A Red-Meat Worthy Cocktail

Sure, you can have your Cabernet Sauvignon, your Bordeaux, your Zinfandel. But why not mix it up and pair that prime cut with a big, bold, bloody martini?

To celebrate the release of their book  Flying Pans: Two Chefs One World, Ron Oliver and Bernard Guillas, from San Diego’s famed Marine Room, recently hosted a twelve course dinner at Café Bouloud on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Surprisingly, the Frenchman decided to scratch the wine and instead pair each dish with cocktails so complex they kept up with with the meal in terms of covering the flavor spectrum between sweet, spicy and just simply surprising.

The rock lobster salad, for example,  served in a pool of cool orange sauce (tangerine and carrots) was paired with a rum (vanilla and spiced), coconut milk and passion fruit mojito  (“a faux-ito rather,” said the table’s resident cocktail expert who insisted on swirling and sniffing every drink as though it were a glass of wine) and garnished with a “swizzle” of sugarcane. The formal dining room at Boulud, however, hardly did the tropical drink justice.

But the obvious  climax of the meal was clearly the filet mignon, towards the end of the menu. After the plates of apricot ginger-glazed Tasmanian steelhead had been scraped clean and cleared, it was finally time for the main attraction. “This is what I’ve been waiting for,” said one eager carnivore.

The cocktail came first and was the color and texture of blood. The Hendrick’s based Grain of Paradise Hibiscus martini (you guessed it, faux-tini)  includes peppercorns, oregano and hibiscus flowers and is garnished with a sprig of oregano and a pickled onion.  This is no fruity beverage for your average dainty faux-tini-sipper. This is a red-meat cocktail. One young lady described it as “medicinal” and immediately sent it back in disgust.

The Filet Mignon Tierra Y Mar was served in a puddle of chile cocoa sauce and accompanied with a crab-stuffed squash blossom and maple boniato, a tropical sweet potato. The plump round piece of beef was charred black and the steak knife practically melted into it revealine a dark red inside. The table was quiet except for the occasional “mmm, so tender” and contented grunt.

Zucchini flowers were pushed aside as an extravagant afterthought. “Can you even eat that?” someone asked, poking it suspiciously (and stupidly).

Make your own Grain of Paradise Hibiscus Faux-tini:

• 2 cups dried hibiscus flowers
• 1 teaspoon grain of paradise black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon oregano leaves
• 2 cups Hendrick’s gin (do not bother making this if you don’t have Hendrick’s)
• 12 pickled onions
• 4 sprigs oregano

Combine hibiscus flowers, peppercorns, water and sugar in small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer slowly 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Add oregano leaves. Cover. Steep 20 minutes Strain through fine sieve. Refrigerate until well chilled. Combine 1 cup hibiscus syrup with gin in mixing bowl. Stir well. Transfer half of mixture to martini shaker. Add 12 ice cubes. Shake 15 seconds. Strain into 2 frosted martini glasses. Sker 3 onions onto each oregano sprig for garnish.

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