A Meal Fit for the Fall, Drink and All
Do you ever buy the dress to match the shoes? How about making dinner to match the cocktail? It is that time of year when the fashion mags are three inches thick, the stores have changed their displays in the windows from white skirts with sandals to tweed and boots, and you probably have taken the kids on the rounds for back to school shopping.
If the closet deserves a make-over, perhaps inspired by a new pair of knee-high suede boots, so does your dinner table. And there is no better place to get inspired than with a few autumn-ish cocktails to get the dinner headed in the right direction.
Fall always makes me think of San Francisco, as it is by far the best time of year to be in that fine city. And San Francisco, with its rich traditions of old hotels and cable cars, gets me hankering for some classic cocktails. The Cable Car martini, a blend of dark rum, triple sec, and lemon juice with a sugar rimmed glass, was an homage to that great city invented just a couple of decades ago as a spin-off of the even more classic cocktail, the Side Car. The Side Car in its original form is brandy or cognac with triple sec or Cointreau and lemon or lime juice.
This fall, I want to give the two ideas a fashionable makeover and mix them together for a Sugar Apple Side Car: white rum, triple sec, and lemon juice shaken and poured into a cinnamon sugar rimmed glass with small handful of paper-thin sliced apples.
If we are making the meal to match the drink, like we might buy the dress to match the shoes, in our fall meal make-over, a sugar apple martini definitely deserves a dish that heralds the coming of fall the same way the drink does. Nothing gets me over the melancholy of the end of summer like the promise of butternut squash ravioli with brown butter and sage.
I don’t really have the time or patience to make pasta myself at home, but I can get the same flavors from doing a quick butternut squash soup topped with fried sage and maybe a sprinkling of crispy pancetta just to make it extra decadent. Add a grilled cheese sandwich with gruyere, and you have a complete meal fit for the fall, drink and all.
As the days are getting shorter and the nights longer, and the anticipation of the upcoming holiday season builds, it wouldn’t hurt to have an espresso martini in the repertoire. Most espresso martinis are more fitting for dessert than dinner and hardly inspire paring outside of maybe a croissant or beignet. Better for you than a Red Bull and vodka with the same desired effect, an espresso martini not only can get your party started but might actually taste good alongside a meal.
Mix espresso with vodka and Kahlua in a cocktail shaker with ice then drain into a martini glass and sprinkle with cocoa powder for a caffeinated version of a Black Russian. Have that drink alongside skewered and grilled fillet mignon or tri tip for a meaty meal that will pick you up before you have a chance to slip into a food coma.
The summer is all about what a friend of mine would call “boat drinks”: drinks made with white liquor mixed with a lot of fruity, brightly colored juices that you would expect to find in the hands of loafer-wearing members of the yacht club decked out in their summer whites.
Well, fall is officially here and the whites are retired until Memorial Day. The new boat drink is a pitcher of sangria, fruity enough to please the crowd at the country club, serious enough to please your guests at a dinner party. Slice up some end-of-summer stone fruits like plums and add to a pitcher along with grapes, oranges and whatever other fruit might be on hand. Mix a decent red table wine with brandy or dark rum, some orange juice and sugar to taste. Sip regularly while throwing together a collection of Spanish tapas favorites from small plates of seasoned olives, manchego, jamon, tortilla espangola, and maybe a bocadillo or two.
The changing of the seasons is a perfect excuse for a fall fashion makeover. And while you are hard at making over your wardrobe, you might as well spice up your meal planning. Just like a great pair of shoes can inspire an entire outfit, adding a new cocktail or two to your repertoire might just do the same for your dinner. Dust off the cocktail shaker, channel your best Tom Cruise, and with a little liquid inspiration you might just be surprised at the direction your culinary inclinations will take you.
Made with pancetta, salt and pepper, onion, olive oil, butternut squash, sage, chicken stock
Serves/Makes: 6
- 1/2 large onion
- 2 tablespoons olive oil plus extra
- 1 medium butternut squash
- 2 tablespoons minced sage plus additional leaves
- 6 cups chicken stock
- salt and pepper
- 4 ounces thinly sliced pancetta
Dice onion. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and saute for about 5 minutes until softened.
Meanwhile peel squash and slice in half lengthwise then crosswise into 1 inch half circles. Cut into pieces that are about 1 inch by 1 inch. Add diced squash to pan along with minced sage. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add chicken stock to the pan then cover with a lid, turn the heat to high, and bring to a boil.
While soup is finishing, slice pancetta into strips about 1/4-inch wide. Place in a hot saute pan over medium heat. Saute until pieces are crispy. Drain on paper towels and set aside.
Heat a few more tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat in a small pan. Add remaining additional sage leaves and fry until crispy. Remove leaves from oil and drain on paper towels.
When squash is tender, remove soup from heat and run through the blender working in batches. Return pureed soup to pan and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. To serve, ladle soup into bowl and top with a bit of crispy pancetta and some fried sage leaves.
Made with white rum, sugar, cinnamon, apple, lemon juice, Triple Sec
Serves/Makes: 1
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/4 apple
- 1 ounce lemon juice
- 1 ounce Triple Sec
- 2 ounces white rum
Mix cinnamon and sugar on a shallow plate. Wet the rim of a martini glass with water or lemon juice, then dip into the cinnamon sugar to rim the edge of the glass.
Peel and thinly slice the apple into paper thin slices. Place apple slices in the bottom of the martini glass.
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add lemon juice, Triple Sec and rum. Shake well and strain into the cocktail glass over the ice.
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