Movie Cocktails - Wakandan Aviator

This post is by Matt, the Beer Baron. He loves to make cocktails based on superhero movies. Find him on Twitter and Instagram @geekcanuck

Special movies call for special cocktails. Just as we did for Wonder Woman with Themyscira Wonder Punch, now it is time for Black Panther with our newly created Wakandan Aviator -- although I made the process of putting it together more difficult due to my stubbornness.

How do you create a cocktail to celebrate Black Panther? For me, I immediately thought of creating a purple cocktail to acknowledge his regal status as King. The fact that the Black Panther premiere in Los Angeles was on a purple carpet and that the character’s suit glows purple in the movie sealed the deal.

A purple cocktail is easy, right? They are a dime a dozen if you Google them. Alas, that is where my stubbornness played its part. I didn’t want to use food colouring, digitally alter the photos or use Blue Curaçao (which I haven’t had since I was a teenager). That meant our starting point was a classic cocktail called an Aviation, which uses Creme de Violette to imbue a purple tint.  

We made a standard Aviation (2 oz gin, ½ oz lemon juice, ¼ oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur, ¼ oz Creme De Violette) first, using a recipe I found here. It was nicely aromatic but fairly weak and hardly worthy of a King.

Thankfully, we had help in the form of both an awesome book (Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail by Dave Arnold) and an awesome friend (who happens to certified cicerone and experienced mixologist). The variation above used ¼ oz more lemon juice balanced out by a ¼ oz more maraschino liqueur to bring the total to 2 oz gin, ¾ oz lemon juice, ½ oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur and ¼ oz Creme de Violette. We also swapped out the pretty neutral London dry gin we used in the first version for The Botanist, which is a more herbaceous and flowery gin.

Things were getting better. There was more body and complexity but we weren’t just there to make a good Aviation. To start creating our own variation worthy of the name Wakandan Aviator, we started with the Liquid Intelligence recipe, but this time added pineapple simple syrup and Ms. Better’s Pineapple Star Anise Bitters and used an egg white to soften the edges and give it a pleasingly smooth mouth feel. Alas, the end result was too sweet.

I tried a version with crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) for added vibrancy but then tried to balance out the added sweetness with even more lemon juice and the whole thing was a train wreck. (Not a train wreck I didn’t happily drink, but a train wreck nonetheless.)

This is when panic (and possibly drunkenness) started to set in. My go-to booze is bourbon but I was thankfully overruled before we went down that particular rabbit hole. Instead, we ditched the entire concept of the Aviation and decided to try muddling blueberries to make a purple Gin Fizz. As you can see above, it was certainly pretty and verging on purple, but not something any of us would seek out, let alone serve to a King.

In the end, the Gin Fizz did give us an element we all liked in the muddled blueberries. Now, we just needed to combine it with the other things we liked best from our previous attempts to come up with our Wakandan Aviator, which turned out alluringly aromatic, nicely balanced between sweet and sour, pleasingly smooth, and more-or-less purple:

2 ounces gin (in this case, The Botanist)
¾ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
½ ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur
¼ ounce Creme De Violette
Handful of muddled blueberries
1 egg white

Shaken over ice
Poured into a martini glass and garnished with a frozen red star

Why garnished with a frozen red star (made with cranberry and pineapple juice), you ask? Well, that is because I am a super geek. At the end of Captain America: Civil War, Bucky (aka The Winter Soldier) is taken to Wakanda and placed into cryostasis until Wakandan scientists can figure out how to reverse his brainwashing. The frozen red star represents Bucky and how technologically advanced Wakanda is. Duh.

So, what did we learn through the process of making our Wakandan Aviator?

• Use good gin
• Egg whites in cocktails (as in bourbon sours) are wonderful
• It’s always good to have friends that kick ass
• Never set out to make a vibrant purple cocktail unless you are willing to be vaguely disappointed in the colour or just break down and cheat
• Buy lots of lemons

Obviously, many lemons were hurt in the making of this cocktail.

Cheers and have fun at Black Panther. Wakanda Forever!

Pineapple Glazed Short Ribs

This terrific recipe comes from Canadian Beef.  The beef is marinated in pineapple juice which is then boiled and turned into a glaze to flavour the meat while it grills.

I've been trying out different kinds of organic and natural beef.  I found some "Miami-style" short ribs.  They are also called Korean-style or flanken-cut ribs, sliced thin through the bone and good for grilling.  

Here's what you need:

Hawaiian Bacon Sausages

There's a new farmer's market near our house called Ogilvies Food & Artisan Market.  It's just starting out so there aren't too many vendors, but it's growing.  And I love that it's open Sundays because sometimes I can't haul my lazy bones to the market on a Saturday morning.  

Chicken with Mango Salsa 2 - Now with Pineapple!

The other day I shared a delicious mango salsa over chicken.  Today I have a slightly different version with pineapple.  

The moral of this story is that you can throw together tropical fruit, hot peppers and onions in just about any combination and have a delicious topping for grilled chicken.  

For this version I used a cored pineapple, mangoes, jalapeno peppers, red onion, mint, parsley and lime.

I chopped half the pineapple.

Chopped the mangoes, onions and peppers.

And combined.  Don't mind the focus. 

Then I chopped the parsley and mint together.  This happens to be pineapple mint that grows like a weed in my garden, but any mint is fine.  Cilantro would also be good if you swing that way but I don't.

Combine the fruit, vegetables and herbs and squeeze some fresh lime juice over.  Let this sit while you grill the chicken.


Any seasoning would work nicely on the chicken but I was particularly happy with what I came up with for this.  

I mixed some juice from the pineapple with spicy English mustard.  I sprinkled the chicken with salt and pepper before grilling, then brushed them with the hot mustard mixture while on the grill.

The pineapple juice caramelized and made a delicious glaze.  It was a great match for the mango salsa and I'll definitely try this again!

These are boneless chicken thighs but this would be just as good with chicken breasts or even pork chops or tenderloin.

Top the chicken with the pineapple mango salsa and serve with rice or potatoes or salad or whatever you like.  Simple and delicious!

"Hawaiian" Sweet Potatoes

Some people tend to get their feathers ruffled over Hawaiian pizza.  Personally, I think if something tastes good, just eat it. If all food was required to be made the traditional way, things would get boring after a while.  If pineapple on pizza isn't your thing, don't order it.  But if you enjoy salty and sweet together, Hawaiian pizza can be delicious. 

These stuffed sweet potatoes take the Hawaiian pizza premise and add some fibre to make a main dish without much meat for a lighter meal.  The recipe is adapted from Clean Eating magazine.  

You'll need two large sweet potatoes, plus the items below.

Pierce the sweet potatoes and bake them for about an hour in a 400 degree oven.

Meanwhile dice the pineapple into small chunks.

Take a cooked ham steak 

And dice it the same size as the pineapple.

Chop and add some green onions as well, reserving some chopped green tops.

Carefully slice the cooked sweet potatoes and scrape out the insides, leaving a layer of sweet potato on the skin.

Add the ham, pineapple, green onions and shredded mozzarella to the sweet potatoes and mash together.

Mix well and then stuff the sweet potato skins with this mixture.

Top with some mozzarella and put them back in the oven for 20 minutes to warm through and melt the cheese.  

Once they come out of the oven, top with the sliced green onions and serve.