DINING

Cocktails to bring in the new year

There’s nothing like a good cocktail to warm your soul, reflect on memories past, lessons learned and bring in the new year. Each of us thought up our favorite winter holiday cocktail to share with our readers. Give some a try, expand your palate and night cap the holiday and 2020 with some flavor.

– The Editors

Pomegranate, grapefruit jalapeño Moscow mule

The cocktails were great, but the dogs insisted on stealing the show. PHOTO BY MIRA BRODY Three flavors perfectly balanced against one or two shots of your favorite vodka.

• 3 ounces ginger beer • 2 ounces plain seltzer • 2 ounces grapefruit juice • 1-2 ounces pomegranate juice • Heavy splash of lime juice • 1-2 shots of your preferred vodka • Pomegranate seeds • Two slices of jalapeno • Slice of grapefruit garnish

Method

Combine all ingredients and stir. Serve with garnishes and enjoy.

Hot Toddy

The Hot Toddy, a pleasant blend of sweet and tangy, is the perfect drink for a warm-up. PHOTO BY WALLY GOBETZ

• Optional (but festive) garnish • Cinnamon stick • Lemon peel For an aperitif to warm you from the inside out, the classic hot toddy is an easy choice. Honey’s sweetness marries lemon’s tartness for a perfect accent. Spike it with your choice of spirit, though we suggest a mountain man’s favorite, whiskey, or keep it local with a honey moonshine distilled in the heart of the Madison Valley.

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup of water • 2 tsp lemon • 1.5 oz whiskey or Willie’s

Honey Moonshine • 2 tsp honey, if you opt out of the honey moonshine

Method

Boil water and combine with other ingredients in mug. Add cinnamon stick to the mug and rest lemon peel on the rim for garnish. Enjoy!

Mulled Wine

Recipe by Ali on Gimme Some Oven

It is a chilly time of year, and sometimes, hot chocolate just won’t cut it. For a warmth that sets a fire in your belly and settles in your bones, mulled wine is a spicy, soul-warming delight. There are many variations on this simple recipe, and it is easy to customize to your liking. Included below is a traditional version of this timeless drink.

Ingredients • 1 (750 ml) bottle of dry red wine • 1 orange, sliced into rounds • 8 whole cloves • 2 cinnamon sticks • 2 star anise • 2 to 4 tablespoons sugar, honey, or maple syrup to taste • optional add-in: 1/4 cup brandy (or your favorite liqueur) • optional garnishes: citrus slices (orange, lemon and/or lime), extra cinnamon sticks, extra star anise

Method

Combine the wine, orange slices, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, 2 tablespoons sweetener, and brandy in a large saucepan. Cook the mulled wine on medium-high heat until it just barely reaches a simmer. Avoid letting it bubble — you don’t want to boil off the alcohol. Reduce heat to low, cover, and let the wine simmer for at least 15 minutes or up to 3 hours. Using a fine mesh strainer, remove and discard the orange slices, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and star anise. Serve with your favorite garnishes.

PHOTO BY ALI ON GIMME SOME OVEN

White Russian

The White Russian, a cocktail best known for its many appearances in the Coen Brothers’ 1998 film “The Big Lebowski,” is a creamy treat best enjoyed in the winter. PHOTO BY STUART WEBSTER A disco-era drink revived by the Coen Brothers’ sharp-humored 1998 film “The Big Lebowski,” the White Russian is a fast-drinking creamy treat with an aesthetic on-par with a snowy Big Sky winter day. Be careful though, this decadent cocktail has a deceptively sweet taste. Don’t forget it’s two parts booze!

Ingredients

• 1 oz coffee liqueur • 1 oz vodka • 1.5 oz heavy cream

Method

Shake all ingredients together with a generous scoop of ice for a frothy finish.

For best results, serve in a chilled glass and enjoy beside a crackling fire after a day spent playing in the snow.

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AMUSE-BOUCHE

Amuse-bouche refers to an appetizer, and by French translation means, “to entertain the mouth.” It offers a glimpse into what you should expect from a meal. Also it’s free, compliments of the chef.

That’s not true

BY SCOTT MECHURA

EBS FOOD COLUMNIST

“Don’t order fish on Sundays and Mondays,” The late Anthony Bourdain famously wrote in his kitchen expose, Kitchen Confidential, that restaurants don’t receive fresh fish on the weekends, therefore by Sunday or even Monday, you are eating less than stellar fish. Today, that is far from the case.

The advancement of fishing, icing and shipping possibilities make fresh fish available all the time. In fact, much fresh fish these days is what we refer to as “shore to door in 24.”

Chefs don’t like each other. You’ll find a prickly personality in every profession, but chefs often chuckle and wonder where this idea ever came from. Chefs are a bunch with a strong sense of comradery. We eat and drink together, trade stories, staff and ideas all the time and always want to see others succeed.

A chef’s favorite cut of beef is tenderloin. Ask 100 people what their favorite steak is and 95 will tell you it’s a tenderloin. But ask 100 chefs what theirs is and two will tell you it’s the tenderloin. Tenderloin lacks texture and flavor compared to any other cut. Those other 98 chefs will probably tell you it’s the small eye end of the rib eye.

You should rub chopsticks together before using them. Doing anything other than eating with your chopsticks is rude and considered poor manners. This includes tapping, pointing and rubbing them together to remove what you think are wood shavings. Some sushi chefs regard this as in insult in that they believe you think they gave you poor quality service ware.

As long as we’re on the topic of chopsticks and sushi, stirring together wasabi and soy sauce is another no-no in Japanese culture.

That’s not wasabi. Real true wasabi is very difficult to find and is expensive. Not only that, but it is also quite mild. More often than not, you are actually eating hot Chinese mustard powder dyed green.

Spitting in or otherwise contaminating a guest’s dish. This may make for an entertaining comedic scene in a movie, but the reality is far from funny. Aside from an instant termination from anyone I’ve ever known in the industry, I’ve never known even the saltiest of cooks ever willingly or knowingly contaminate another person’s food.

Traditional martinis are made with vodka. A martini is made with gin, vermouth, an olive and sometimes a bit of olive brine, making it “dirty.” Any cocktail made with vodka is a cocktail, not a martini.

The success of a restaurant lies on the quality of the food. Or to say it another way, if your food is of high consistent quality, you will succeed. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Great food and service get people in your doors. But in an industry that makes, on average, six cents on the dollar, good knowledge of numbers and costs keep those doors open.

Serving is easy. Serving, as well as cooking, are not placeholder jobs for many. They are both trades that are taught in culinary and hospitality schools and can be excellent careers that produce a solid income as well as work, social and technical skills that translate into many other aspects of work and life. Serving in a busy or fine dining restaurant is incredibly challenging.

Great service is more important than great food. There was a time when it was all about the combination of the two. And in many concepts that can still be true. But more and more we are moving towards concepts where we no longer rely on a server because they are even harder to find than a cook.