Katherine Cobbs - Pantry Cocktails: Inventive Sips from Everyday Staples (and a Few Nibbles Too)

Pantry Cocktails

Inventive Sips from Everyday Staples (and a Few Nibbles Too)

Katherine Cobbs

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First Tiller Press hardcover edition May 2021

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Cover and interior design by Matt Ryan

Illustrations by Maya Metz Logue

Cover design by Matt Ryan

Cover illustration by Maya Metz Logue

Conceived and produced by Blueline Creative Group LLC

Visit: bluelinecreativegroup.com

Concept, copy, and recipes by Katherine Cobbs

Recipe testing by Rebecca Withers and Carlos Briceo

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN 978-1-9821-6762-2

ISBN 978-1-9821-6763-9 (ebook)

I raise my glass to all who hunkered down, stayed home, and got innovative in the ways they worked, lived, connected, and cooked when it mattered most and that made all the difference.

To my three daughtersParker, Ella, and Addieit was a rare joy having you all under our roof again, and I am grateful for that silver lining. Cheers!

G rowing up in the 70s and 80s, my big sister, Rebecca, and I would play what we called The Tasting Game, an exciting, mysterious, and quite often disgusting game that I prided myself on being really skilled at. We each took turns being blindfolded while the other went to the kitchen to find the weirdest ingredient or combination of ingredients for the other to taste and attempt to identify. The prize was in just getting it right. Worcestershire on a Nutter Butter! or mashed banana with malt vinegar! My mom was never thrilled to find bouillon cubes with missing corners or the Bakers chocolate with teeth marks, but the game certainly helped me hone my taste buds.

Other than being human food (a rule implemented after the time my sister fed me a piece of a Gaines-burgers dog food patty), there were no rules about what ingredients could be combined and offered. If I wanted to stir oil from a can of Nova Scotia sardines with mango chutney from India and feed it to my sister on a piece of stale Melba toast while she sat on a lawn chair in our Oklahoma backyard, she might be thoroughly grossed out, but it was all in the name of experimentation and fun.

Fast-forward to my culinary school days years later, when food television was in its infancy and shows like Chopped and Iron Chef had yet to hit the airways. Exam days at Tante Maries Cooking School in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco meant each of my dozen classmates got a sheet pan of random ingredients. We had to prepare a dish using the assortment of ingredients that we were given, and the techniques we recently had learned, and then serve our creation at a specified time to a panel of judges that included our culinary instructor; the schools owner, Mary Risley; and an outside expert or two. Quite regularly big-name chefs or notable cookbook authors like Madeleine Kamman or Nick Malgieri were among the visiting guest judges. No matter who was on the tasting panel, our task was always intimidating but also exciting, mysterious, and creative. In many ways, it felt as though Id come full circle, only this tasting game was about making disparate ingredients harmonize as deliciously as possible to impress the judges.

At one point or another in all of our lives, we have faced a similar scenario that has us playing kitchen MacGyver, whipping up a magnificent meal or a delicious appetizer from the odds and ends of the pantry or fridge. It took a pandemic to get many of us to realize just how creative we could be with the ingredients that we had on hand. That same improvisational approach is easily applied to home bartending, too. Understanding how to enlist the condiments, jams, pickles, and sauces cluttering up your cabinets and refrigerator means you can craft inventive, flavorful cocktails on the fly to satisfy a craving, reinvent a drink from a beloved watering hole, or express your creativity by using what you have at your fingertips in order to avoid an expensive outing to the market and liquor store. With a few key spirits, cupboard staples, or an assortment of treasures from your windowsill, garden, or fridge, you can whip up outstanding cocktails guaranteed to satisfy and impress. Surely, thats worth raising a glass to!

Katherine Cobbs

C ountless books and online guides tell you how to stock the bar and kitchen, but when push comes to shove, or a virus leads to quarantine, sometimes you are forced to get scrappy and creative with what you have on hand. (I cannot begin to count how many times Ive been in a hotel room where no wine opener is to be found!) And because desperate times call for desperate measures, I always find a way.

More than once, my exhausted family has arrived at a vacation rental long after stores and restaurants have closed, and yet we manage to cobble together a decent meal from whats in our cooler and the random spices and condiments left behind by previous renters. Through trial and error and lots of improvisation you just learn what works together and what mash-ups are best to avoid. Sometimes you just might be surprised to find that what you end up with is actually better than what you were after.

Did you know that you can make a damn good Manhattan sans orange bitters or sweet vermouth using muddled charred orange peel and a splash of white grape juice from your kids juice box stash? Yes, you can! Its a worthy approximation that is sublime and satisfying, and it doesnt involve an investment in two bottles you may only rarely use. Bourbon is mandatory, of course!

As much as I love improvising with ingredients, Ive always been a fan of kitchen hacks, toousing the spout end of a funnel to pit a cherry, getting crushed ice by smashing ice cubes in a zip-top bag with a cast-iron skillet, freezing citrus wheels or berries to add to drinks to keep them cool without diluting, and so on.

No cocktail shaker? Enlist a mason jar or water bottle instead. The blender bottle with a ball whisk used to mix protein powder drinks is another great shaker option in some instances. Lack a muddler? A wooden spoon or the pusher stick for your blender work wonders. Looking for a swizzle stick or barspoon? Turn to a long-handled, iced-tea spoon or chopstick to do the trick.