Hilah: Hey everybody.
Welcome to Hilah Cooking.
I'm Hilah.
Today I have a very special guest to celebrate . . . one
of many special guests, but we're going to celebrate the 1-Year
anniversary of Hilah Cooking which is coming upon us rapidly.
He's going to show me how to make some punch, because I love punch and
it's a great party drink.
Every time I have a party, I'm always like, "I want to make some
punch."
Then I'm like, "What goes in this punch?" and then I end up
making lemonade with some vodka in it.
That's not really very creative.
To help me out with that, I've got the guy from the famous
Tipsy Texan blogger.
His name is David Allen, everybody.
Hey, you're here.
David: What's going on?
Hilah: What's up?
Look, it's David.
David: Happy birthday.
Hilah: Thank you.
David: That's pretty rad.
You seem a lot more mature than 1-year-old.
Not a lot but . . .
Hilah: I have a syndrome where I grow extra fast.
By next year I'll be 80.
David: You look great for a 1-year-old.
Hilah: Thanks.
You're going to show us how to make some punch?
David: Punch.
Where's the trashcan?
Do you have a trashcan?
Hilah: Right there.
David: Not trashcan punch, traditional classic punch.
Hilah: Classy punch.
David: Classic classy punch.
Before there was cocktails, before people drank martinis, there was punch.
Hilah: That was like the original . . .
David: It goes back a couple centuries or two.
Hilah: Thanks for sharing.
David: Group activity.
Communal drinking.
Hilah: Let's have a group activity with just me and you.
David: That would be hot.
That would be fun.
Hilah: Awesome.
Let's do it.
David: I'm going to jump into the punch bowl.
Hilah: We have a bowl of sugar, some lemons, and a small baseball bat.
What's going on here?
David: It's also called a muddler.
Hilah: Got it.
David: The key thing to remember when making punch is that ingredients
should be first quality.
If you don't love your friends and family enough to buy good ingredients, you just shouldn't
have them over, really
Hilah: That's a good point.
That's a good lesson for everything.
David: Don't invite them over.
Tell them to stay home.
If you're going to serve crap, just tell them to stay home.
If we're serving quality, we're going to start . . . the first ingredient,
I guess, in our punch is going to be an oil-infused sugar that the
classical punch . . . people might have called an oleo saccharum.
That's a pretty big word for punch, isn't it?
Hilah: That means oil and sugar.
David: Like oil sugar.
Hilah: Is that Greek, though?
David: I think it's . . . David Wonderich, the punch historian, calls
it dog Latin.
What we're going to do is take the peels off of the
lemon.
What we want is just . . . we just that yellow outside.
That's where the fancy oils, that's where the zest
is.
Leave as much of the white pith on the lemon as possible.
We're just going to try to take off . . . like that; real pretty.
Hers is much more attractive than my long spiral.
Hilah: I'm a professional chef.
David: A spiral is very attractive.
We're just going to peel all the lemons.
Hilah: You're faster, though.
One last little bit there.
Now what happens?
David: We've got half a dozen lemons, 6 ounces or so of sugar.
We're just going to try to granulate it into here
with our . . . what do you call it, baseball bat muddler?
We'll call it a muddler.
Hilah: You want to be right.
David: Use a ketchup bottle or whatever you've got.
We're just trying to use that sugar to scrape off that zest,
that oil off of the zest; the fragrant . . . it really smells good,
doesn't it?
Hilah: Yeah, it does.
David: I want to rub it on my face a little bit.
Hilah: On your body.
David: Yeah, on my body.
It smells good.
We're just going to grind the sugar gently with the lemons.
Then once we have done that sufficiently, we've expressed all of the oil
out of the zest, we're going to let this sit and infuse for half
an hour to a couple of hours.
Hilah: Is that all?
Are we done muddling?
David: Do you want to take a shot at it?
Hilah: I want to do a little bit.
This is fun.
The sugar's all like sandpaper in there, scraping everything up.
David: The sugar is abrasing the oil off the zest.
It smells awesome, smells good.
We're basically flavoring the sugar right now.
Oleo saccharum.
Hilah: That's a good word.
I should get the spelling on that before you go.
I think I did it sufficiently now.
David: I think so.
Looks good.
In case . . . sorry.
It's your show.
I'm sorry.
I forgot, I get carried away.
Hilah: This guy.
You were going to say that we were going to not throw
these away.
David: Don't throw the lemons away.
Hilah: Wasteful.
David: Wasteful.
Hilah: We're going to juice them.
David: We're going to cut them in half and juice them.
Hilah: Like so.
David: You can use either a reamer-style or a squeezer.
Hilah: Totally going to juice more lemons than you.
David: Either way, you want to use fresh juice always.
I like to strain out the little seeds and bits.
Hilah: The pulpies.
David: Pulpy bits.
Use a little mesh strainer for that.
Hilah: I think I'm beating you.
David: I'm more about quality than the quantity.
Hilah: My quality was better on the peels.
David: Oh man.
We'll see when we taste that oleo saccharum.
I think a team effort is the key.
Hilah: Good idea.
We're almost done.
