One of the many unexpected benefits of  having a child has been remembering some of the pleasures of my own childhood. Brownies, for instance.  As I searched for the brownie of my childhood, though, I found that a really good one is hard to come by.  Some were dry and chewy and tasted only vaguely of chocolate, but most (including some I made) were overpoweringly sweet and heavy, more like a failed fudge than the chocolaty, slightly chewy cookie-cake hybrid I remembered.

I kept at it, though (quite a hardship, I assure you), and success came this past weekend when I went back to a very simple brownie recipe and tweaked it just a bit.  These brownies are rich, tender and have a deep chocolate flavor, but they’re not terribly sweet or gooey, and the chocolate flavor doesn’t overpower the flavor of the other key ingredient: butter.  Best of all, they’re quick, easy and nearly foolproof.  A heart shaped cookie cutter makes them into a sweet homemade Valentine’s treat.

Recipe

Ingredients

6 oz best quality bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao)

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup flour

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 325F.

2.  Butter a 9×13 baking pan, line the bottom with kitchen parchment and then butter the parchment.

3.  If using, toast the nuts in the oven on an ungreased baking sheet for about 5 minutes, until they’re fragrant and just starting to brown.

4.  Place a heatproof mixing bowl over a large saucepan of simmering water (or use a double boiler — in either case, the bowl should not touch the water).

5.  Coarsely chop the chocolate, cut the butter into chunks and melt them together over the simmering water.

6.  Take the bowl off the heat and stir in the sugar, vanilla and then the eggs, one by one.

7.  Stir in the flour and salt, eliminating any lumps.

8.  If using, stir in about half of the toasted nuts.

9.  Smooth the batter into the prepared pan and, if using, top with the remaining nuts.

10.  Bake at 325F for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it (not wet and ideally not completely clean).  Don’t worry about this too much, though.  Slightly overcooking these brownies won’t ruin them.

11.  Cool for 10-15 minutes and cut.  (The brownies will be easiest to cut when they’re still a little warm, but not piping hot.)  If they don’t come out with the cutter, wait until they’re completely cooled to take them out of the pan.

Square-cut or heart shaped, a homemade brownie is a great way to show them the love.

Scotch whiskey has a following of purists who prefer to drink it “neat,” or maybe with a single cube of ice or a splash of water. The reason for this, of course, has to be the unique and complex flavors of many single malt Scotches that don’t, and shouldn’t, play well with other spirits.

Blended Scotches, on the other hand, are friendlier to other flavors.  Their earthier and smokier (but still smooth) flavors give a nice edge to cocktails, particularly, for me at least, in winter.  The Highland’s Fall and Blood and Sand are two drinks in heavy rotation here during the cooler months, and here’s a third that’s become a new favorite, the Bobby Burns, named, it seems, after the national poet of Scotland.

Beyond the Scotch, though, there’s really nothing very Scottish about this cocktail: its other ingredients are sweet vermouth (from Italy and France), the delicious herbal liqueur called Benedictine (originating around 500 years ago in Normandy), and a bit of lemon (which, I don’t believe, grows well in Scotland). That aside, it’s a great drink.  The vermouth and Benedictine soften the Scotch with gentle sweetness and an interesting herbal bouquet, and the little hit of lemon provides a nice accent. It’s a bit off the well-worn Manhattan track, but still accessible –perfect before a winter dinner party.

Recipe

(for one drink)

2 oz blended Scotch whiskey

3/4 oz sweet vermouth (make sure it’s fresh)

1/2 oz Benedictine

A bit of lemon peel

Rub the inside of a cocktail glass with the underside of the lemon peel.  Put the other ingredients into a shaker or mixing glass full of ice.  Stir or shake vigorously. Strain into the cocktail glass and serve garnished with the lemon peel.  Repeat.

Lately I’ve been making paella on weeknights.  Not so much the elaborate mixed seafood paellas that I love for summer entertaining, but simpler, humbler dishes that have more in common with a casserole from my childhood than a plateau de fruits de mer at Balthazar or La Coupole.  My favorite chicken paella is still in heavy rotation, but this dish has become a close rival.

