FOOD
ELLEN ZACHOS
Foraging for Cocktails
When I walk through an unfamiliar landscape, my first thought is“ What’ s growing here that I can eat?” As a forager, I know that food comes not only from traditional edible gardens, but also from many other plants, both wild and cultivated. Some are truly wild, some are cultivated as ornamental plants, and others are considered traditional edibles in other parts of the world.
I could wax rhapsodic about the un-buyable flavors of wild foods, how they’ re harvested at their peak, not bred for shelf life or shipping and not sprayed with pesticides. But the most convincing argument I can offer is an actual taste of the wild. So let me make you a cocktail: A wildcrafted cocktail, but one you can probably recreate from your own backyard. We’ ll look at three common plants with uncommon flavors: crabapples, spicebush berries and wild ginger.
CRABAPPLES( MALUS SPP.)
Many gardeners grow crabapples for their beauty, but very few use the fruit. Yet all crabapples are edible as long as they haven’ t been sprayed with anything toxic. Unlike commercially grown apples, crabapples are bred for their flowers and the persistence of their fruit, rather than for a sweet and crisp texture. They are generally quite tart. Flavor varies from tree to tree, so taste before you gather in quantity. Collect two cups, rinse them off, and pop them in the freezer. Crabapples provide the base flavor for the cocktail and will be used to infuse bourbon. Freezing the fruit and then thawing it breaks down the apples, making it easier for the alcohol to extract flavor.
SPICEBUSH( LINDERA BENZOIN)
Spicebush is primarily grown for its delicate, yellow spring flowers and its bright yellow fall foliage. It’ s an understory shrub, growing best in part sun and an acid soil. Spicebush is dioecious, so you’ ll need both male and female specimens to produce fruit. Shiny red berries, about the size of barberries, ripen in early fall,
The Kentucky Belle cocktail, described in the article, is bourbon infused with crabapples and spicebush berries, and then mixed with wild ginger syrup and seltzer.
and can be used fresh or dried. Some foragers compare the flavor of spicebush berries to that of allspice and black pepper. It’ s warm, spicy and complex, making it an excellent substitute for cinnamon and nutmeg.
WILD GINGER( ASARUM CANADENSE, A. CAUDATUM)
Wild ginger is a native groundcover, often relegated to background status due to its modest appearance. Its flavor is anything but
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INGREDIENT PREPARATION
• In a large glass or plastic container with a tight lid, combine thawed crabapples and two tablespoons of coarsely ground, dried spicebush berries, or ¼ cup of chopped, fresh fruit.
• Add 750 ml of 100 proof Kentucky bourbon( save the bottle), seal the container and let it sit for three weeks. Shake the mixture every day.
• Strain the liquid through a jelly bag, discard the solids, and return the strained bourbon to its original bottle.
While the bourbon is infusing, make the ginger stolon syrup.
• Roughly chop ½ ounce of dried wild ginger stolons or two ounces of fresh stolons.
• In a saucepan, whisk together one cup of water and one cup of sugar until the sugar is fully dissolved. Continue whisking, and bring the syrup to a boil.
• Add the ginger stolons, reduce the heat to a low simmer, and let the syrup cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Remove the syrup from the heat and let it sit for four hours. Strain it into a jar and refrigerate.
© PHOTO ELLEN ZACHOS
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