Drink Recipes
Sweet Spiced Chicken, served w/ Wheatberry Salad
from Leah Caplan, The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School

Marinade:
1/2 cup Dijon Mustard
2 T Vietnamese Chili Garlic Paste
1/3 cup Sorghum Syrup
1 tsp Grouund Cumin
1/4 cup Death’s Door Vodka
1/4 cup Lemon Juice

12 Chicken thighs
Sea Salt
Coarse Freshly Ground Pepper


Method:
Combine marinade ingredients. Toss chicken in marinade and refrigerate overnight. Season marinated chicken with salt & pepper and grill or roast.

Washington Island Wheatberry Salad
from Leah Caplan, The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School

Hard Red Winter Washington Island Wheat Berries, soaked overnight then rinsed
4 cups
1/4 cup Tamari
1 cup Finely diced onions, fennel & carrots
1 cup Roasted sweet corn kernels (in summer only, of course- can be omitted or replaced with black beans or garbanzos)
3/4 cup E.V. Olive Oil
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1 cup Minced Parsley and Scallions

Method:
Place rinsed wheatberries in a pot with 8 cups fresh water.
Bring to a boil. Boil 45- 60 minutes until tender. (Unlike beans, pasta or rice there is a large margin for error. It is almost impossible to over cook wheatberries. ) Drain and while still warm, toss with tamari. Let cool thoroughly. Toss with remaining ingredients. Chill.

To serve:
Place a scoop of wheatberry salad on a bed of fresh spinach or sautéed kale.
Shingle chicken thighs on the side and garnish with whole grilled scallions or spring onions .

Yield: 6 portions



Island Wheat Crêpes
from Leah Caplan, The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School

1 1/5 cup milk
3 eggs
2 T oil
2 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1 cup bread flour
1/2 cup Stone Ground Island Whole Wheat Flour

Mix sugar, salt and flours together.
Combine milk, eggs and oil in a blender.
Add flour mixture and blend well.
Let rest at least 1 hour and up to overnight. Thin if needed

In a crêpe or non-stick pan, cook 80 % on first side.
Flip and slide out.

Yield 12 8-10" crêpes



Death's Door Cherry Sauce

2 1/2 cups tart Door County Cherries
3 T honey
1/2 vanilla bean
1/4 t dried or fresh lavender buds
1/4 cup Death's Door Vodka
1 T butter

Heat cherries, honey, vanilla and lavender. Simmer to thicken liquid. Remove vanilla beans and scrape seeds into cherries mixture. Remove from flame, add Death's Door Vodka then swirl in butter.

Fold crêpe in quarters. Spoon sauce over or around it and top with ice cream.

Death's Door Vodka & Garlic Roasted Fish
from Leah Caplan, The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School

Serves 2

3/4 # Whitefish fillet (or other flaky white fleshed fish) approximately 1" thick (thinner fillets can be cut and stacked)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup your favorite olive oil
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 fresh basil leaves, torn
2 Tablespoons Death's Door Vodka
1/4 t sea salt
pinch of crushed red pepper
grinding of black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place fish in an oven proof baking dish. Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl and pour over fish. Bake uncovered 25-30 minutes, basting with oil & Vodka cooking liquid every 10 minutes. Fish is done when center is opaque and flakes easily. Remove from oven and baste one last time before serving.

Island Spring Pasta
from Leah Caplan, The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School

Serves 4–6

1 batch fresh fettucine
1 pound asparagus, roasted
8 oz roasted button mushrooms or sautéed morels
1 T olive oil plus more for gnocchi
1 T butter
1 1/2 cup sliced, cleaned white and light green stalk of leek
3 cloves sliced garlic
1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
1/4 cup Death’s Door Vodka or Gin
1/2 cup cream
salt and pepper
1 pound clean dandelion greens
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

Melt butter with oil in sauce pan. Sweat leeks until very tender and translucent. Add garlic and cook until soft. Add stock, vodka and cream and boil until reduced by half. Add dandelion greens and cook until wilted.

Meanwhile, in a pot of rapidly boiling salted water, cook fettucine until just tender about 3 minutes. Scoop from pasta pot to dandelion and leek sauce. Cook pasta in sauce for about 1 minute. Divide pasta among 4–6 plates. Top with roasted asparagus, mushrooms and almonds.

Smoked Whitefish & Morel Sauce or Pot Pie Filling
from Leah Caplan, The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School

4 T unsalted organic butter
1 cup medium diced onions
1/2 t sea salt
1/4 Death’s Door Vodka
1/8 t dried thyme leaves
1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 3/4 cups fish stock
2 cups sliced honey cap or cremini mushrooms
1/4 cup dried morel mushrooms or 1/2 cup fresh
1 Tablespoon snipped fresh dill
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup sliced green onions
1 1/2 cups smoked white fish picked off the bone
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine butter, onions and salt in a medium sauce pot over medium heat. Once hot, turn heat down and cook gently until onions are totally soft and translucent (do not brown), about 7 minutes.

