Kentucky Derby Day: Cocktails, Sandwiches & Secretariat

Secretariat at Belmont 1973 (true confession, this picture is my screen-saver)

I am a sucker for horses and have been since childhood. Aside from the pure unfettered joy of riding these perfect creatures full out (giving you the addictive sensation of gliding on air while vitally connected to a powerful life-force), watching them run is the next best thing. A great racehorse loves to run.

There are racehorses and then there is Secretariat. “It’s like God said, “You just think you’ve seen horses, I’m gonna show you a horse.” Then he built Secretariat.”, said renowned equine sculptor Jim Reno inThe Horse God Built: The Untold Story of Secretariat, the World's Greatest Racehorse

Secretariat had a heart twice the size of a normal horse (nearly 18 pounds) and a stride angle of 110º that is the largest of any known racehorse (a cheetah, the fastest land animal, has a 125º stride angle, most thoroughbreds are in the 80- 90’s).

I will never forget the day I saw Secretariat run ‘The Race’ at the 1973 Belmont Stakes WATCH HERE , the 2nd jewel in the Triple Crown.

I was not alone with the rest of the audience who thought our hearts were going to burst from the overwhelming emotion (tears were running down my cheeks) from watching the greatest performance in the history of the sport that day as Secretariat (who was only running for himself) went 31 lengths ahead of his competitors...I still feel that way every time I watch it.


Mike Hindman said “Secretariat's…World Record at a mile and a half, set in the 1973 Belmont Stakes has never been broken.

"Secretariat would be like a hitter who routinely smashed 600 foot homers; a long jumper who popped a 35 footer; a sprinter who ran 100 meters in 8 seconds; a golfer who shot four rounds of 60.... In all four majors.... In one year."

Secretariat at the Preakness 1973
Secretariat.com told the story this way:

“As Secretariat rounded the sweeping Belmont far turn (the turns at Belmont are the longest of any track in North America) he seemed to be on cruise control, with jockey Ron Turcotte just steering. Not asking. Secretariat's lead widened from seven lengths to 20 lengths on that turn. On to the wire, Turcotte did not ease the horse, but let him run on. On any other day, the rider would have been pulling the horse up through the lane, letting him take a bow under wraps. Saving something for another day. But THIS was the day, and the savvy rider knew the horse was running well within himself. Turcotte knew the time had come to let the horse show the world what he could do.

All that power. All that balance. All that heart. All that speed. Secretariat was ready to roll. And the margin kept widening, and widening, and widening.


By mid-stretch the Big Red Horse was ahead by 28 lengths, with the margin finally to reach 31 lengths by the finish. As he flew down the stretch he stretched out in stride past thousands of wildly cheering fans…

And then it was over.

The moment froze. What we are left with are those fleeting glimpses - a blazing pace, a huge running machine, a visual roar of acceleration, an ever-widening margin, the coat darkening, a white vapor of feet, a jockey sitting chilly, a horse alone - and one long-lasting moment frozen in memory. ”

Secretariat at 1973 Belmont Race

Although my first love had always been Man O’ War, the original ‘Big Red’ (of whom his trainer said “he was hell to break, a headache to handle and a catapult to ride”) that day Secretariat took first place in my pantheon of equine gods.

Man O' War

So to honor the sport of kings and the magnificent animals that run their great hearts out with staggering strength and courage, here’s to the first leg of the Triple Crown, The Kentucky Derby, that I nearly never miss and love to watch, Champagne glass in hand with cucumber Benedictine Sandwiches at my side, my breath coming faster as the horses prance to the post, “My Old Kentucky Home” sounds and… They’rrrre OFFFFFF.

Kentucky Derby

The Benedictine Sandwich was invented by Miss Jennie C. Benedict in the 1890s and can be found in her amazing book of Southern cuisine and hospitality, The Blue Ribbon Cook Book . These little sandwiches have become a Kentucky classic for the Derby.

Benedictine Sandwiches (adapted from Saveur Magazine)

6 oz. cream cheese


1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and grated


1 medium yellow onion, peeled and grated


2 tbsp. mayonnaise
 *

1/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce


Salt


Green food coloring (I used 2 T watercress)

1 cucumber sliced paper thin

Watercress for garnish and color

1. Place cream cheese in a bowl and mash with a fork until smooth. Wrap cucumber in cheesecloth, then squeeze out and discard juice. Put in the blender with the with some of the watercress and pulse a few times. Add cucumber mixture to cream cheese and mix thoroughly.

