This is the second in a series of three posts related to a particular dinner party we had at home where cocktails were specifically created or selected to pair with the dishes. You can check out the first pairing here.
The first dish was an amuse bouche. This second dish, the official first course, was a duck confit salad, including arugula, goat cheese and vegetables. Here I decided to pair the dish with a Hemingway daiquiri. The reason I picked this drink was that I knew the confit would have a fair bit of fattiness to it and wanted a drink that could cut through some of that. The Hemingway daiquiri has a good amount of citrus in it without taking us into the sours category. For this particular dish I changed up the standard recipe and went with an aged rum. I wanted more richness and mouthfeel to the drink. I chose an El Dorado 15 year, but you could easily use something a bit tamer than that. The grapefruit juice in the Hemingway also adds a bit more sweetness and sourness which I think play nicely with the bitter arugula and fatty duck. Here’s the recipe;
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Hemingway Daiquiri
Ingredients:
2 oz El Dorado 15 year old Rum
0.75 oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
0.5 oz maraschino liqueur
0.5 oz Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice
Garnish with a lime wheel
Method: Shake everything but the garnish on ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lime wheel.
Enjoy!
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