My experiments in baby ginger continue… it turns out pickling isn’t all it’s good for.
Ever since Rachel’s ruined me for ginger beer forever, I’ve been trying to recreate it at home, since I don’t exactly make it to Seattle very often (and the shipping… well, it burns more than the ginger). In my experimentation I’ve discovered that not all ginger is created equal. The same recipe using ginger from different stores will taste different, and nothing I tried really tasted exactly right.
Until I used the baby ginger.
The flavor is strong and spicy, but fresher, without the same sinus-singing burn that more mature ginger tends to have.
Granted, it is still pretty dang spicy (just how I like it), but you can easily adjust the quantities of sugar, lime juice, and other ingredients to mellow out the burn if you choose.
I used the brilliant method outlined in Ashley’s book, Date Night In, which calls for you to blend the ginger with sugar and water (no peeling necessary), and then strain out the solids. I run it through the blender again to eek out every last bit of ginger flavor.
The ginger beer concentrate is incredibly versatile, and while it serves as the base for these fancy mules, you can also mix it with plain club soda for a hot and refreshing homemade ginger beer. I like to make a big batch of the concentrate and freeze it in ice cube trays so I can easily make a ginger soda anytime I please.
Funny story: I love ginger beer (that’s nothing new), and I know if a restaurant has a Moscow Mule on their menu that I can usually just get a plain ginger beer. Well, one night I tried to be clever and order “a Moscow Mule please, hold the mule”. The waiter gave me a strange look because, well, I basically just ordered a straight up vodka. Oops.
(Side thought: Who decided to call it a mule anyway? There’s nothing ass-inine about ginger beer. Maybe because it has a bit of a kick? Who knows.)
I call these “Fancy Mules” because they have an extra splash of Domaine de Canton, a French ginger liqueur that makes these mules extra special. I guess you could call them French Mules if you’d like (despite the fact that the Moscow part is still there). But the variations are really endless… Kentucky Mules made with bourbon, Gin Gin Mules with gin, Mexican Mules with tequila, Mezcal Mules with (duh) mezcal… I mean really, ginger beer with just about any liquor is going to be good. Especially this homemade ginger stuff.
Ok, so what’s with the copper mugs anyway?
Well, it turns out copper is an amazing heat conductor, and so your mules will stay frosty cold far longer than if you were to serve them in glass. Don’t believe me? Fill a copper mug with ice and give it a few minutes until you start to see condensation form on the outside of the mug. Then touch it and see just how cold the copper gets.
For an even colder chill, freeze the mugs for 15 to 30 minutes before serving and they’ll be fabulously frosty.
I used these hammered copper mugs, which have a nice vintage-looking patina (as opposed to the super shiny finish most mugs have).
Cheers!
Sure, you could use ginger beer here, but a refreshing moscow mule made with homemade ginger concentrate is a revelation. The addition of ginger liqueur makes it extra special.
If you want to skip the homemade ginger concentrate and just use store bought ginger beer, use about 4 ounces of your favorite ginger beer in place of the ginger concentrate and club soda, and add a generous squeeze of lime juice.
Let us know what you think!
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