2. Wrap onions in cheesecloth and squeeze juice into cream cheese mixture, then discard onions.

3. Mix mayonnaise and Tabasco sauce and add to cream cheese mixture. Season to taste with salt, then add 1 drop green food coloring if you would like more color than the watercress supplies and mix well. Serve on thinly sliced white sandwich bread. Garnish with cucumber slices and watercress

*Jennie Benedict's Mayonnaise

Yolk of 1 hard-boiled egg
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 small bottle of olive oil (1/2 cup?)
1 t. mustard
yolk of raw egg well beaten
vinegar to taste
white of one egg beaten stiffly

Rub yolk through a sieve. Add mustard, salt and pepper, and raw yolk. Add the oil and the vinegar slowly and lastly the egg white

And now for the libations, did you think I’d forgotten? Champagne is a traditional drink for the Derby as is the Mint Julep. I thought that I would make 2 champagne cocktails for this special occasion.

Early 19th Century Champagne Flutes

The first uses a fabulous product from my friends at Craft Distillers who made the delectable Absinthe I got to play with in February (read that post HERE This time it is a smooth, artisanal whiskey (aged in 3 kinds of oak and made of hardwood-toasted barley) to swirl in in blissful congress with my sweet mint syrup and sparkling wine.

Sparkling Mint Julep Cocktail

Mint Syrup

1 c water
1 c sugar ( I use organic because it has just a hint of warm molasses in it... sugar in the raw could work too)
Pinch of allspice and pinch of cinnamon or a few crushed cassia buds (if you have them around-they are the best)
6 sprigs mint, crushed
Make sugar syrup by dissolving the sugar in the water. While it is still warm, add the crushed mint and spices and allow it to cool. Strain the mint from the syrup.
6 sprigs mint for garnish
Bottle champagne or other sparkling wine
6 – 12 T ST. GEORGE Single Malt Whiskey

Add one tablespoon of syrup and 1-2 T of whiskey to a champagne glass. Top with sparkling wine and 
garnish with a mint sprig


.
My Old Kentucky Sparkling Peach Cocktail for 4

1 ripe peach (peeled, stoned and roughly chopped)
1/3 c. BRIOTTET Crème de Pêche liqueur from Craft Distillers
2 T. mint syrup (less if your peach is sweet)
1-2 t lemon juice
1 drop of vanilla extract
1 drop nutmeg absolute from Aftelier or 1/8 t nutmeg
1 small drop black pepper essential oil from Aftelier or ½ t pepper
1 tiny pinch cardamom
1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine
*you can add a T of MAISON SURRENNE Cognac if you want to amp up the alcohol!
4 sprigs of mint for garnish

Blend the peach in the liqueur, lemon juice, vanilla, mint syrup, nutmeg, pepper and cardamom. Spoon a portion in each glass and add sparkling wine to taste. Garnish with mint.

Now, sit back, sip your drink and enjoy the race!

Secretariat Statue at Belmont Park

Craft Distillers

Aftelier Perfumes

Absinthe: Wilde, Hemingway & Leibovitz

Absinthe Robette

Oscar Wilde said "Absinthe was as poetical as anything in the world."

Absinthe was called "la fée verte" (the green fairy) and was so popular by the 1860’s (French Legionnaires had been given it for malaria and developed a taste for it when they returned home), that 5 pm was called “l’heure verte” (the green hour) in France. So much so that the drink became something of a scourge to the lower classes.* Since it has been fairly well disproved that absinthe’s wormwood component, with its small amount of the notorious chemical thujone (also in sage and some mint) played much of a part in this, the high alcohol content (often 120 Proof or more) was probably the real culprit for the physical and mental decline of its abusers.


.
Glass and Spoon from Absinthe Devil

Early on, absinthe was only served with a glass, ice water and sugar and the customer would mix them together themselves. * Soon a shallow dish that sat on top of the absinthe with a small hole in its bottom called a Brouilleur or Plateau was used (although they could be complicated devices that would drip mechanically like the Auto Verseur –amazing to watch in action at Vertdabsinthe ) .


Photo from the virtual absinthe museum

With the absinthe fountain (a glass container of ice water with 2 to 6 robinets or spigots) many sugar cubes could be dripped upon at once using lovely spoons and glasses for that purpose. However it’s done, this is a slow process!


2 Robinet Absinthe Fountain from Absinthe Devil 

Glasses that were specifically made for absinthe “had a dose line, bulge, or bubble in the lower portion denoting how much absinthe should be poured in. One "dose" of absinthe is around 1 ounce (30 ml) with water added in a 3 to 1 ratio.” Wikipedia tells us.

Eric Asimov for the NYT’s said: “Water not only changes the flavors, it almost magically alters the appearance of the absinthe. As you slowly add water, the liquid in the glass seems to thicken, and transforms into an opalescent pastel cloud, seeping down into a pool of green like sweetened tears. The French call this effect the louche (which has the wonderful double meaning of turbulent in French and disreputable in English). Technically, when absinthe is distilled, the anise and fennel oils dissolve into the alcohol. As the water dilutes the alcohol, it frees the oils from their molecular prison, and they form a cloudy suspension.”

