Now that the mercury is definitely on the rise in the midst of summer when full bodied red wines and dark whiskies are a little too hot for the palate and turning on the oven or stovetop simply magnifies the unbearable heat, it’s time for some chillin’ to counteract the heat. Did someone say chilled cocktails?
The Golden Fruit
It did take me quite a while to embrace the pineapple as I was one of the thousands of high schoolers who took a summertime job at one of Hawaii’s two pineapple canneries back in the 70s. Back then, if you needed to make money during the summer, both Dole and Del Monte hired any high school student who applied if you were at least 14 years old. I’m pretty sure that the minimum wage wasn’t even $3 an hour and I earned an extra 5 or 10 cents an hour since I worked the evening shift as a trimmer at Del Monte. Newbies only got hired as trimmers or packers – if you returned for a 2nd summer of torture, you possibly would be assigned to one of the maintenance positions steam cleaning the Ginaca machines or processing tables along with another 25 or 50 cents an hour – but I had enough after one summer.
However, I now occasionally will consume fresh pineapple and on even rarer occasions, use the canned variety despite those repressed Del Monte memories over 40 years ago. Pineapples do have a place in culinary applications as the sweet and sour qualities balance richer and fattier foods. That’s why the sweet in pineapple balances the salty in ham while the sour counteracts cheese on a pineapple and ham pizza (please don’t call it a Hawaiian pizza as pineapple and ham now have nothing to do with Hawaii).
The Golden Moon
I recently created this cocktail for a friend who gifted me a bottle of Hawaiian Shochu Company’s Haleiwa Rainbow which is gin created from their base sweet potato shochu and a bottle of their plantation edition Banzai Strength shochu created from both sweet potato and local pineapple to celebrate my recent retirement. Because shochu created from sweet potatoes have the earthiest qualities compared to barley or rice based shochu, the added tropical flavors would provide a nice contrast in the cocktail and since Keola’s Chinese middle name translates to “golden moon” and this cocktail is golden in color, thought that the name was more than appropriate.
However, since Hawaiian Shochu Company’s products primarily are only available for purchase directly at their distillery in Haleiwa run by the husband and wife team of Ken and Yumiko Hirata, I edited your recipe to any sweet potato based shochu. The main pineapple flavor is the 50th’s own Maui Blanc which is an off-dry pineapple wine made on Maui and can be shipped to California but also available through bevmo.com, liquorama.net and calistogawinestop.net and the fruit syrups can be found in most supermarket’s liquor section.
¼ ounce mango syrup
¼ ounce pineapple syrup
¼ ounce ginger liqueur
1 ounce sweet potato based shochu
1 ounce pineapple/mango vodka
1 & ½ ounce Maui Blanc pineapple wine
Mix all 6 ingredients with ice for about 15 seconds then strain into an Old Fashioned glass with a single large cube of ice. Garnish with a pineapple slice or skewered pineapple chunks.
Plantation Iced Tea
I got the idea for this libation from popular local Chef Chris Kajioka while he still manned the kitchen at Senia. It was basically a riff on a plantation iced tea as the vodka was infused with charred pineapple, whole vanilla beans and a host of other herbs and spices. And on those dog days of summer, sometimes you want your iced tea spiked with a little infused liquor.
1 bottle of vodka – I look for vodka distilled several times.
1 spear of fresh pineapple, patted dry then torched until lightly charred
1 whole vanilla bean split lengthwise
3 whole green cardamom pods, cracked
2 allspice berries, cracked
5 whole black peppercorns
1 star anise
1 piece (about 1 inch) fresh ginger, slightly smashed
In a large mason jar, add the full bottle of vodka along with the fruit, herbs and spices – I usually scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod but add both seeds and pod to the vodka, cover then let sit at room temperature for 3 to 7 days. Strain the mixture back into the empty vodka bottle and refrigerate – if it’s not refrigerated, the yellow color extracted from the pineapple will start browning. Add 1 & ½ ounces of the infused vodka to 3 to 4 & ½ ounces of chilled iced tea – my preferred tea is Maui mango black tea and serve on the rocks in an old fashioned or highball glass.
No Bake Dessert
When the house already feels like a sauna, the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven or stovetop but just because the mercury rises doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a nice dessert. This dessert only requires a handheld mixer and your refrigerator and provides another use of the bottle of pineapple syrup you purchased for the Golden Moon.
No Bake Pineapple Cheesecake
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp melted butter
8oz package reduced fat cream cheese, softened
2 egg whites beaten to soft peaks
2 tbsp pineapple syrup
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, well-drained
Mix the graham cracker crumbs with the granulated sugar and melted butter.
Press the graham cracker crumbs into the bottoms of 4 to 6 ramekins or custard dishes. Put the crust in the refrigerator to chill while you make the filling.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese with the pineapple syrup until fluffy then fold in the beaten egg whites and half can of the drained, crushed pineapple.
Place a thin layer of crushed pineapple over the graham cracker crust, spread the cream cheese mixture over the crushed pineapple then top with a light coating of more graham cracker and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. Garnish with additional crushed pineapple before serving.
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