Drink of the Week: Rum Punch (large batch)

Posted on June 1, 2012 | 3 comments

If you want to host a good mixer, serve up a large batch of rum punch. I recently did this for a school fundraiser and the party turned into a “rumaway.”

People drank the punch like water. They got wasted. One gal even puked! No, we aren’t a bunch of university revellers; we’re responsible adults — with kids even! But there’s just something about rum punch. It smells good, for starters, thanks to the nutmeg and Angostura bitters. It tastes good too, just as Mount Gay Eclipse rum mixed with brown sugar syrup and lime juice should. So there’s a danger folks will chug it, even though it’s strong.

Now that it’s garden party season it’s easy to whip up a big punch bowl of it — just make sure there’s a disclaimer next to the bowl. Something like,  “Warning: this punch is really strong — it will get you drunk!”

This punch should only be consumed after reading the disclaimer: It will get you drunk.

Rum Punch (to mix in an 11-litre dispenser or bowl)

  • 2 parts Mount Gay Eclipse rum (I used four 750-mL bottles)
  • 1 part lime juice (I used 1.5 litres of Ready-Set-Serve lime juice by Markon)
  • 1 part simple syrup (I used 1.5 litres I made myself, method below)
  • 1/2 part water (about 750 mL) or to taste
  • 25 heavy dashes Angostura bitters
  • 1 tbsp. nutmeg
  • Big ball of ice (method below)

Into a large punch bowl or dispenser gently place a round ball of ice to keep the punch cool without diluting it (fill a balloon with water, tie it off and freeze. Peel the balloon off and voila! Ice ball). Pour in the rum, lime juice, simple syrup, water, bitters and nutmeg. Stir everything together with a big spoon. Serve in a plastic cup — or rocks glass, if you’re fancy — packed with ice.

To make simple syrup, combine equal parts brown sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved. Cool and refrigerate.

Yum.

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Playground plans derailed by rum punch

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 7 comments

As a parent of a school-age child you often find yourself roped into school-related volunteering. It’s always for a good cause but it’s time-consuming and more work than you thought it would be when another mom, or the smiling principal, strong-armed you onto the team.

And so for the last several months myself and three other Grade 1 moms have been spearheading a new playground at our kids’ school. The current playground is more ashphalt than parkland. It has no trees for shade, nowhere to sit, is riddled with ankle hazards (gopher holes) and has a rather ghetto/penitentiary-like feel to it, what with the net-less basketball hoops and in-need-of-paint exterior of the school’s 1960s-era addition. Plus the equipment has reached its best-before date and is deemed unsafe by the Calgary Board of Education.

Peeling paint adds to the school playground’s woes.

Before you wonder what I’m complaining about and how rum punch could sabotage the process, let me tell you that designing and building a new playground is not about flipping through a Little Tykes brochure and ordering equipment. No. It’s about engaging the community, parents, teachers and students in the process. It’s about working with a landscape architect to naturalize the space so it no longer looks like a prison yard. You want a play area the kids will love and the community can be proud of; not one that invites vandals with spray paint at 3 a.m.

Building a new playground also requires a lot of money. Like, hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, this year our school’s Kitchen Party fundraiser was dedicated to the new playground. We on the playground committee thought this would be a perfect time to have our captive audience fill out playground surveys, plot dots on a playground map and leave the party with brochures to bring to their employers to hit up for cash.

Revellers would’ve plotted dots on a playground map and filled out surveys had the Mardi Gras-themed party not served up nine gallons of rum punch.

I think all of that would have happened, if it hadn’t been for the rum punch. Several months ago Kitchen Party organizers asked me if I could make a signature cocktail for the event; something festive that nodded to New Orleans and Mardi Gras. I love rum punch so this was a no-brainer. I also make it really strong, like they do in Barbados, home of Mount Gay rum (Select Wines & Spirits donated a case of Mount Gay Eclipse to our cause).

Revellers in line for rum punch.

What ended up happening was this: everyone drank a lot of rum punch. Then everyone lined up for tequila shooters. No one filled out surveys. No one plotted dots on a map or walked away with a colour brochure to ask their employer for a cash donation. Instead, sombreros were worn and we danced the night away.

Sombreros happen when you drink rum punch.

But everyone in attendance sure spent a lot on booze, and that night, for the first time, I was having a blast on the playground committee. If it takes a village to raise a child, it requires an inebriated one to raise money for a new playground.

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Drink of the Week: Pineapple Ginger Margarita

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 1 comment

The good folks at Earls sent me a care package a couple weeks ago: all the ingredients I needed to make a Pineapple Ginger Margarita, including half a pineapple and some house-made ginger syrup. I tried the drink almost immediately (if you don’t already know, I really like margaritas), but I had to resist blogging about it until now as Cinco de Mayo was earlier this month (and my DOTW on May 4 was — you guessed it — a classic margarita).

This cocktail is fantastic. Its inspiration comes from markets in Latin America where tropical fruit is served fresh with salt and chili powder, tantalizing your sweet, salty and spicy senses. They’ve transported the markets to your margarita by  rimming the glass with the sugar-salt-chili mixture, muddling pineapple to get a hit of sweet juice, and creating a delicious ginger syrup that adds a spicy kick. But you can still taste the lime and tequila, so you’re in familiar territory and will recognize it as a margarita hybrid. Yum.

Pineapple and ginger never tasted so good! Photo courtesy Earls.

Earls Pineapple Ginger Margarita

  • 1 oz ginger syrup (see recipe below)
  • 1 oz fresh lime juice
  • 4-5 fresh pineapple chunks (approx 1 oz)
  • 2 oz El Jimador Blanco tequila
  • Pineapple chunk garnish

Into a mixing glass, measure ginger syrup, lime juice, pineapple chunks and El Jimador Blanco. Using a pestle or back of a wooden spoon muddle until juice has escaped from the pineapple. Fill mixing glass with ice, top with a stainless steel shaking tin and shake vigorously 12 times to mix ingredients. Strain over fresh ice into a double rocks glass with a half rim of sweet & spicy rim mix (see recipe below). Garnish with a fresh pineapple chunk, with the top dipped in sweet & spicy rim mix.

Ginger syrup

  • 1-1/2 cups water
  • 8 oz ginger sliced into 1/4-inch coins, do not peel
  • 1-1/2 cups sugar
  • 5 oz honey

In a medium saucepan bring water, ginger, sugar and honey to a simmer. Immediately remove from heat as soon as sugar has dissolved. Puree, using a handheld blender. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into an appropriately sized container with lid, discard ginger pulp. Allow to cool uncovered to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate up to a maximum of nine days.

Sweet & spricy rim mix

  • 3 parts sugar
  • 1 part salt
  • Dash cayenne pepper

Toss together.

— Recipe courtesy Earls

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