You might have noticed that things look a little different around here! I recently did a little facelift on the blog. There are still a few finishing touches to be made, but I’m very happy with how it turned out. Let me know what you think!
I was recently gifted a copy of a new cocktail book, Bar Chef by Christiaan Röllich and Carolynn Carreño. Christiaan is a Los Angeles bartender who currently runs the bar program for the Lucques restaurant group. As the title suggests, he approaches cocktails from a very culinary perspective, working in lots of fresh ingredients and flavors and making his own mixers from scratch. I don’t just mean the usual syrups and infusions – the back of the book contains recipes for DIY vermouths, bitters, and even a Campari-like aperitivo.
There are a lot of great drinks in the book that I look forward to making, but as soon as I turned to the White Elephant I stopped flipping through and got mixing. This Thai-inspired cocktail contains so many of my favorite flavors – cilantro, coconut, ginger, rhum agricole, and even some spicy peppers. The syrup is a little involved to make, but it is so worth it. This is a delicious daiquiri on steroids. It’s thick and tangy and just a bit spicy.
The rum called for in this drink is a white rhum agricole, which is a French style of rum made from sugarcane juice instead of molasses. This gives it a grassy, vegetal flavor than other rums. Two of the more famous producers are Rhum Clement from Martinique and Barbancourt from Haiti. Cachaça from Brazil is also essentially a rhum agricole. For this drink, I used Copalli rum from Belize. While not technically a rhum agricole, it is made from sugarcane juice and has that same grassiness to it. It works very well with the vegetal flavors of the syrup in this drink.
History: Christiaan Röllich writes that he would visit the Santa Monica farmers’ market each week, where his favorite vendor, named Kong, would enthusiastically offer him fresh and interesting products from his father’s farm. One week, after buying fresh ginger and Thai chiles, Röllich developed this cocktail.
White Elephant
2 oz. rhum agricole
1 1/2 oz. Thai coconut syrup (see below)
1 oz. lime juice
Combine ingredients in a shaker and fill with ice cubes. Shake for about seven seconds, then dump the entire cocktail, including the ice, into a Collins glass. Garnish with a lime wheel – I added some cilantro and a dried Arbol chile as well.
Thai Coconut Syrup
1 cup well-shaken coconut milk
1 cup sugar
1 oz. fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tbsp. fresh cilantro
1/4 of a red Thai chile or chile de árbol (I substituted jalapeño)
Combine the coconut milk and sugar in a small saucepan and heat over medium-high, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Set aside and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to a blender and add the remaining ingredients. Blend until all the solids are well incorporated. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.