liquid appetizer.
* Vinegar apertifs —If you make your own good quality vinegars, or have some available, you can offer these in tiny glasses as an apertif. Should you have a wealthy nonalcoholic clientele who want to spend as much on their fine beverages as their wine drinking companions, you can serve the ultimate indulgence of a snifter of seriously well aged balsamic vinegar. Weight for weight, this decadently delicious stuff competes with the finest of wines both for flavor complexity and price.
* Wine essence syrup —Cover a dehydrator tray with about 1/4" of red wine, and allow the wine to mostly (but not completely) evaporate, leaving you a thick syrup that is intensely flavorful and not alcoholic - the alcohol is one of the first things that will evaporate. Bottle this and use this "extracted wine essence" drop by drop to enhance some of these nonalcoholic beverages.
A note on customer perception—you certainly can garnish with parsley or basil oil if you like, or a few drops of high quality olive oil. Carrot oil is something I also use with success on the seafood cocktail. As soon as you add oil or solid things (other than olives) to the drink, the customers immediately think of it as a food appetizer rather than a beverage. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, just something to keep in mind when planning the menu.
If you want to go for the appetizer cocktail perception and you think you can sell it to your clientele, you can go the whole hog and float other things on the aspic-savory liquid combination as well, such as seafood, croutons, tiny decorative vegetable or fruit balls, etc.
If you have a Japanese kaiseki clientele (preferably in Japan; I'm not sure this would fly anywhere else), you could do the ultimate deed and float an odori (live; literally "dancing") shrimp in the Ocean cocktail. Now that would be daring.
(More vinegar uses in the extended entry)
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