Four I'm Under My Host

A few months back we wrote about two cocktails we created in honor of Phillip Katanda’s new play, I Dream of Chang and Eng. And while I posted the ingredients for those very successful drinks I did not follow through with the recipes. So this post gets us halfway to fixing that.

The Chang is named after one of the famous Siamese Twins that are the subject of the play. The play itself mentions both cognac and absinthe (in a scene of temptation featuring the wife of the French attaché). And the twins married sisters from the Southern United States, a place famous for bourbon. So we immediately turned to the Sazerac…in particular a variant from Dale Degroff‘s The Essential Cocktail (cheezy website, great cocktail writer). Degroff’s insight is to take the absinthe, which is typically swirled in the glass and tossed, and move it out of the glass into a foam. It’s really lovely and a great technique for any ingredient that is swirled in a glass or is added in a very small (“a splash of…”) proportions.

Without further ado, here is The Chang:

• 1 part cognac (don’t use the real cheap stuff but no reason to spend $100 on a bottle either)
• 1 part rye whiskey. Or bourbon. For extra bonus points use a whiskey like CatDaddy from Piedmont Distillers in North Carolina (where the brothers settled down).
• 1/2 part Tamarind Simple Syrup
• Absinthe foam
• Peychaud’s and Angostura bitters

The tamarind simple syrup is quite easy. Simply make a normal 1:1 simple syrup and dissolve some tamarind paste into it. You want about a 1:4 ratio of tamarind to the simple syrup. Tamarind is quite sour so be careful because you don’t want to overwhelm the flavor of the spirits so I recommend adding it a bit at a time until you’re satisfied. One important tip is to note that there is a great variety of tamarind pastes. Some are quick thick and chunky (think smashed pods) and others are very smooth (think food processor). You want a smooth variety. The ticker kind will work just fine but you’ll want to strain the result through a fine-meshed sieve or you’ll have a lot of floating bits in the cocktail. Neera’s works well. Stay away from Tamicon (which is a fine product…perhaps even better for cooking).

The absinthe foam is a bit tricky and might require some experimentation. You’ll need a whipped cream dispenser and nitrous oxide chargers, of course. Here’s what’s worked well for me:

• 1/2 packet of plain gelatin
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/4 cup superfine sugar (or a bit more to taste)
• 1 egg white
• 2 oz absinthe

Dissolve the gelatin in the water. I, personally, don’t bother boiling the water although if you use hot water the gelatin will dissolve a bit more easily, of course. Add the sugar and dissolve. Cool the mixture and then add the egg white and absinthe. Add to the dispenser and chill in the refrigerator until well cooled (20 minutes or more).

You’re now ready to assemble the cocktail. Shake the cognac, whiskey and tamarind simple syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Pour into a glass of your choice. We used regular v-shaped martini glasses but a small tumbler would work well for this too. Top with the absinthe foam. Sprinkle a couple of drops of each kind of bitter onto the foam. Using a toothpick or the tip of a knife, swirl the bitters through the foam to make a nice spiral pattern.

Dispensing the foam takes some practice and I recommend giving it a try over a glass of water to get the hang of it. Always shake before dispensing and put the contraption back in the fridge between uses. Make sure the nozzle is pointing straight down and squeeze very, very gently…this is especially important for the first few squeezes when the pressure is highest. The foam will be quite thick but it will settle a bit when you swirl the bitters and more as time passes. Don’t worry because too thick is a good problem to have. If it is really too thick (looks like stiffly whipped cream) you should use less gelatin or more water next time. If it is too thin then just the opposite.

Finally, I know that some foam recipes use only gelatin or egg white as a thickening agent. Why use both? Well, I don’t have any insight into the food science here, but I find that egg whites alone aren’t stiff enough and the bubbles are too coarse. Gelatin alone is too stiff and the bubbles are too fine. So the mixture hits the right balance of stiffness and bubble size.

But don’t worry…it will still taste great.  Enjoy!

 

 

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