The Spirit World

I’m heading up to Whistler this weekend. It’s too early for skiing but I’ll be attending Cornucopia, an annual food and wine festival held in the village.  Today’s Happy Hour at Home recipes are based on Whistler memories. 

The cocktail, the Holiday Starr, is one of a series of cocktails I created a few years ago.  Necessity is the mother of invention, so they say, and in this case it holds true.  I love satsuma mandarin oranges and when boxes of them start showing up in local grocery stores at holiday time I buy them.  They are the perfect little citrus - they peel easily and are small so they provide a nice sunshine splash during the gray winter months.  One year, though, I ended up with so many that they were going to go bad if I didn’t do something with them and fast! 

I was also in a Kamikaze phase at the time and often made them at home.  I don’t make them as a shooter but as a straight up cocktail. One ingredient in a Kamikaze is Triple Sec, an orange flavored liqueur.  I decided I’d use fresh mandarin juice in place of Triple Sec.  It took a few tries to get the balance right and even now, adjustments are made based on how sweet or tart the fruit is but here is the basic recipe. 

The Whistler connection is that I was on my way for a few days of skiing with friends at Whistler and introduced this new cocktail to them one evening as we were sitting in the Jacuzzi after a day of skiing.  They were a hit!  The fresh juices really make this a refreshing cocktail - great for rejuvenating after a physically demanding day.  And now, they have become a regular part of all my Whistler trips. 

Satsumas are just starting to show up in stores now but in a week or two you’ll be seeing them everywhere!

Normally my measure is a shot glass but feel free to add “ounces” (or cups!) or whatever measure you prefer after the amounts in this recipe.  The important part is to keep the ratio the same. 

Holiday Starr

1 ½ Vodka
1 Fresh squeezed lime juice
½ - ¾ Fresh squeezed satsuma juice or other tangerine juice
1 tsp superfine sugar

Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice.  Shake until very cold.  Strain into chilled martini glass.

And the appetizer is something we always indulge in while in Whistler.  The particular version of this little bite seems to be a Canadian tradition.  I have never seen them on any menu in the U.S. and it’s a shame!  Actually, a Canadian chain, Joey’s, has recently come to the Seattle area and they have a fancy version which is good but not the same as what we have in Whistler. 

All the places I’ve had these in Canada, actually cut the ribs into 1″ - 2″ sized pieces.  They are the perfect cocktail accompaniment!  Salty and savory they are the yin to the cocktails yang.  I have yet to find and test a recipe, but thinking about this post had me out on the web searching and I found this recipe (and a whole discussion) on egullet.  This seems to me to be the right idea - although the ribs aren’t cut into small pieces. 

This recipe doesn’t specify (and if you read the discussion you’ll see a picture of some meaty ribs) but use baby back ribs - the idea is to almost dry the meat out (yet still have it tender) and then have a little bone to gnaw on. Now that I’ve found this recipe I’ll be trying it out in the next week or so - in the meantime if you make it, let me know how it works out!

Dry Ribs

1. Preheat oven to 425F 
2. Cut your slab into individual ribs and put them on a foil-covered baking sheet.
3. Season with freshly ground pepper and garlic powder.
4. Bake for about an hour (Note:  this is for meaty ribs, I’d guess 15-20 minutes for baby-back ribs)
5. Remove from oven and put ribs in a large bowl. Season with kosher salt.
6. Serve.