The bold flavors of olives and chorizo –a Spanish cured pork sausage flavored with smoked paprika and garlic– blend beautifully with rice, saffron and peppers to create a delicious and comforting dish for a cold day.  A simple green salad is all you need to complete the meal.  Of course, chorizo is probably not something one should eat every day, but its big flavor allows a little to go a long way:  a half pound in this recipe (supported by a quarter pound of ham) serves 6-8 people.

The dish is also quick and simple to make, and forgiving.  You need to be precise with the quantities of rice and liquid, but beyond that, the ingredients could be measured by the pinch or handful, and you’d be fine, as long as you taste for salt along the way. Similarly, there’s nothing tricky about the cooking time (which is something I used to worry about with paella):  just remember to transfer the dish from the stove to the oven when it’s the texture of loose risotto, and to pull it out of the oven when the rice is on the firm side of al dente, like a risotto that’s not quite ready to serve.  You can then let it rest covered with foil until the rice is cooked to the firmness you like.

Just three more notes from this paella advocate before I give you the recipe:  1) you don’t need a paella pan to make good paella — a large skillet or shallow casserole will do nicely; 2) you don’t need to buy imported Spanish rice –domestic or imported Arborio rice used to make risotto works very well; and 3) saffron is worth its high price, but you can make a very good paella without it, including this one.

Recipe

(adapted from Chorizo and Olive Paella “Santa Clara” in Paella! by Penelope Casas, serves 6-8).

Ingredients

4 tablespoons coarsely chopped green olives (Spanish, if you can find them, but any good green olive will be delicious)

4 tablespoons coarsely chopped cured black olives (not canned — I like to use Moroccan oil-cured olives here)

About 1/2 cup (120ml) dry white wine

6 cups (1.4l) chicken stock

1/4 teaspoon thread saffron

About 8 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 pound (230g) chorizo, preferably sweet, skinned and cut into 1/2 inch (1cm) slices

1 medium onion, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium red bell pepper, finely chopped (ribs and seeds removed)

1/4 pound (110g) Spanish serrano ham or prosciutto, cut into 1/4 inch (1/2cm) slices and then diced

4 tablespoons minced parsley

3 cups (700ml) Spanish short grain rice (such as Calasparra) or Arborio rice

Salt to taste

About 2 dozen snow or snap peas (or about a cup of frozen peas)

Instructions

1.  Put the olives and the wine in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.  Simmer for about 5 minutes and drain, reserving the olives.

2.  Combine the saffron and the stock in a saucepan.  Bring just to the boil and then keep hot over the lowest heat.

3.  Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).

4.  In a paella pan measuring 17-18 inches at its widest point (or a skillet or shallow casserole of similar size), heat the oil for about a minute and then add the chorizo and sauté for about another minute.

5.  Add the onion, garlic, pepper, ham and parsley and sauté until the pepper is tender, about 3 minutes.

6.  Add the reserved olives and the rice, stirring well to coat the rice with the pan mixture.

7.  Pour in the hot stock and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.  Continue to boil until the rice is no longer soupy but has the texture of a loose risotto, about 5 minutes.  Taste for salt and stir in the snap peas.

8.  Transfer to the oven and cook, uncovered, until the rice is on the firm side of al dente, about 12-15 minutes.  Remove the paella to a warm spot, cover it with foil and let it rest 5-10 minutes until the rice is cooked to taste.

Serve immediately.  The dish also reheats well — just spoon what you plan to heat into a skillet and heat on the stovetop.  If you’re lucky it will reward you with a toasty brown crust on the bottom.

It’s time to pull this room together, and I’d like your help.  At the moment, it just feels like a room full of stuff –nothing’s working together.  The reason it’s in this sorry state is that nearly everything is left over from somewhere else and wound up here without any plan. The cool gray wool carpet is from the den in the City, the vintage danish modern bedside tables were hijacked on their way to Julia’s room (where they’re needed now), the bedside lamps were in the living rooms of two previous apartments in New York, and so forth.  Of course, it’s great to reuse good pieces, but this looks more like a tag sale than our bedroom.

