A Dinner Party with Fonseca Siroco

Ever since the weather has gotten warmer, I've been looking forward to enjoying dinners on our porch and in our backyard. Usually it's just my husband and I taking advantage of these springtime evenings, but I've always thought an outdoor party with friends would be a lot of fun. So when I was invited to host a dinner party with cocktails made with the Fonseca Siroco White Port, I jumped at the chance to throw the backyard soiree I'd always wanted. I had big plans: white tablecloths, candles, cafe lights, flowers, the works.

Then it rained.

Looking on the bright side, at least this meant we didn't need to carry all our food and supplies down three flights of stairs. It did mean a bit of frantic apartment cleaning and shoving baby gear into closets. But that evening, our friends braved the weather and joined us for a beautiful dinner party with Portuguese food, cocktails, and plenty of Fonseca Siroco.



Let's quickly talk about Port, since it's not something I've used in any recipes on the blog yet. Port is a fortified wine made in the Douro Valley of Portugal. Fortified means that a distilled spirit has been added to the wine, which increases its alcohol content, extends its shelf life and affects its flavor. Other common fortified wines are vermouth, sherry and Madeira. Fonseca is one of the most widely available brands of Port, and their products are consistently very high quality.

When you think of Port, you probably picture a red Port like a tawny or ruby port, which are quite sweet and typically enjoyed after a meal. But white Port like the Fonseca Siroco is generally quite dry. Fonseca Siroco is crisp, fruity, and bright, perfect as an aperitif or with a meal. It's also fantastic in cocktails. The simplest option is just to mix it with tonic water and serve it with a slice of lemon, as it is commonly served in Portugal. Using it instead of vermouth is another easy way to work it into some of your favorite recipes.



For my Port 'n' Party, I made two cocktails with the Fonseca Siroco that I batched ahead of time so I wouldn't be mixing while my guests were here. The first was a simple spritz made with white Port, Aperol, club soda, and an orange slice. Bright, citrusy and just a bit bitter, it made a great pairing for appetizers. For the second cocktail, I wanted to make something more spirit-forward but still appropriate for spring, so I made a martini with gin, white Port, St. Germain, and chamomile citrus bitters. I absolutely love this one - it's just the kind of cocktail I enjoy sipping on. The St. Germain lends this drink a bit of floral sweetness, but it's still dry enough to have before dinner. We also made some white Port and tonics. The recipes for all three cocktails are below!



For dinner, we had Arroz de Tamboril, a rice stew made with monkfish and shrimp that reminded me a lot of the Shrimp Creole we make at home in Louisiana. It's easy to prepare and great for a crowd. Dessert was Serradura, a spectacularly simple combo of sweetened whipped cream and shortbread cookie crumbs. Both recipes came from The Girl Loves to Eat. Our friend Chris of Socktails also brought Pasteis de Nata, which are amazing Portuguese custard tarts. We had plenty of Fonseca Siroco with dinner, and it paired very nicely with the seafood. It had been a long time since we had hosted a party like this one, and we really enjoyed the excuse to get together with friends, even if it was indoors! Maybe a garden party will have to happen later on in the summer. There will definitely be Port cocktails involved.

White Port and Tonic

1 1/2 oz. Fonseca Siroco White Port

3 oz. tonic water

Build in a glass over ice, stir gently, and garnish with a lemon slice.

Porto Spritz

1 oz. Fonseca Siroco White Port
3/4 oz. Aperol
1 oz. club soda

Combine Port and Aperol in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube. Top with club soda and stir gently. Garnish with an orange slice.

Lisbon Martini

2 oz. gin (GrandTen Wire Works)
1 oz. Fonseca Siroco White Port
1/2 oz. St. Germain
1 dash Bittermen's Boston Bittahs

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a coupe. Twist a lemon peel over the cocktail, rub it along the sides of the glass, and discard. Garnish with chamomile flowers.

This post was made in partnership with Fonseca Port. All recipes and opinions are my own.

Sunflower

This week was another fun campaign on Instagram, #WeHaveTheLastWord. Started by Mike of mmydrinks last year, it's a weeklong celebration of one of the greatest cocktails out there, the Last Word. This equal-parts mix of gin, Green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur, and lime juice is iconic in the cocktail world for its simple recipe and unique flavor. If you haven't had one, you need to make or order one immediately.

As one of the more famous equal-parts cocktails out there, the Last Word lends itself to all sorts of riffs and variations. The Last of the Oaxacans trades the gin for mezcal. The Naked and Famous takes this even farther with Yellow Chartreuse and Aperol instead of the Green Chartreuse and maraschino. The bourbon-based Paper Plane doesn't share a single ingredient with the Last Word, but is still generally considered a variant due to its equal-parts proportions. And if you check out We Have the Last Word on Instagram, you will find countless other variations on this formula containing just about every spirit and liqueur you can think of.

