Margarita of the Month: November

Margarita of the Month: November

Once again we waited until the tail end of the month, but this is one worth waiting for!

Here is my version of the Controlado Cocktail from the Patron Cocktail Lab (ain’t science a great thing?)… I made a couple of tweaks and I think it turned out pretty darn good…

Ginger/Jalapeno Margarita

2 Oz Silver Tequila

3/4 Oz Lemon Juice

3/4 Oz Agave Nectar

3/4 Oz Honey

1 to 4   1/8” or so thick slices fresh Jalapeno (if you’re not sure, make the first drink with 2 slices and adjust from there to your liking)

2 quarter-size slices fresh Ginger

Put the ginger and jalapeno in a cocktail shaker and muddle to release their tasty goodness – you can add a little of the tequila while doing so if you like to ease the process…

Add all the rest of the ingredients and some ice and shake like crazy…  strain into a glass (or on the rocks if you prefer). A salted rim is up to you.

If you like, garnish with a slice of fresh jalapeno… or what would really be great is a slice of sweet pickled jalapeno (Terra Verde Farms makes a great version called Spicy O’s). Even a bit of fresh basil would make a nice garnish as well…

Makes one drink… yes, I said one… didn’t say you had to stop there…

Just in time for Valentine’s Day…

Do I really need to comment on this?

Insert your own joke here….

Okay – I will comment…

I have seen this packaging before in international markets – but where did I find this today?

In, of all places, Wal*Mart….

Again… let the jokes ensue…

A Few of My Favorite Things – Wasabiyaki

From time to time I’ll going to let you know about a few of My Favorite Things… these will mostly be prepared food items (sauces, spice mixes, pastas, etc.) or just a companies general product line… of course that’s the idea right now, I won’t promise you that my next Favorite Thing won’t be something completely different…

Now if you want a Disney connection to A Few of My Favorite Things, we may have to stretch a bit… let’s see, Julie Andrews sang A Few of My Favorite Things in the movie Sound of Music… no that’s not a Disney movie, but Dame Julie is a Disney Legend… so there’s your two or three or four degrees of Disney separation… now on to one My Favorite Things…

Wasabiyaki by the good folks at Soy Vay…

As the name suggests, you have a Teriyaki sauce with the addition of the sinus-clearing Asian root Wasabi… not just that, but this is a top-quality product… Sesame oil and seeds, fresh ginger and garlic all add to the wonderful flavor trapped inside the bottle.

My favorite way to use is as a meat marinade – take almost any piece of meat (chicken, steak, pork… even though you won’t see the last item mentioned anywhere on their certified Kosher products…), throw it into a ZipLoc bag and add Wasabiyaki… leave it for a day or two, turn and rub now and then… grill, bake, broil… happy, happy, joy, joy…

I knew this was a real winner when I had simply marinated and baked some chicken pieces – nothing fancy… the next day I took some leftovers into work to have for lunch… as I opened the foil (with the cold chicken inside), my officemate got a whiff of the aroma and went crazy wanting to know what I had… this was cold chicken mind you!

One of my favorite quick (and healthy) dinners is to marinate boneless and skinless chicken breasts in Wasabiyaki and then broil/bake quickly until done then serve with some brown rice and simply done veggies like steamed broccoli – a little Wasabiyaki doused on the veg and rice completes the meal.
Skirt steak marinated in the wonderful Wasabiyaki and done quickly on the grill is also a favorite use…

Soy Vey makes several other sauces (Veri Veri Teriyaki, a good basic Teriyaki sauce along with Hoisin Garlic Asian Glaze and Marinade probably being the flagship items) – all of which are very good.

So you may ask, just where does “Soy Vay” come from? Well, as they say on their site “Chinese girl meets Jewish boy and Soy Vey!”

For the rest of the story, I’ll let you read about it on their website: http://www.soyvay.com.

So where can you obtain this bottle of tasty heaven? Soy Vey products are available at some groceries and specialty stores, and are even carried by the massive behemoth that is Wal-Mart (but sadly, they don’t carry Wasabiyaki…). The Soy Vey site has a store finder, and if no place near you carries what you want, they will gladly ship to you directly thru their online store.

Their site also has a plethora of recipes, the vast majority I haven’t tried, but many look great are on the “to try” list… (along with about 50,000 other recipes from magazines, cookbooks, yadda, yadda, yadda…)

My only minor complaint about their products is that most have a bit more sugar than I’d like, but it sure hasn’t stopped me from using (and obviously recommending) them! Just be sure to keep this in mind if you’re grilling… as the sugars will burn easily on high heat…

I really hope some of you will hunt down Wasabiyaki and give it a try, and please let me know what you think about it!

Can you tell I really like this stuff???