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by BS

Grilled Cheese Gone Wild!

Sure, mom’s buttery white bread and American cheese version is a classic, but these days grilled cheese has hit a whole new level. Here are some of our favorite crazy grilled cheese options.

1. Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese

Can’t decide between your two favorite cheesy snacks? Have them both with Simply Scratch’s simply amazing jalapeno-cream cheese-onion-sourdough-colby concoction.

2. Fried Green Tomato Grilled Cheese

Fried inside fried? Yes and yes. Life’s Ambrosia has the recipe.

3. Bechamel Grilled Cheese

You thought rubbing a layer of butter on grilled cheese was indulgent? At Firefly in D.C., chef Danny Bortnick’s cadillac grilled cheese has bechamel sauce spread in between white bread, with garlic-herb butter, aged Cabot, and Gruyere.

(Photo: Dakota Fine)

Winter Cocktails Gone Wild

One of our favorite things about the temperature dropping is the thought of popping into a cozy tavern for some warming winter cocktails. But let’s face it — seasonal drinks like hot toddies and hot buttered rum are more appealing in theory than in practice. (Mmm…whiskey and water. Yeah, not really.) So we asked five of our favorite bartenders to share their most creative updates of classic winter drinks.

1. Hot Peanut Buttered Rum

POV in Washington, D.C. puts a modern spin on every pirate’s favorite cocktail by infusing Cruzan rum with peanut butter, then mixing it with Cinnamon tea, butter and fresh whipped cream.

2. Tea-quila Toddy

The hot toddy gets a second look at Las Perlas in downtown L.A., where hot hibiscus tea is spiked with Cabo Wabo blanco tequila and gets an extra kick from agave nectar, cinnamon and orange.

Two Tastes for Every Bite

One of the best things I’ve eaten anywhere lately is the sweet potato gnocchi at Tulio, an Italian restaurant in Seattle. It is one of those dishes that was just a total surprise — sounds simple, looks simple, then you put one in your mouth and realize it’s a million miles from simple. Every bite of these little pillows had two distinct, equally beautiful tastes and textures: crisp and buttery on the outside, but with a sweet, melt-in-your-mouth middle.

Firmly on my homemade pasta kick, when I got back to New York I emailed Chef Walter Pisano’s press folks to ask if he’d be willing to share the recipe. Apparently he gets this request all the time and was more than happy to oblige.

“I’m surprised he would share his most popular recipe,” remarked the veggie gf. “Why would anyone go to the restaurant if they can just get the recipe for free?”

Well I figured that one out soon enough. Remember that “sounds simple, looks simple” thing? Yeah, turns out they’re not so simple to make. Chef Pisano only has one sous chef who he’ll trust to take charge of these babies, which take, oh, about a full day to make. Of course, being the slacker chef that I am, I glanced at the minimalist ingredient list (sweet potatoes, parm, nutmeg, eggs and flour), ran out to pick up a few SPs and got to work. Or so I thought.

Top 10 New Things to Put in Your Drink

We’ve certainly never been against drinking here at ES — it just traditionally takes a back seat to eating. However, in the last year we’ve found ourselves getting more and more excited about cocktails — because every time we go out we discover our favorite ingredients have migrated from the plate to the glass. From fruits and vegetables to spices and more, here are our top 10 favorite new things to mix in our drinks.

10. Saffron

A saffron ice cube anchors the Venetian, one of several new food-inspired cocktails at Tulio in Seattle.

Not just for paella anymore, the Spanish spice has started showing up in cocktail glasses, too. Saffron Restaurant and Lounge in Minneapolis has mixed the pricier-than-gold flakes into saffron-mango mojitos, saffron-blood orange martinis, and their current offering, the gin-based Saffron Rose. Tulio, an Italian restaurant in Seattle, recently introduced The Venetian — a vodka cocktail poured over an orange-y saffron ice cube. For those experimenting at home, the folks over at Video Jug have a video on how to mix a saffron vodka martini. (Tulio photo: Evan Johnson)

9. Beets

Fresh beet juice, ginger and vodka make up the Beetnik at Colorado's Dogwood Cocktail Cabin.

It’s hard to make a drink look more dramatic than when filled up with bright red beet juice, as in the beet sangria at New York’s Tailor or the Beetnik, a vodka-ginger-beet concoction served at Crested Butte, Colorado’s Dogwood Cocktail Cabin. Meanwhile, the gals at The Humble Kitchen have a recipe for their own tequila-based Beetnik. (Dogwood photo: eenwall)

8. Mole

Mole bitters liven up the Palermo Gentleman at Death + Co. in New York.

Mexico’s spicy-sweet chocolate treat is making the surprising transition from tamales to cocktails via Bittermens Bitters newest product, Xocolatl Mole Bitters. A neat way to add quite a substantial kick to any drink, the mole bitters are showing up in new cocktails like the tequila-based Chipilo at Brooklyn’s Buttermilk Channel and several options at Manhattan’s Death + Co. (Photo: Vidiot)

7. Sriracha

Every Top Chef contestant’s favorite secret ingredient can save a cocktail menu too, as in “El Scorcho,” a fiery mix of habanero infused vodka, sriracha, and jalapeno foam at Bend, Oregon’s Blacksmith restaurant. The sauce also makes a great replacement for Tabasco in bloody Marys — the blog White on Rice Couple has a great recipe, and if you want to get super-serious, check out their instructions on how to make sriracha from scratch. (Photo: White on Rice Couple)

6. Chinese Five Spice

A Chinese five spice grilled lemon garnishes the Fortune Teller at Bar Pleiades in New York.

Another ingredient Chinese chefs may be shocked to discover in American cocktails, C5S is showing up both as a garnish, as in the Fortune Teller drink served at the Surrey Hotel‘s new Bar Pleiades in New York, and as the basis of a drink, such as Imbibe magazine’s Five-Spice Fizz. (Photo: Bar Pleiades)

Next: Top 5 New Things to Put in Your Drink

in Drinks / Eggs / Endless Cocktails / Featured / Lists / Trends 13 comments