I wanted to create my own riff on the Last Word for the campaign, and even started playing around with some recipes, but I didn't have a chance to perfect one in time. Using equal parts can be a tricky business. Usually when you pick ingredients that you think might work together, you can adjust the amounts of each until they're in perfect harmony. But when you're committed to equal parts, if it doesn't work, it just doesn't.

Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, I turned to my copy of Shake. Stir. Sip. to see if there were any 4-ingredient equal parts cocktails I had never made before. And to my surprise, the first recipe in the 4-ingredient section was not only one I had never made, but it was one that sounded really, really good: the Sunflower. It's actually a riff on the Corpse Reviver, swapping elderflower liqueur for the usual Lillet or Cocchi, but since I've seen some Corpse Revivers and variations posted with the #WeHaveTheLastWord hashtag, I think it will fly.

You can tell the Sunflower is going to be a crowd pleaser long before you taste it. You can't go wrong with gin, lemon, St. Germain, and orange liqueur. It's basically a sunny, floral, boozy lemonade. The absinthe wash might seem a bit polarizing to the casual drinker, but once they try it they'll see that it's fairly subtle touch that really brings the cocktail together, and it keeps the discerning drinker from rolling their eyes at ingredients so tasty and versatile that they might overlook the Sunflower for being too ordinary. Plus, it's a recipe by Sam Ross, creator of the Penicillin and the aforementioned Paper Plane. I will basically drink anything he comes up with, no questions asked.

And man, "Sunflower" is a much happier name than "Corpse Reviver," huh?

History: This cocktail was created by Sam Ross of Milk & Honey and Little Branch in New York, now at Attaboy. He created it around 2008.

Sunflower

3/4 oz. gin
3/4 oz. St. Germain
3/4 oz. Cointreau
3/4 oz. lemon juice
Absinthe rinse

Combine gin, St. Germain, Cointreau, and lemon juice in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Pour a dash of absinthe (I used Herbsaint) into a coupe and swirl it to coat the glass. Strain the cocktail into the glass. Garnish with a lemon twist or some sunflower petals.

Recipe from Shake. Stir. Sip.

Pineapple Rum Julep

It's the first week of May, and you know what that means: Juleps. Or Margaritas. Or weird combos of both. Because the first week of May is when we celebrate two of America's favorite excuses to drink: the Kentucky Derby and Cinco de Mayo. Because let's face it, that's really all they both are. The Kentucky Derby lasts all of two minutes if you don't count the time you spend drinking Mint Juleps before the race, and the average American probably couldn't tell you what Cinco de Mayo even celebrates other than the stellar combination of lime and tequila. But I like how both events inspire my favorite cocktail sites to come up with creative variations on these two iconic drinks. And since it's been a while since I made a julep, I figured I'd join the party.

A julep is a combination of a spirit, a sweetener, and usually herbs or other flavoring. This drink has a long history (more of it can be found here), likely beginning in the Middle East with a rosewater beverage called a gulab. As it made its way to Europe and on to America, spirits and mint were added. Juleps were often prescribed as health tonics, and early American colonists would drink them in the morning for their health. Before whiskey became the ubiquitous American spirit, they were usually made with rum.

Since I'm falling more and more in love with rum these days, and in honor of those early juleps, I decided to make a rum julep to celebrate the upcoming Derby Day. I thought a pineapple syrup would be a really nice combo with some good aged rum and fresh mint. I tried a couple of bottles and settled on Bacardi Añejo Cuatro, which is bright and fruity and really shined in this recipe. Making the syrup takes a bit of prep work, but otherwise it's a deceptively simple cocktail - as juleps often are. That's one of the things that makes them so good.

Pineapple Rum Julep

2 oz. aged rum (Bacardi Añejo Cuatro)
3/4 oz. pineapple syrup*
5 large mint leaves

Place mint leaves in the bottom of a julep cup. Add pineapple syrup and muddle gently, bruising the mint but not breaking it up. Then add the rum and stir a little. Fill the cup with crushed ice and garnish with a dried pineapple slice and a bunch of mint. Heap a little more crushed ice on top and serve with a straw.

*For pineapple syrup, combine 1/2 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add 1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into chunks. Simmer for about five minutes. Crush the pineapple with a potato masher or the back of a spoon and continue to simmer for five more minutes. Let cool and fine-strain out the pineapple pieces. Store in the fridge.