Some of the stuff’s pretty nice, though, and so I’m hoping that with some careful editing and a few strategic purchases, we can fix up the room without spending a lot of money.  The bed is staying –I like the casual warmth of the seagrass headboard, and the platform base is sturdy and comfortable.  The lamps at the side can go though:  they’re nice, but too subdued and tailored for this space.

Here are some more views of the room with more of my current thinking about what’s in and what’s probably out.

East.  The gray wool carpet is soft, handsome, and, importantly, new, so it’s staying.  The danish teak chests are staying too — they’re not heirloom quality, but they’re fine for now, and we need the storage for clothes, particularly in the cooler months.

East.  This is a good chair, but if we keep it, I’d like to make it feel like it belongs. It currently functions as a hamper.

South from the bedroom and through the closets to the master bath beyond.  (The tile is light blue glass.)

West.  I like the linens, but, of course, they’ll have to work with the new color scheme.

Speaking of which, I think our first step should be to choose a new wall color.  I’d like to keep the fresh white wood ceiling, but the warm gray below clashes with the carpet, and it feels drab and uninteresting.  I’d love to get your thoughts on a new direction.

Do any of these appeal, at least directionally?  I was originally drawn to the blues, but something warmer might be nice too.  Of course, other suggestions are most welcome.

Update:  I’ve just purchased a pair of vintage lamps.  I think their bold glazing and handmade quality will add much needed warmth and energy to the room.

This dish is just the ticket for January, when many of us (myself most definitely included) are facing the possibility that we may have enjoyed a little too much good food and drink over the Holidays.  Austerity, though, is no reason for boredom.  For lovers of big, bold flavors, this lean dish is a bracing wake-up call to palates lulled nearly to sleep by the rich, heavy dishes of Holiday tradition.

The featured flavor here is “curry,” which, of course is not a single spice or even a particular flavor, but a name given originally by the British to an extended family of sauced dishes found all over Asia and flavored with blends of aromatic spices. (Commerical “curry” powders are, if fact, blends of spices –some of which quite good, but many of which are pretty lackluster.)  The Madras style curry used in this recipe is warming and delicious, featuring allspice, cinnamon and ginger in addition to the cumin, coriander and turmeric common to most curries. If there’s a commercial Madras curry powder you like, you can save some time here by using it (but make sure it’s fresh). Making your own curry powder with the recipe below, though, takes just a few minutes once you have the ingredients, you can make a double recipe and keep it on hand, and there won’t be any question of quality or freshness.

A word about spiciness:  this dish is on the hot side.  If you prefer milder foods, omit the cayenne from the spice paste (but not the curry powder recipe) and make sure to scrape off nearly all of the spice paste before you grill or broil the chicken.  Of course, if you love spicy food, you can increase the pepper and leave on more of the paste when you cook the bird.  (And, if you broil the chicken rather than grilling it, more of the spice paste is likely to reach your plate.)

Recipe

(adapted from Rubin Museum’s Curry-Crusted Chicken in Flavors First by Vikas Khanna, serves 6)

Ingredients

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups (475 ml) Greek-style yoghurt

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons peeled, chopped fresh ginger

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons Madras curry powder (a good commercial blend or see recipe below)

1 teaspoon table salt

6 lemon wedges, for garnish

Instructions

1.  Mix all of the ingredients (except the chicken and the lemon wedges) in a large bowl.

2.  Place the chicken breasts under a place of plastic wrap and pound them with the smooth side of meat tenderizer or a rolling pin until they’re a consistent thickness of about 1 inch (2.5cm).  (This step is optional, but I find it’s easier to grill or broil a chicken breast to doneness without overcooking it if I do this.)