I was going to ask you to talk about your blog and stuff, but no time for
that.
David: Read about it at TipsyTexan.com.
Hilah: That's brilliant.
David: We're juiced here.
Hilah: Wait.
I'll pour this.
Strain this too.
David: We're going to strain this.
We're straining.
Hilah: Crap.
This thing pours like a mad man.
David: Strain those juicy bits.
Perfect, beautiful.
Hilah: Now we're going to dissolve the sugar in the juice.
David: The next goal is to dissolve the sugar.
We're going to use about half the lemon juice we have, and then
just give it a good stir.
We just want to dissolve that sugar.
That was pretty good.
We're just going to strain these guys off.
You can keep some of these for garnish; that would be good.
Now we have our oleo saccharum, our lemon-infused sugar, and we've
made a little syrup with it, with the fresh-squeezed lemon juice.
Next part . . . do you know what the next part
is?
Hilah: Is it booze?
David: Add the booze.
Hilah's favorite part.
Start to put the punch together; obviously, you can't have punch
without booze.
Any type of booze can go in punch.
Every time I've been to Hilah's house in the past, it's been Everclear, which is . . .
Hilah: Everclear's good.
David: No, that's a bad play.
It's a really low-budget play.
It's your birthday; you've got to dial it up a notch
if it's birthday punch.
We're going to start with 1 cup of Jamaican rum.
Fragrant and delicious.
Hilah: Smells good.
David: 4 ounces, or 1/2 -cup of cognac.
This is a variation on a famous American punch called Philadelphia Fish House
Punch.
When I say variation, what that means is I didn't have
the right ingredients for it, so we're faking it.
Hilah: Sweet, I love variations.
David: That's cool.
4 ounces of that.
Then when you make Philadelphia Fish House Punch, it traditionally has a peach
brandy, which we don't have, so I'm going to fake it by using a little
Applejack.
Hilah: That's like an apple brandy, right?
It's still fruity.
David: Right, fruity.
Applejack's a great, old, classic American distillate.
Then I've got this; it's luxurious in honor of your
birthday.
This is called Aqua Perfecta; it's a really fancy pear
liquor.
We're going to do about 1 ounce of that and see what happens.
This is our bootleg fish house punch.
Hilah: Why is it called fish house punch?
David: There was a social organization around Philadelphia, and this
was their house punch.
It was not uncommon for clubs, associations, organizations to have a punch for the house.
Hilah: Because it was a communal drinking thing.
David: We're actually going to call this Hilah House Punch.
Hilah: Hilah's Fish Punch.
David: Whatever.
Now we're going to take our juice, sugar, lemon, oil
mixture . . .
Hilah: Oleo saccharum.
David: . . . our our oleo saccharum and add that to the booze.
I know this looks like a party, right?
You just want to . . .
Hilah: I want to just chug it.
David: It's a little stout, even for a confirmed lush like yourself.
I should be speaking of myself.
Hilah: Both of us.
David: That's a bit stout.
We're actually going to add a little filtered water.
I'm going to do about 1 1/2 pints or so, because punch is
something that you should be able to drink for hours on end . . .
Hilah: Without throwing up.
David: . . . without getting punch drunk.
Hilah: Good one.
David: Let's see what this tastes like.
We need some ice; a little ice.
Do we have ice?
Hilah: Look at this one I made for you.
David: Hilah made fancy ice.
Hilah: I got a Jell-O mold, and I . . . it was about 2 hours before
we're supposed to do it and he was like, "I didn't make an ice mold,
did you?"
I was like, "Crap, no".
I did just put some ice cubes in here then add some water, and then froze that.
It's a shortcut to the ice mold.
David: With punch, you want a big ice mold.
You can take a milk jug or paper carton, fill it up with ice, freeze
it for a couple days, a day and a half.
That way you get a big chunk of ice in your punch.
As your party goes on, the punch stays cold, it dilutes
but not too fast.
It's good.
If you're last-minute about it like I am, you can do it Hilah's
way, which is pretty awesome.
We've got our big block of ice, and we're just going to chill that a little bit.
Ladle it around.
Hilah: This looks cool.
David: Do you like this punch bowl?
Hilah: I do love this punch bowl.
David: It's pretty big.
Hilah: It's amazing.
David: It's like a . . . you could bathe a baby in it almost.
Hilah: If it was a tiny premature baby.
David: We're going to taste our punch and see how the balance is on
it, and then make adjustments as we need to.
You want to go first?
Don't make a face if it's bad.
How does it taste?
Is it good?
Hilah: I think it's good.
What do you think?
Is it a little too sweet?
We could add more lemon juice maybe, or is it good?
David: That's pretty darn good.
Actually, that's rooty-tooty fresh and fruity.
Hilah: I'm no punch expert.
Yay, punch.
Cool.
We should cheers or something, right?
Awesome.
David: Should we let the cameraman have some?
He's not . . . he can't drink?
Hilah: No.
David: Happy birthday.
Hilah: Thanks for coming on the show.
David: Cheers.
Hilah: I'll put this recipe up on the website.
Also check out the link that I will post to Tipsy Texan, which is
amazing.
Cheers.
Happy birthday.