The Chef loves Cuban music, Cuban food and especially Cuba's oldest cocktail, the minty Mojito. Like Cuban cigars; Cuban rum is on the American embargo list. Let's end this embargo. The Chef wants access to real Cuban rum! Fidel Castro and Che Guevara's Cuban Revolution is so last century. Hey White House, get over it!The Chef popped his Mojito cherry during a happy hour at Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger's (a.k.a. "Too Hot Tamales") fine downtown Latin restaurant, Ciudad, soon after it opened in 1998. The Chef has spent many a Thursday afternoon there, reading the L.A. Weekly while sipping a Mojito and savoring a Cuban sandwich (alas, said sandwich is off the happy hour menu,) before hitting the downtown art scene (Why Thursdays? MOCA and The Geffen Contemporary are free after 5 p.m.)
In the following video you will notice The Chef's Mojito is not clear like most; that's because dark rum and fresh-made sugar cane juice is used. Most Mojitos are made using white sugar and clear rum.
Play it here. The video is 4 1/2 minutes.
Ingredients
2 oz. sugar cane juice, or substitute 1 tablespoon sugar
5 -10 mint leaves, depending on size
1 99-cent airline bottle of rum (usually white, but whatever you can get)
1 lime, juiced plus a slice for garnishing
3 oz. sparkling water or club soda
Crushed or cubed ice
Sugar Cane Juice
Using two 12 inch stalks of sugar cane; peel, cut into several pieces and crush (cover pieces with plastic and mash with a hammer.) In 3 cups water, boil crushed sugar cane until 1/2 cup of liquid remains. Let sugar cane juice cool. This makes enough juice for about 4 cocktails. While not as sweet as granulated sugar, homemade cane juice imparts a rich, earthy, lightly sweet flavor.
Directions
Muddle (crush) mint leaves in bottom of a cocktail glass. Add rum, sugar cane juice, juice of one lime and sparkling water. Garnish with a lime slice. When substituting cane juice with sugar, add it to mint leaves during muddling.
99 thanks to my neighbor Nuno Pinheira for his camerawork and a taste testing cameo.
To embed or view the Chef's video from youtube, click here.
...
Do you have a favorite quenching cocktail The Chef can turn into a 99 cent creation? It's just a comment away.
2 oz. sugar cane juice, or substitute 1 tablespoon sugar
5 -10 mint leaves, depending on size
1 99-cent airline bottle of rum (usually white, but whatever you can get)
1 lime, juiced plus a slice for garnishing
3 oz. sparkling water or club soda
Crushed or cubed ice
Sugar Cane Juice
Using two 12 inch stalks of sugar cane; peel, cut into several pieces and crush (cover pieces with plastic and mash with a hammer.) In 3 cups water, boil crushed sugar cane until 1/2 cup of liquid remains. Let sugar cane juice cool. This makes enough juice for about 4 cocktails. While not as sweet as granulated sugar, homemade cane juice imparts a rich, earthy, lightly sweet flavor.
Directions
Muddle (crush) mint leaves in bottom of a cocktail glass. Add rum, sugar cane juice, juice of one lime and sparkling water. Garnish with a lime slice. When substituting cane juice with sugar, add it to mint leaves during muddling.
99 thanks to my neighbor Nuno Pinheira for his camerawork and a taste testing cameo.
To embed or view the Chef's video from youtube, click here.
...
Do you have a favorite quenching cocktail The Chef can turn into a 99 cent creation? It's just a comment away.
I will swear fidelity to fidel if you feed me a few of these sometime.
ReplyDeleteCharlie
Brilliant, even though my career with such alcohol-based incendiaries such as mojitos is over, I can tell by the looks that it is a worthy concotion. Che would be proud, even prouder that you got it all from the 99 cent store, it's a shame he didn't live long enough to see that phenomena.
ReplyDeleteAnd get Nuno an agent, the sooner the better, that man needs to be in film!
You know, that looks just slightly tastier than a beer float.
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from about hard to find good rum! May I suggest a Venezuelan rum like Cacique? Venezuela is known for excellent rum as well! My step-mom is Venezuelan so I have visited several times. It helps that my father's favorite drink is a Cuba Libre, so we have experimented quite a bit! of course there are better Venezuelan rums available here, but they cost quite a bit more as well. Cacique is Venezuelan "cheap" rum (about $2 there - about $16 here) yet it is still better than most of what's available in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever decide to try a Cuba Libre (somehow drinking more of them may help liberate Cuba?) they definitely taste best with a cola made from real sugar (not HFCS) - however this may be difficult to fit in with the .99 budget!
Hi Melissa, cheap real sugar "Mexican" coke is found in my local Latin market & I love the "Cuba Libre" drink name!
ReplyDeleteJust don't forget the lime! - rum/coke/lime (I think I forgot to mention that) - enjoy!
ReplyDelete