I love Don Julio. I have loved Don Julio since certain members of the press were sneaking it into our peach nectars one night while on a press junket to rescue turtles in Mexico. It was with great excitement I sat down to a pairing with Top Chef season two winner Ilan Hall, whose restaurant, the Gorbals, has long been on my to-do list.
We started the evening with apps and the Pom Blanco, which was a sweet, fruity drink toned down with lime. Serving it in a rocks glass sans umbrella also made for a less girly drink.
Pom Blanco
Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounces Tequila Don Julio Blanco
2 ounces pomegranate juice
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1 lime wedge
Preparation:
- Mix Tequila Don Julio Blanco, pomegranate juice, fresh lime juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Shake well.
- Pour contents from shaker into a rocks glass. Garnish with lime wedge.
Ideal Serving Glass:
Rocks glass
Yield:
1 drink
The next portion of the evening was a tasting of Don Julio’s entire repertoire, including the usual blanco, anejo and reposado as well as the real and the limited-edition 1942. It is interesting to note that each bottle has its own distinct design. I must admit that the real was the smoothest and premiere sipping tequila, although blanco will remain my mixer of choice.
“Real is produced from a highly selective batch of only the best estate-grown agave and its second distillation is in a special still known as Pot Still 6, which refines the flavors even further. Attractive dry fruit flavors, cooked agave and peach are the first flavors perceived. Enticing vanilla flavors layered with caramel, chocolate and coffee undertones and a slight herbal essence.” Herbal Essence? Then they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on…
We were given a class on tequila tasting, which is very similar to wine tasting.
And then the main event – dinner!
The first course was Steamed whole bay scallops with salt-cured bacon and garlic scapes. What are scapes? They are the green plant that grows from the garlic bulb. They look a little like green onions crossed with long beans, and have a very subtle taste. Naturally the scallops were cooked to perfection without a trace of grit, and the addition of bacon, which was thick-cut and almost like pork belly, raised the dish to a higher level. The sauce was multilayered and hard to break down to its ingredients by taste, even by seasoned palates.
The first course was served with a lemon drink that disappeared from the table a little too fast for me. I didn’t get the recipe because “It is quite complicated, and involves CO2.”
The second course was mouth-watering Don Julio glazed baby back ribs, beet and mint. It was glazed with agave nectar, keeping with the theme, which made the usual glazes seem heavy-handed. There was some mumbling around the table that it was kind of a pedestrian dish, and people had hoped for something more exotic. But really, well-cooked quality meat doesn’t have to be chi-chi. Sometimes what you really want is something comforting and familiar. And maybe even a little bit down-home country.
The ribs were paired with the surprisingly spicy Smokin’ Margarita. The one couple who could handle the heat was happy to relieve the wusses of our glasses.
Smokin’ Margarita
By Nicholas Vitulli, The Eveleigh. Los Angeles, CA
Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounce Tequila Don Julio Reposado
3/4 ounce Agave Nectar
1/2 ounce fresh lime
1/2 ounce fresh squeezed orange juice
1 whole fresh jalapeno for muddling
Preparation:
- Thinly slice a jalapeno and muddle it in a shaker.
- Combine Tequila Don Julio Blanco, agave nectar, fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh lime juice into the shaker with the muddled jalapeno with ice. Shake well.
- Shake and strain over ice in a rocks glass.
Ideal Serving Glass:
Rocks glass
Yield:
1 drink
The third course, dessert, was a cool Kafir lime pot du creme with salted shortbread biscuit. I want to eat this right now. Look at that picture, don’t you want to eat it? It was a lesson in balance, as a bite of the biscuit alone proved to be too salty, but the dessert was delectable when eaten together.
The dessert was paired with a cherry sour, which I was so busy photographing I forgot to even taste. When there is so much tequila around, it is an embarassment of riches and you kind of take it for granted.
The Cherry Sour
By Nicholas Vitulli, The Eveleigh, Los Angeles CA
Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounces Don Julio Añejo
1/2 ounce Cherry Herring
3/4 ounces simple syrup
3/4 ounces egg white
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
Preparation:
- Combine Don Julio Añejo, Cherry Herring, simple syrup, egg white and lemon juice into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well.
- Strain into a chilled martini glass.
Ideal Serving Glass:
Martini glass
Ilan Hall showing off the “cuddle pose” from his recent baby shower
It’s nice to see beautiful women just let go and dig in
Should I take one home in my purse? Noooooo. Never! I was later rewarded for my honesty when a bottle arrived by courier within a few days. Thank you Don Julio, for the bottle, and for a lovely evening! For more information on Don Julio, check out their cool website.
Uh oh. Gorbals. We will talk…