3.  Coat the chicken breasts with the spice paste, cover tightly and refrigerate for 4-6 hours, or overnight.

4.  About 30 minutes before you’re ready to cook, pull the chicken out of the fridge to allow it to reach room temperature. Preheat a grill or a grill pan over hight heat.  Scrape off all but a thin coating of the spice paste and then grill the chicken breasts until cooked through, about 5-7 minutes on each side.  (The internal temperature should reach 165F (74C), and the meet should be white in the center.)

Alternatively (if you don’t have a grill, grill pan, or don’t have an exhaust hood that can handle the smoke from stovetop grilling), you can cook the chicken on a lightly oiled baking sheet under a preheated broiler for about 5 minutes on each side.

Serve hot, warm or at room temperature with a mixed green salad for a delicious but virtuous meal, or serve with rice or potatoes and a green vegetable if you’re in the mood for something a little heartier, but still quite healthy.

Madras Curry Powder (recipe adapted from Flavors First by Vikas Khanna)

2 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1/4 teaspoon whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (or about 8 whole allspice berries)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

4 bay leaves

Put all the spices in a spice grinder and process until ground to a very fine powder.  (Do this in batches if necessary.)  Store, covered tightly, for up to three months.

I wish I could say that I found this alternative to the weighty and wonderful Gratin Dauphinoise in an effort to improve my diet, but the fact is I was just out of cream.  I needed to get dinner on the table during the Holidays, and I didn’t have time to run to the market to get the whole milk and heavy cream necessary to make that luxurious dish to go with the evening’s roast beef.  A quick consultation of Julia Child’s indespensable Mastering the Art of French Cooking saved the day, though, and led me to Gratin Savoyard, a traditional potato gratin made with Gruyere cheese and stock instead of milk and/or cream.

Julia’s version is made with beef stock and loads of butter, which, of course, is delicious and would be appropriate for, say, celebrating your successful return from climbing the slopes of Mont Blanc.  For those of us more likely to be celebrating our return from the mall, it may be a little rich.

This version is lighter and more versatile, if not completely authentic.  With a buttered dish and a quarter pound of cheese, it’s hardly spa food, but I’ve reduced the butter to just one tablespoon, and, of course, there’s no milk or cream.  I also use chicken stock instead of beef, which, I think, is more suited to most of our palates and pantries these days.

The flavor doesn’t suffer, though.  Rich, nutty Gruyere and potatoes belong together, and the stock with a hint of nutmeg bring it all together beautifully.  It’s perfect with beef, poultry or veal, and there’s nothing better than a scoop of warmed leftovers with a couple of fried eggs in the morning.

Recipe

(for six)

Ingredients

About 2 pounds (1 kg) of waxy potatoes, such as Yukon Gold.

About 4 ounces (120g) of good Gruyere cheese.

1 cup (240 ml) of chicken stock, unsalted

1 clove of garlic

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Scant 1 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon butter (to coat the baking dish)

freshly ground pepper

Instructions

1.  Preheat the oven to 425F (220C).

2.  Smash the clove of garlic under the flat of your knife and then rub it all over the inside of a baking dish. (A 12-inch oval or a 10-inch round work well for this recipe.  If you increase the quantity, use a dish large enough to keep the gratin no more than 2 inches deep.)  Butter the dish generously.

3.  Peel and slice the potatoes about 1/8 inch (1/3 cm) thick, using a mandoline or the slicing blade of a food processor.  (Doing this by had requires patience and pretty good knife skills.)

4.  Coarsely grate the cheese and combine it in a bowl with the grated nutmeg, the salt and several good grinds of pepper.  Toss.

5.  Bring the chicken stock to the boil in a small saucepan.

6.  Layer about half of the potatoes in the dish as evenly as you can and top them with about half of the cheese mixture.  Repeat with the remaining potatoes and cheese.

7.  Pour the boiling stock over the dish and place it the oven.  (It won’t seem like enough liquid, but it is.)  Bake for 20-30 minutes until the liquid is absorbed, the potatoes are tender, and the top is nicely browned.

