The Spirit World

It’s no wonder my liquor closet keeps expanding! As I research and try to pull together great experiences for these posts I find myself scouring the shelves of liquor and grocery stores looking for the perfect ingredients. However, sometimes they are just a bit too elusive and then I decide to scrap the project - I mean if I can’t find the ingredients easily, how in the world would I expect you to on short notice?? That happened for this post but first let’s talk a bit about the theme.

This Sunday, January 29th, marks the beginning of Chinese New Year. This is the Year of the Dog or, in the Stem-branch 60 year cycle, bingxu. (By the way, apparently your sign affects your drinking habits…) I thought it would be fun to tie into that theme. At first my idea was to find something authentic and maybe pull in the ideas of lucky foods that are commonly part of Chinese New Year meals but along the way I kept bumping into Mai Tais. I decided to go with this drink that is found at nearly every Chinese restaurant in the U.S., even if it probably can’t be found in China.

There seems to be some controversy about who created the Mai Tai. Vic Bergeron, more commonly known as Trader Vic, insists he created it in 1944 or so. However, in doing my research I found that Tyler Florence has an original Mai Tai recipe that is nothing like Trader Vic’s. Hmmm.

I decided to make them both to see which I liked best - sort of a Mai Tai taste off. I would try to replicate the recipes as authentically as possible to go back to the true essence of a Mai Tai. Well, this is where I ran into trouble. The recipe Tyler uses seems way too complex and also called for an ingredient called Falernum. Now I was able to find that DaVinci Syrups makes Caribbean Falernum Classic Syrup but couldn’t actually find it here in Seattle, even at Cash and Carry which carries pretty much every syrup known to mankind. That’s when I decided to drop that search and go with Trader Vic’s recipe, which I’m guessing might be the original anyway. This recipe has evolved over time, as you can see on his site. Today he recommends “Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Mix” but I just couldn’t go quite that far! So I did my own interpretation of one of Vic’s recipe and it was pretty dang good, although next time I’ll reduce the Orgeat a bit. My recipe is in parentheses and I just picked brands that were available to me.

FIRST ADJUSTED MAI TAI FORMULA

1 ounce 15-year old J. Wray Nephew Jamaican Rum
1 ounce Coruba or Red Heart Jamaican Rum (2 oz Trader Vic’s Kahana Bay Premium Dark Rum)
1/2 ounce Trader Vic Formula Orgeat (½ oz Torani Orgeat)
1/2 ounce Holland DeKuyper Orange Curacao (½ oz Bols Orange Curacao)
1/4 ounce Rock Candy Syrup (¼ oz Simple Syrup plus a tad bit superfine sugar)
Juice from one fresh lime (about 1 oz)

Pour all the liquids into a cocktail shaker. Fill it with ice and shake for about 30 seconds. Pour it all into a 16-ounce double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with half of the lime shell inside the drink and float a sprig of fresh mint at the edge of the glass. (Vic does not recommend an umbrella, but I wanted to try it out…)

To accompany this Mai Tai we are going back to Tyler and using his recipe for springrolls.

Wild Mushroom Spring Rolls with Chinese Mustard Dipping Sauce

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 scallions, sliced thin
1 pound mixed wild mushrooms (such as chanterelle, crimini, oyster, shiitake)
2 cups shredded Napa cabbage
1 carrot, grated
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
2 ounces bean thread noodles, blanched and chopped
1/2 cup bean sprouts
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 package spring roll wrappers
1 egg, beaten
Vegetable oil, for frying

Mustard Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar

Heat oil in a skillet or wok over high heat. Add the garlic, ginger, and scallions and cook for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook for another minute. Add the cabbage and carrot and cook until the cabbage starts to wilt, about 2 minutes. Stir in the hoisin and oyster sauces; toss to coat the mixture. Remove from the heat and mix in the noodles, sprouts, and cilantro; season to taste with salt and pepper. The filling should be moist but not wet. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Lay a spring roll wrapper on a flat surface on an angle so it looks like a diamond. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the filling near the bottom corner of the wrapper and fold up to enclose the filling. Fold in the 2 sides. Paint the top seam of the wrapper with beaten egg. Continue rolling up to form a tight cylinder. Pour about 1-inch of oil in a skillet or wok and heat to 350 degrees F. Fry the spring rolls, turning to cook all sides, until browned, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and keep warm. Serve with Mustard Dipping Sauce.

For the Mustard Sauce: Mix all ingredients together and stir until the sugar dissolves.