She answered the door in a tiny rock and roll bikini and made me a martini and a bowl of her homemade lavender icecream. Just another Tuesday night ’round here, Jake.
MERCI, JEAN
Sunny back deck summer lunch with neighbour’s cat lolling lovingly at our feet. Soy-cured salmon on thai basil crème fraîche with flutes of lemongrass-vanilla lemonade garnished with a slice of starfruit. They paired beautifully.
The salmon you can find the recipie for in
Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges. Me, I ran out of cilantro, so I used thai basil instead, and couldn’t get an asian pear, so used a nectarine. It was amazing.
The lemonade? Boil a cup of water with a cup of sugar and the business end of two lemongrass stalks, hammered. Also maybe half of a vanilla bean, split. I say maybe because I thought I had one, and I didn’t. I had, tragically, put the empty test tube from the last one back in the spice basket, and having seen the test tube in there so many times, I had come to believe that we had at least one vanilla bean in stock. Well, no matter; I had in the freezer a nearly empty bottle of vodka with two whole beans still inside it, the remnants of an infusion from some months ago. Might that do? I threw it in, and yes, it did nicely.
So, boil all that and then cool it. I made extra to drizzle over grilled fruit later in the weekend. Then mix it (you have made one cup, right?) with a cup of lemon juice and a very generous cup of vodka. Voila! Your base is done. Three or four ounces of this and then top with lemon Perrier and garnish.
Best served with bop-era Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Best served on a weekend that kicked off with your Balinese orchestra joining a group of avant-jazzers accompanying German silent horror flick
Nosferatu at the local rep theatre. Best served wearing the snappy fedora that Killer bought you for your 44th birthday. Best served whilst contemplating your August reservations at Alinea in Chicago.