Turn heat up and add Death’s Door Vodka and thyme. Simmer to reduce liquid about 3–5 minutes.

Add flour and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Slowly stir in fish stock. Add sliced mushrooms and morels. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add dill, parsley, green onions and smoked fish. Stir gently so as not to break up fish too much.

Can be served as is over pasta, rice or baked potato. For an appetizer serve warm on crostini.

For pot pie, cool filling. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll 2 pie crusts out to fit an 8" pie plate. Lay crust into buttered pie plate, fill with cooled or chilled filling. Cover with second crust. Trim and crimp edges, brush lightly with egg wash, cut vents in top. Place in oven. Bake 30–40 minutes until top and bottom crust are cooked through and golden brown.

Penne With Death’s Door Vodka Pumpkin Sauce
from Leah Caplan, The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School

Serves 4–6

2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and light green parts only
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
4 whole cloves peeled garlic
1 t sea salt
1/2 cup Death’s Door Vodka
1/4 t crushed red pepper (less or more depending on your taste for heat)
4 cups peeled, seeded and diced winter squash such as Butternut, Red Kuri, Long Island Cheese, Kabocha, Blue Hubbard (the smaller the dice the quicker the cooking)
5 cups water
2 t minced fresh rosemary or sage
1 pound dried penne pasta
1 1/2 cups diced fresh mozzarella
Antigo Stravecchio or other fine aged local artisan cheese

In a large sauce pot combine: leeks, olive oil, garlic and sea salt. Cook over medium heat until leeks are very tender and translucent and garlic is soft enough to be easily smushed with a wooden spoon. Reduce heat if necessary. Do not brown. This will take about 10–15 minutes.

Turn heat to high and add: Death’s Door Vodka and crushed red pepper. Reduce Death’s Door Vodka until there is just a thin layer of liquid in the pan and a nice aroma in the air. Add: winter squash, water and rosemary or sage. Simmer 10-20 minutes adding water if necessary until squash is soft enough to mash with a wooden spoon or potato masher to create a slightly chunky sauce.

In the meantime, cook penne pasta in plenty of salted boiling water until almost tender, then scoop into sauce pot adding some of the pasta cooking liquid. Continue to cook and stir over high heat until pasta is tender, adding more pasta cooking liquid as needed to maintain sauce consistency. Season with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Stir in mozzarella and serve with a grating of Antigo Stravecchio or other fine aged local artisan cheese.

Vodka Bathed Chicken
from Leah Caplan, The Washington Hotel, Restaurant & Culinary School

Serves 10–20 as an appetizer or hors d’ouevres;
Serves 6 as an entrée. Yields 5 cups shredded chicken

Serve in a martini glass over shredded spinach for an appetizer; serve in lettuce cups for an
hors d’ouevres; or for an entrée on a hot summer evening serve over a bed of salad greens or chilled buckwheat soba noodles. Garnish any of these dishes with sliced green onions.

6 cups + 2 cups water
1 cup + 1/2 cup sliced green onions + more for garnish if desired
1/4 cup + 1/4 cup grated ginger
1/2 cup + 1/2 cup Death’s Door Vodka
1/4 t crushed red pepper
3 pounds chicken (cut into parts)
1 T + 2 T Sea Salt
2 cinnamon sticks
5 bay leaves
2 star anise
1 T sugar
1 cup dried tart Door County cherries, cranberries or raisins
2 t Vietnamese chili garlic sauce

In a large sauce pot combine 6 cups water, 1 cup green onion, 1/4 cup ginger, 1/2 cup Death’s Door Vodka, 1/4 t crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil. Add 1 T sea salt and chicken to the pot. Return to boil and immediately turn down so that the stock is barely simmering (sparse bubbles, if any). Cover pot and poach 25 minutes. Remove pot from heat and let stand covered for an additional 20 minutes.

In the meantime, in a small sauce pot combine 2 cups water, 1/2 cup green onions, 1/4 cup grated ginger, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, star anise and sugar. Bring to a boil, add 2 T salt then simmer for 5 minutes. Strain liquid, discard solids. Add dried fruit, chili sauce and 1/2 cup Death’s Door Vodka to strained liquid. Set aside.

Remove chicken from poaching liquid. As soon as it is cool enough to handle discard skin and pull all meat from bones shredding into bite size pieces. Put pulled chicken in a shallow dish and pour reserved spiced liquid with fruit over it. (For a rich chicken stock for another use: return bones to cooking liquid and simmer 2 more hours. Strain and refrigerate or freeze to use as a base for a delicious soup.)

Chill overnight.