Let the gratin rest for 5-10 minutes before serving, reserving a big spoonful for yourself to enjoy as you clean up the kitchen after dinner.

Finally.  After months of indecision (and some production time too), we finally have our new chairs.  Custom upholstery is always a little suspenseful, but I’m happy to say we like them as well as we’d hoped:  the chairs feel both light and comfortable, and the upholstery adds warmth and color to the space without disrupting it.

Our success is due in large part to your help.  We started out with our old Saarinen arm chairs, which we loved but were too low and wide for the space. The upholstery also seemed dull in this space.

After selecting a classic 70s chair from Milo Baughman, we went through a lot of upholstery options.  We were leaning toward oranges and ambers, but many of you guided us toward colors offering more contrast to the surrounding room, and I’m glad you did.  Several of you also encouraged us to use more than one fabric, and we followed this advice too, using a blue/green wool boucle from Maharam on the side chairs and some custom bright olive green leather on the ends.  I like the way this breaks up what could otherwise feel like a wall of upholstery around the table, particularly when the chairs are not in use.

Now, on to the rug . . . .

We baked this weekend.  A lot.  Every year our kitchen turns into a Cookie Factory as we make 60 or more dozen Christmas cookies to box up and send out to friends and family all over the country.

Julia’s favorite is gingerbread people (“gingerboys”), and so I always make plenty of those to keep around for us. Gingerbread keeps well for a week or more –even in the open– so instead of keeping them in a tin, I use our gingerboys (of both genders) to decorate a small tree that we keep on the kitchen counter in Southampton.  To turn the cookies into edible ornaments, I make a small hole with a drinking straw before baking and thread it with a red ribbon afterward.  A nearby pair of scissors invites guests to snip of a cookie anytime they like.  (Gingerbread is delicious with red wine as well as coffee.)

I’ve tried many recipes for rolled gingerbread over the years, but this is my favorite –the flavor is vivid, and the dough is easy to work with.

Recipe

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients

6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 cup packed dark-brown sugar

4 teaspoons ground ginger

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1 teaspoon finely ground pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 large eggs

1 cup unsulfured molasses

Instructions

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. Cut into shapes.  Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or baking mats and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Decorate with Royal Icing piped from a pastry tube using a #3 pastry tip.

Royal Icing

1 pound confectioners’ sugar

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Mix ingredients together until smooth.  Spread or pipe onto cookies.  If icing becomes too firm, add a few drops of water and stir.

A favorite childhood memory of mine is making bread with my grandmother.  She didn’t mind free-form loaves, sticky hands and flour on the floor, and she worked the drawn-out process of bread making into her daily routine in a way that made it seem natural and easy.  Her daily routine was a lot different than mine, though, and the stop-and-start process of bread making has never really fit into my adult life.

A new book I’ve found promises to change that, and so I thought I’d give it a try, particularly now that I have a child of my own who enjoys sticky hands and tossing flour around.  Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Herzberg and Zoe Francois promises to streamline bread making by eliminating the steps of proofing yeast, kneading, and punching down and re-rising the dough.  The idea is to mix up a very wet dough in quantity, rise it once and then store it in the fridge for up to several weeks, forming and baking just what you need that day.

So on Sunday afternoon, I mixed up a batch using the book’s master recipe for a white boule.

Ingredients

3 cups (700 ml) lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

6 1/2 cups (1.54 l) unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour

Instructions

1.  Add the yeast and salt to the warm (about 100F, 38C) water.  Don’t worry about stirring it until it’s all dissolved.

2.  Mix in all of the flour at once, with a large wooden spoon and your hands, or with a standing mixer with a dough hook.  Mix until the dough is uniformly moist, but don’t knead it.  (It will be very wet and sticky.)

3.  Transfer the dough to a 5 quart (4 liter) container that will fit in your fridge and cover it (but not with an airtight lid). Let it rise at room temperature for approximately 2 hours or until it begins to collapse, or at least flatten on top.  (A longer rise of up to about 5 hours will not harm the dough.)