Now to confuse you completely, there are clear absinthes called Blanche or la Bleue that turn a brilliant white in the glass when water is added instead of the usual cloudy green.


Hitchcock’s Suspicion

Think of the great scene from Hitchcock’s “Suspicion” when Cary Grant carries that too white milk (yes there was a light bulb involved) up the stairs to the not-as-gullible-as-she-used-to-be Joan Fontaine


Hitchcock’s Suspicion


The clear Germain-Robin Absinthe Superiure that I tried did just that. Turned white as white could be.

Limelight Painting by Detlef Kotzte, Glass and Spoon from Absinthe Devil

Eric Asimov, wine critic for the NYT’s, recommended this absinthe. I usually agree with his taste (critics have personalities too!) and have been inspired by his column to try so many things. He got my attention when he said Germain-Robin “begins by distilling an almost biblical-sounding eau de vie, of apples and honey. After steeping herbs and botanicals in the eau de vie, he [Crispin Cain the distiller] gradually adds water, then distills it again. The exquisite result is an absinthe of unusual purity, with a natural sweetness that requires no added sugar.”



Far be it from me to try to describe alcohol or perfume properly, but the taste is clear like an Eau de Vie… a very complex Eau de Vie with a million little quiet back flavors. I agreed with The Wormwood Society when they said it was: “Subtle, complex, and absolutely beautiful” (call me a troglodyte but I did like a swish of sugar). Wouldn’t that make you want to give it a try?


Leal da Camara 1903 L’Assiette au Beurre 

Although wrongfully vilified and outlawed for 100 years, (and perhaps because of its bad reputation) Absinthe.com reveals I’m not the only one to fall under its spell, ”absinthe inspired many prominent artists, writers and poets like Vincent Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Manet and Ernest Hemingway - in fact his masterpiece " For Whom The Bell Tolls " was written under the influence of "The Green Fairy".”



Harold McGee, in the NYT’s, found Hemingway’s recipe for an absinthe cocktail in a celebrity recipe book:

Hemingway's Absinthe Champagne

“Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”

(you should read the article… amazing revelation that champagne bubbles are mostly caused by cellulose and cotton fibers---dust!!)



Every time I watch the scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula where Gary and Winona do that pas de trois with the Green fairy and Oldman calls it “the aphrodisiac of the self” with that perfect accent, I swoon (watch here). I’ll admit, that wicked reputation has been enticing me for ever so long, and at last I got the chance to give the green fairy a spin around the block using St. George’s inestimable Absinthe Verte (fine brandy infused with wormwood, anise, fennel, hyssop, basil, tarragon, lemon balm, meadowsweet, mint, and stinging nettles), for my ride!

So I got myself a glass of absinthe, turned on the oven, baked a fabulous David Lebovitz Absinthe Cake from The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City



I took a picture) and then ate it with another perfectly louched glass of la fée verte Hemingway style with champagne as l’heure verte quickly approached.

I would like to make a virtual toast to my fallen friend, KG Cannon, one of the most generous humans I ever knew. I had wanted to give him an Absinthe birthday party this weekend. He would have loved the ceremony of the green fairy because he loved ceremony, fine things and well-set tables, believing as he did “ it is truly useful since it is beautiful”. Farewell my dear friend, who always reminded me: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” (The Little Prince was his favorite book).

Absinthe Cake Adapted from David Leibovitz Recipe

1 ¼ teaspoon anise seeds

1 ¼ cup cake flour
 (didn’t have it so I added a T of cornstarch)
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons pistachio or almond meal (that can be made in the spice grinder but make sure they are not salted!!!!) or stone-ground yellow cornmeal. Try to make the pistachio for the beautiful color and flavor it gives.
2 teaspoons baking powder (no aluminum is best)
¼ teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons room temperature
 unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar

2 room temperature
 large eggs, (or 3 small)
¼ cup milk

¼ cup Absinthe
 ( I used Absinthe Verte-but you could use Pernod))
¼ to ½ tsp. orange Zest

For the Absinthe glaze:

¼ cup sugar
( I used regular Whole Foods Organic and a large grain Demerara)
¼ cup Absinthe

1. Preheat the oven to 350º. After you butter a 9-inch loaf pan, line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Grind the anise seeds until fine. Sift together the flour, pistachio meal, baking powder, salt, and anise seeds.

3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, until they're completely incorporated.

4. Mix together the milk and Absinthe with orange zest.

5. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the beaten butter, then the milk and Absinthe mixture.

6. By hand, stir in the other half of the dry ingredients until just smooth and no more. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

7. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool 30 minutes.

