Farro Salad

Farro is the latest grain of the month, an ancient grain once enjoyed by the Romans, prized for its healthy attributes, nutty flavor, and a texture which can vary from chewy to creamy depending on how one cooks it. I discovered farro in a salad at Empire State South in Atlanta. They carry it by the tub at the DeKalb Farmers' Market, so I picked one up on our weekly shopping pilgrimage.

Cooking farro is easy. I tried three different preparations. In the first preparation, I rinsed one cup of farro and brought it and three cups of heavily salted water to a boil. I let it run about thirty minutes, and then drained the water. I allowed the farro to cool on its own. In the second preparation, I rinsed one cup of farro and brought it and three cups of unsalted water to a boil. I pulled this farro after about twenty five minutes, and then rinsed it in cold water. In the third preparation, I let the farro cook for just under twenty minutes, then added about two teaspoons of salt and cooked for another ten, and then rinsed the grain in cold water.

The Romans knew what they were doing...

The first preparation was too salty, the second not salty enough, although the two mixed together worked just fine. The third preparation was spot on. Rinsing the grains prevented them from becoming creamy, so one can control texture.

The salad recipe I made from it was also simple, and tasty. Into the three cups dry farro (I did not measure how much this yielded cooked), I chopped up three green peppers, one jar of kalamata olives, about six ounces of crumbled parmesean, and one bunch of chives. With the exception of the olives, it all came from the garden.

The dressing was:

1/2 cup sherry vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper



I dressed the salad about two hours prior to serving. Easy, quick, and (in my opinion), quite tasty.

The Bourbon Flip

It is time to begin the search for a signature holiday drink. The holidays invite tampering with classics, with bold moves and uncertain results. While the colder days of winter call for stiff and unassuming cocktails of no more than three ingredients, and the dog days of summer call for white liquors, fresh herbs and citrus, the holidays invoke a different feel. The weather is transitioning. Warm days give way to colder, although even in the more wintery north, warm days peek out for days at a time, tempting us to return the mitts and hats to the dresser and to shed that extra layer of clothing. The air is crisper. The leaves have turned, and begun their gradual migration to the streets. Ovens heat up. Turkeys and hams and roasts occupy our plates alongside yams and turnips and dressing. The frantic rush of the year closes in. Yet, somehow, this is when we breathe the best.

So it needs a cocktail. Actually, not necessarily a cocktail, which, as cocktail 101 informs us, historically requires the addition of bitters to make it such. I prefer the idea of a flip for the holiday. It can stand alone, or follow a decent meal. It feels wholesome and round. It even sounds festive.

So I am searching for a good bourbon flip recipe. I've had two excellent flips, one in Chicago at the Violet Hour, and another at Empire State South in Atlanta.

The Violet Hour served up a libation it called the "Cold & Delicious"

Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac, Dow's Ruby Port, Spice Trader Syrup, Nux Alpina Black Walnut Liqueur, Whole Egg, Apple Bitters. 

 It was both cold and delicious. But it felt wrong to me. I had just had the bartender make me an old fashioned, which he did with 12 year old rye and tobacco bitters. After such a simple and aromatic libation, the flip tasted overdone. The spices all came together, but it tasted no different from simpler flips I had had in the past (at least in my mind, this was the case).

The flip at Empire State South was decidedly simpler, and as such carried the unassuming name "bourbon flip." I had it at the end of a meal in lieu of a dessert. It was beautifully crafted, and immediately impressed upon me the fact that we had to anoint the bourbon flip as the libation of choice for the 2012 holiday season.

So I must find a recipe. The most basic seems the following, which appears as a standard recipe almost everywhere and in every book:

2 oz. bourbon
1 egg
1 tsp superfine sugar
1/2 oz cream
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg.

Another set of proportions over at Ladies United offers the following, which appears heavier:

3 oz. bourbon
2 oz. heavy cream
1 large egg
1 oz. spiced simple syrup

As for technique, the shaking method seems to be the popular one. To return to the classic How to Mix Drinks, the directions are as follows:

The essential in "flips" of all sorts is, to produce the smoothness by repeated pouring back and forth between two vessels, and beating up the eggs well in the first instance; the sweetening and spices according to taste.

It also calls for heating the beer (the recipe is for a rum and beer flip) to near boiling before mixing it with the rum and egg mixture. I think shaking will do, although I am untutored on the subject.