Chilcano
September 26th, 2007 | Published in mixers, pisco | 3 Comments
A few weeks ago, I received a wonderful gift. The generous and thoughtful Emilie of The Conscious Kitchen found a creative way to get a bottle of Peruvian pisco she picked up on vacation from Boston to LA without using the mail. I am very fond of presents, particularly when they involve new kinds of alcohol (and a baguette pan, but that part of the gift doesn’t really apply to this post), and this one really made my day.
Naturally, I had to get to work mixing something up, so I turned again to Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide, Revised and its chapter on pisco. At its heart, the Chilcano is a sour, being comprised of a spirit-lemon-sugar base and ramped up a bit with some bitters and ginger ale. A classic mix for a fabulous gift—it seemed to fit just right.
1½ oz pisco
juice of ½ lemon
1 teaspoon sugar
3 drops Angostura bitters
ginger aleShake pisco, lemon juice, sugar and bitters well with ice. Strain into chimney glass filled with ice. Fill with ginger ale, stir gently and garnish with a twist of lemon.
This is very nearly a Pisco Sour and, given that both the lovely Emilie and I don’t use egg whites, as close as this blog will come to one without some creative molecular gastronomy. Regardless, this was a delicious drink. Very light-bodied with a bracing sour component, the sugar and ginger ale add just enough sweet to keep your mouth from puckering. It was very nice during a relaxing after-dinner movie, but I think it would be even better as an aperitif—a hypothesis I’ll have to test in the near future.
(Thanks again, Em! The FedEx man should be arriving with baguettes soon…)
September 27th, 2007at 9:36 am(#)
Excellent, another new booze for me to try!
September 28th, 2007at 9:26 am(#)
I fully believe in your ability to enact from crazy creative molecular gastronomy and come up with vegan egg whites, but then again, who needs ‘em?! This looks amazing. It both puts me to shame (for never being creative enough to whip something like this up with my pisco) and fills me with joy and a sense of accomplishment for having hooked the pisco up with its rightful owner. …now let’s see if I can come up with some Spanish something for ya…don’t know if my Boston to LA “mule” will work again so nicely, but maybe I’ll have it delivered via robotic carrier pigeon or something.
September 28th, 2007at 12:06 pm(#)
With any luck, I’ll be seeing you in either Boston on NYC sometime in the near-ish future—though I wouldn’t say no to a robotic carrier pigeon!