8. To glaze the cake, use a toothpick and poke holes all over the top of the cake. In a small bowl, gently stir together the sugar and Absinthe until just mixed. (and more orange zest if you wish) Leave the texture sandy… it will sparkle!

9. Remove the cake from the loaf pan and set the cake on a rack.

10. Spoon Absinthe glaze over the top and sides of the cake, allowing it to soak the top and spill down the sides a bit. Continue until all glaze is used up.

Oscar Wilde 1882 by Napoleon Sarony (Library of Congress)

I wanted to use an Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) quote to begin this post on absinthe but discovered that the famous quote I wanted kept appearing with different wording! It had to do with stages of absinthe inebriation. The Virtual Absinthe Museum saw the same problem and discovered 2 sources penned 30 at most 50 years after his death. Kudos! Two versions! This was the reason that I kept seeing it quoted differently! Such are the ways of memory. As Previously noted, the recent death of a great friend and raconteur of Wildean wit, KG Cannon, has made this so clear… how our stories vary!!! How his stories varied!

John Fothergill/ 1930 Fox Photos

I am rather fond of John Fothergill (1876-1957) famous gentleman host at “The Spread Eagle” and known for the wonderful An Innkeeper's Diary. His recollection, “Absinthe and Oscar” —was written 50 years after Wilde’s death:

“At Berneval (where Wilde stayed after release from prison in 1897) Oscar Wilde told me - all in his great heavy drawl-of the three stages of Absinthe drinking. The first stage is like ordinary drinking, the second when you begin to see monstrous and cruel things, but if you can persevere you will enter in upon the third stage where you see things that you want to see, wonderful and curious things.”


Ada Leverson

Ada Leverson (1866-1930), a friend of Wilde’s whom he called the Sphinx and the wittiest woman in the world and who sheltered him after the terrible trial* wrote in “Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde and Reminiscences of the Author” in 1930 :

“After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.' `How do you mean?' `I mean disassociated. Take a top-hat! You think you see it as it really is. But you don't, because you associate it with other things and ideas. If you had never heard of one before, and suddenly saw it alone, you'd be frightened, or laugh. That is the effect absinthe has, and that is why it drives men mad.”

2013 update:

I finally made my own absinthe from scratch with mostly my own fresh herbs.  It is a marvel and incredibly green for a few weeks.

*I am forever grateful to Wikipedia, where facts often come from, if not always phrasing!

Anyone who would like to get a fuller understanding of all things Absinthe should stop by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe or http://www.absinth.com/ or http://www.oxygenee.com/absinthe/ or http://www.wormwoodsociety.org/ or http://www.absinthedevil.com/category_s/5.htm for the full story and some really cool pictures. All I can do (and still hold down a job) is give you a taste of history and invite you along as I try these various products that I (as a food geek) have been dying to try and/or learn about… a foodie “Bucket List” or share favorites that I just can’t keep to myself.

The Aviatrix, Creme de Violette!

Palerme by Baccarat

I saw the drink “The Aviation” in a Michael Ruhlman blog awhile back.

Although I don’t countenance gin (my mother let me sip a martini when I was 7 and scarred me for life, blek--gin!), I was captivated by Crème de Violette.

Does it get any more romance-novel-L’heure-Bleue than Crème de Violette (ok, there’s that crazy teen box-office smash Twilight, but this is for grown-up girls)? IT IS REALLY VIOLET, Art Nouveau violet.

Made from the distilled essence of violets:

V

The provenance of the cocktail is fabulous. It was created by Hugo Ensslin at the Hotel Wallick in NYC, Ensslin published a recipe in 1916 in his book, Recipes for Mixed Drinks

1/3 Volume Lemon Juice

2/3 Volume El Bart Gin

2 dashes Maraschino liqueur

2 dashes Crème de Violette

Shake well in a mixing glass with cracked ice, strain and serve.

Ruhlman’s version was a little less tart:

2 oz. gin 


1/2 oz. lemon juice


1/2 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liquer 


1/4 oz. Crème de Violette

As I mentioned, I don’t like gin, so, I created a new, very homage-to-Amelia-Earhart drink:

THE AVIATRIX

1 T Crème de Violette

1/2 Cup Champagne or Prosecco (good quality please, no $5 bottles for this)

Lemon twisted over the glass

splash maraschino (optional)

splash of gin (optional)

You can add a splash of the Maraschino liquor (I wrote about that HERE) but I found it too much. Some like the gin as an  edge for the sweetness... your call.You can squeeze lemon peel into the drink, or run it around the rim, or wrap it cunningly around a vintage sterling cocktail stick like this:

However you manage it, pull out a great champagne glass, light a fire or candles and let the light dance in the lavender bubbles. The result is magical. But beware, for all it's lavender allure it packs a wallop!