At this point, you can bake with the dough or refrigerate it for up to two weeks –just don’t use a container with an airtight seal.  I stashed mine in the fridge and went to bed.

Baking Day

Early Tuesday morning, fresh out of bed and in our PJs, Julia and I decided to bake.

Julia will demonstrate the technique.

1.  Liberally sprinkle cornmeal all over a pizza peel (or thin cutting board if you don’t have one).

2.  Pull out and cut off a 1 pound (.45 kg) handful of the refrigerated dough (about the size of a large grapefruit), or a smaller amount if you have very small hands.

Sprinkle the dough with flour so it doesn’t stick to your hands (unless you like that sort of thing) and form it into a ball by repeatedly stretching the surface of the mass around to the bottom, rotating it a quarter turn with each pull.

In less than a minute, you’ll have a consistent round loaf that you can drop onto the pizza peel.

Now, wash your sticky hands and have breakfast or something for about 40 minutes while the dough rests and rises.

3.  About 20 minutes before you bake, preheat the oven to 450F (230C) with a baking stone placed on the middle rack.  Place an empty broiler tray or shallow baking pan on any other rack that won’t interfere with the rising bread.

4.  When you’re ready to bake, dust the loaves with flour and slash them with a serrated bread knife in a cross or cross-hatch pattern about 1/4 inch deep.  (If your loaves didn’t rise much, don’t worry — they’ll rise in the oven.)

5.  With a quick jerking motion, transfer the loaves from the peel to the baking stone.  (If they stick a little, you can carefully nudge them off with a spatula.) Then pour about 1 cup of warm tap water into the broiler tray or baking pan.  Close the door quickly and bake the loaves for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm.

If you possibly can, cool the loaves completely on a wire rack before you slice them and gobble them up –it will improve the texture and flavor of the bread.

The result?  Delicious.  The loaves were crusty on the outside and had firm, moist and flavorful interiors.  I was worried that the very wet dough would yield a dense or gummy loaf, but it didn’t.  And, evidently, the technique of forming the boule doesn’t require much precision because Julia’s little loaf had the same texture as mine.

And it was great fun.  I think the technique of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day is something we’re going to work into our daily routine, and I look forward to trying some of the other recipes in the book.

I’ll keep you posted.

This cocktail is inspired by a drink I’ve never actually had.  My friend (and fellow cocktail enthusiast) Dan read about a drink called the Jam for Frances created by the Denver restaurant Beatrice and Woodsley that involved unspecified quantities of Colorado whiskey, a local blackberry liqueur, lime and some sort of tarragon infusion.  It sounded great, and Dan and I talked about it from time to time, but never got all of the ingredients together to make it properly.

And we still haven’t.  In the last couple of weeks, though, I’ve fiddled around with similar ingredients, and I’ve come up with what I think is a deliciously bracing Holiday cocktail.  The deep, rich flavor of blackberry is a perfect winter complement for rye, and the distinctive flavor of tarragon adds and interesting and slightly mysterious note to the drink.  It’s sophisticated, but still accessible:  I couldn’t make them fast enough at a festive dinner party early this week.

The only fussy part of this drink is the need to make a tarragon infusion.  You need to start an hour or two in advance of the cocktail hour, but it’s easy.  Just combine a bunch of fresh tarragon with at least a cup of vodka and muddle it (mash it with a muddling tool or a wooden spoon).

Let the tarragon infuse the vodka for at least an hour (or overnight), strain out the leaves, and you’re ready to go.

This little project gives you a big payoff in flavor, and there’s no other prep (like juicing fruit) for the drink.  At first, mix in your infusion with caution since its strength can vary a lot from batch to batch.

Recipe

(for one drink)

2 ounces rye whiskey

1 ounce of a good blackberry liqueur, such as Creme de Mure, available at good liquor stores and online.

1/2 to 1 ounce tarragon infusion (see above), depending on its strength and your taste.

Pour all ingredients into a shaker full of ice, shake well and strain into a coupe or cocktail glass.

Garnish with a fresh or frozen blackberry.

Cheers!