When it comes to the winter holiday season, I am not a lights-up-after-Thanksgiving kind of gal, though I remain genuinely impressed by the energy and good cheer of a family friend who wears Christmas-tree ornaments as earrings each season. Last winter, in a Scrooge moment, I might have gone so far as to throw an alternative Roman Saturnalia, complete with homemade fermented garum fish paste. Roman cuisine sure has come a long way in the last two millennia.
But what never fails to please as gifts are homemade winter spirits, and the bottom line is: if you want to start handing these out by the time the holiday season is in full swing, you need to start these infusions, along with your fruitcakes, before November is out.
So this year’s “It’s Never Too Early to Get into Holiday Spirits” column is a round-up of three high-spirited and easy-to-make drinks for gifts or entertaining with around-the-world cultural heritage. Gussy them up in pretty bottles, and cross Aunt Edna off your list. Next month’s column will be dedicated to non-alcoholic holiday options.
Ancient Roman Conditum Paradoxum
I feel I’ve been unfair to the Romans. Fish paste aside, we need more Saturnalia! Here was an event in which the central feature was your boss waiting on you hand-and-foot. I know which millennia I want organizing the office work party.
Conditum Paradoxum is Latin for “spicy surprise wine,” and the saffron and pepper in a sweet spiced wine definitely is a culinary twist. I make it as a lightly fortified version that will last throughout the holiday season. Concocting it is simple. Take a cup of vodka and infuse with a teaspoon of fennel seed, a teaspoon of black peppercorns, a pinch of saffron and a bay leaf. Discard the spices after two weeks. Warm a bottle of inexpensive white wine with a few dates and half a cup of honey. Mix the vodka and wine once cooled, and it will last a month or more in the fridge. Serve hot as a mulled wine or over ice, with a splash of sparkling water, as a unique winter spritzer.
West-Indian Allspice Dram
Who doesn’t want to be transported to Jamaica come November? This infused-rum liquor, with rich holiday-baking aromatics, has been a West-Indian favourite since the 1850s. Making it is a cinch: take a 750 ml bottle of decent-quality rum. Add 3/4 cup of allspice whole berries. Wait two weeks. You may need to divide the rum into separate Mason jars due to volume. After two weeks, discard the allspice. Make a quick hot syrup by dissolving 2/3 cup of brown sugar, 2/3 cup of molasses, and 2/3 cup of white sugar in four cups of water. When cool, add to the spiced rum and wait another week.
The dram can be enjoyed neat, added to holiday baking (especially helpful if that fruitcake is hard as a rock), or my favourite cocktail comes from a mixology recipe for an “Allspice Old-Fashioned” published in Food & Wine a few years ago: 1.5 oz Jack Daniels, an ounce of allspice dram, a dash of Angostura and a dash of orange bitters, on the rocks, with a twist. Almost makes me want to wear those Christmas-ornament earrings.
Scandinavian Aquavit
This recipe dates back to the 1500s, but its starring role in our holiday festivities is as the featured liquor of the Boxing Day Tom Cat Breakfast. It’s possible I have made up this holiday tradition. I thought everyone knew about Tom Cat Breakfasts, but apparently Google does not agree. Allow me to initiate you.
Boxing Day is, as we all know, the seventh-inning slump of the holiday season. You need a break already. Tom Cat Breakfast is an adult-only brunch, the seventh-inning stretch, if you will, comprised of smoked salmon, blinis off the griddle, caviar if you are feeling fancy, quiet, civilized conversation, and either Virgin Bloody Marys for the penitent or ice-cold aquavit for the obdurate.
You can cheat, of course, and purchase aquavit, but it’s easy to make and far superior when homemade. To make, it’s just a 750 ml bottle of vodka (my local go-to for infusions is Sid’s out of Delta, B.C.), infused for two weeks with two teaspoons of caraway seeds, a sprig of fresh dill, a teaspoon of fennel seed, and the peel of one small lemon and one small clementine, with pith removed. Wait for two weeks. Strain. Done. Place in freezer. Serve neat, on the rocks, or, for those who can’t quite decide, as a perfect basis for a regular Bloody Mary.
