Sunday, June 16, 2013

Tiki Party - the food and bar!


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The spread - spring rolls, sushi, tropical nuts (thanks Trader Joe's!), fruit skewers, bread, guava paste, goat cheese, and mango butter.  According to the books, a pu pu platter would be most appropriate, but for a party like this, keeping things warm would have been a pain.  I'm willing to make things more difficult for myself, but only to a point.

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Spring rolls and sauces (recipe courtesy of the brilliant Heidi at 101 Cookbooks)

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Green sushi!  (yes, hand-rolled!  someone is both crazy and awesome at the same time)

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Tribute to Genki-Ya Veggie Roll (sweet potato, cream cheese, mushroom, banana - it's amazing, I promise!)

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The bar!

I already mentioned how I made many of the cocktail ingredients, but without further ado, the drink list!  A couple people came up to me during the party and said, "You know, I really didn't think I liked tiki drinks...I mean.."  I nod knowingly.  "Oh I know what you mean.  Tiki to us kids born in the 80s means blue curaço and those gross umbrella drinks from TGI Fridays with about a cup of sugar in them.  Not good.  These drinks?  Good."

Drink Menu
 
Singapore Sling - made prior to the event in a stock pot and funneled into bottles (so many ingredients in a drink can make it delicious, but not so easy to make when you have ten people waiting in line for drinks)

30 ounces pineapple juice
30 ounces gin
10 ounces Cherry Heering
10 ounces lime juice
5 ounces Cointreau
5 ounces Bénédictine
5 ounces grenadine
Dash x20 of Angostura bitters

Planter's Punch - a favorite from Carnivale, this three-shots-of-rum drink is ideal for someone who just wants more rum.

3 ounces dark Jamaican rum
1 ounce simple syrup
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters

Diki-Diki - it sounds strange, a combination of grapefruit, apple calvados, and a Swedish rum.  And it's perfect for those who don't want something too sweet.

1.5 ounces calvados
1/2 ounce Swedish Punsch
3/4 ounce grapefruit juice


Ancient Mariner - a favorite of the night, it made use of two different kinds of rum, including a sublime demarara rum called Pyrat XO and a wonderful dark St. James Martinique.

1 ounces Demerara Rum (not 151-proof)
1 ounce extra dark Appleton Jamaican rum
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce fresh grapefruit juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1/4 ounce Allspice Dram


Mai Tai - so very different from what you think it is, I promise.

1 ounce extra dark Appleton Jamaican rum
1 ounce Clément VSOP Martinique rum
1 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce curaçao
1/4 ounce orgeat
1/4 ounce vanilla simple syrup


Caipirinha - straight from Brazil!

2 ounces cachaça
Half of a fresh lime, quartered
2 teaspoons sugar


We also had four frozen drinks on the menu served in canning jars.  Blender drinks are really common in the world of tiki, but having a blender going all the time at a party is A, messy; B, loud; and C, annoying.  So, I modified these drink recipes to include water instead of ice, added all ingredients into a stockpot, blitzed liberally with a stick blender to mix, and poured 6 ounce servings into 8 ounce (half pint) canning jars (available on amazon for $13, with free super saver shipping!  best deal ever).  Each recipe makes 18-20 drinks, give or take.

Banana Daiquiri - with homemade banana liqueur, this was a definite hit

36 ounces dark rum
12 ounces simple syrup
6 ounce lime juice
12 ounces banana liqueur
13 ounce can coconut milk
12 very ripe bananas, peeled


Saturn - I used Trader Joe's mango passionfruit juice here, turned out quite well!

9 ounces freshly squeezed lemon juice
9 cups passion fruit juice
4.5 ounces falernum
4.5 ounces orgeat
27 ounces gin


Scorpion - tart, fresh, boozy.

6 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
6 ounces orange juice
6 ounces brandy
8 ounces dark Jamaican rum
4 ounces gin
36 ounces passionfruit juice
4 ounces orgeat syrup
32 ounces water

Sumatra Kula (from Beachbum Berry's excellent book )

9 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
9 ounces grapefruit juice
9 ounces orange juice
9 ounces honey syrup (half water half honey)
27 ounces white rum
54 ounces water

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Behind the bar.  After my ice bucket decided to take a swan dive out of someone's arms and crack to the floor last summer, I bought two awesome matching ones on Etsy.

(also, if you're curious about the wine glasses, they're also amazon-free-super-saver-shipping marvels, $26 for six white wine and six red wine glasses---I've used them for about six parties since I bought them, and only one casualty!  Definitely worth it if you need extra glasses occasionally but want to keep them stored safely away most of the time, their box is a very convenient storage vessel). 

5 comments:

Vicki said...

That drink list is amazing! What a party :)

bridgetwhoplaysfrenchhorn said...

It did turn out pretty awesome! I wish all of my friends that aren't from Boston could have been there!

a-dig said...

I'm a little confused. Did you freeze the canning jars with the 6 oz servings? Did you toss the then frozen cocktail right onto a blender? I know canning jars can fit on blenders.

bridgetwhoplaysfrenchhorn said...

Hi there!

Yes, you freeze the six ounce servings overnight and then take them out of the freezer about 30 minutes before the party.

Then, the setup is having the canning jars on a plate as they slowly defrost, spoons on the side so people can crush up and eat their alcoholic slushie, and then a bowl for the canning jar lids. Some people just ate it all with spoons, some like waiting til it was a more drinkable slushie, and at the end of the night, they slushies would be mostly liquid so people would just shake to combine and drink directly.

Oh--the other key thing is to have a large container of water in the kitchen for the slushie glasses because they are a royal pain if pulpy fruit has hardened inside. I just put a sign up next to them that said "Done with your slushie? Head to the kitchen and place it in the bin on the countertop"

boathousein said...

This sound really interesting. Can you tell me more about Planter's Punch?
Thank You!
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