WHEN it comes to throwing a party, we’d all like to be coolly stirring the perfect martini while our guests get ready to tuck into superbly grilled steak.
But are we supposed to stir or shake? Do we add an olive or a twist of lemon? And what is vermouth, anyway?
Martini-mixing is just one of many party skills every New Yorker should know – but doesn’t.
There are lots more. Even seasoned hosts can be intimidated by the thought of creating a beautiful cheese plate or choosing a bottle of wine. And doesn’t everybody get a little nervous opening a bottle of champagne?
To kick off nesting season, we asked some experts to help teach us the tricks of entertaining in style, whether it’s a cocktail soirée or a Super Bowl party.
The perfect martini
3 oz. gin
3 dashes of dry French vermouth
Stir, with ice, 30 to 50 times in a cocktail shaker, with a long-handled spoon. Strain into a small (5 oz.) V-shape martini glass that has been cooling in your freezer for at least an hour. Twist a strip of lemon peel over the drink, zest-side down, so it sprays a slick of lemon oil on top. Garnish with a small Spanish olive (pitted, without pimento).
Vermouth, by the way, is wine flavored with herbal extracts and spices. The classic brand for a martini is Noilly-Pratt – not Martini & Rossi, the Italian sweet vermouth that’s best in a Manhattan.
And note that we said “stir,” not “shake.”
James Bond was wrong about this one, says Dale DeGroff, the author of “The Craft of the Cocktail” and a longtime bartender at Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room.
“You only shake drinks that should be effervescent, like cosmopolitans and other cocktails with fruit juices,” DeGroff says. “The martini should feel cold, heavy and silky on your tongue. Which means stirring.”
The perfect Manhattan
3 oz. rye whiskey
1 oz. sweet Italian vermouth
two dashes Angostura bitters
Prepare the same as a martini, but garnish with a maraschino cherry. And again, don’t skimp on the stirring – you’re not just cooling the drink, but also melting some water into it. That softens the blow of the alcohol on the tongue.
This is the recipe for a standard Manhattan, but the drink can be sweetened by adding another half-ounce of vermouth and by using bourbon instead of rye.
The perfect Bloody Mary
3 oz. vodka
tomato juice
two dashes Worcestershire sauce
two lemon wedges, squeezed
salt and black pepper to taste
Combine in a heavy pint glass with ice, and mix by gently “rolling” the drink – pouring it back and forth between two glasses.
“Don’t shake the Bloody Mary too hard, or the tomato juice will turn foamy,” Dale DeGroff, who also frowns on common additives like horseradish, pickle juice, dill or clams.
“I hate it when people turn a Bloody Mary into this firehouse of spices,” he says. “It ruins the meaty taste of the tomato juice.”
How to cook the perfect steak
The all-important first step is picking the meat, which should be well-marbled and cut at least 1½ to 2 inches thick. Classic cuts include the New York strip steak (no bone) or Porterhouse (with bone).
Look for meat from the loin end of the beef, as opposed to the leg. That’s not something listed on the cellophane wrapper at Gristedes, but your local butcher can point you to the prime cuts – and maybe even set them aside, if you call ahead. Don’t ever put an ice-cold steak on the grill, says Waldy Malouf, owner and executive chef at Midtown’s Beacon Restaurant, who always takes the meat out of the fridge at least 15 minutes before cooking.
While he’s waiting, Malouf brushes the steak with butter or olive oil and seasons it liberally with black pepper and kosher or sea salt. (Don’t skimp on the salt because that’s what mingles with the meat juices to form a caramelized crust.)
Malouf grills the meat over a hot fire for four to five minutes on each side. Then he moves it to a cooler part of the grill for another four to five minutes on each side.
If you’re doing the steak in your oven’s broiler, you obviously don’t have a hotter and cooler section, so you’ll need to set it on high and cook the steak six to seven minutes on each side, as close to the flame as possible.
After the steak is done, take it off the grill or out of the oven and let it rest for five minutes before you slice it, Malouf says. That allows the juices to distribute and the fat to be reabsorbed.
“Some people brush the steak with butter before serving it,” Malouf says, “but I figure the cholesterol is high enough already.”
How to make the perfect cheese plate
“It’s all about variety,” says Terrance Brennan, who has made cheese a signature part of his restaurants Artisanal and Picholine.
“I like to represent all three milk types [cow, sheep, and goat] and also to serve cheeses with different textures and from different countries.”
A classic Artisanal cheese plate features five or seven cheeses – “I like odd numbers,” Brennan says – arranged clockwise, from mildest to strongest.
Start with a mild young goat cheese (Brennan suggests the Spanish Ibores). Follow it with a sheep’s milk cheese (like a Tourmalet from the French Pyrennes); a firm, mountain cheese (perhaps a nutty French Comte); a stinky, wash-rind cheese (like Forsterkase, which comes wrapped in fir bark); and a strong blue (such as Great Hill blue from Massachusetts).
Take the cheeses out of the fridge and let them warm to room temperature before serving. Garnish the platter with some greens, or perhaps with nuts and dates, and include a different knife – preferably a short one – for each cheese.
It’s fun to put tags in each of the cheeses, just as you see in stores. You can find them at Artisanal’s Web site (www.artisanalcheese.com).
How to open a bottle of champagne
The key is to make sure your champagne is chilled, says Karen King, the sommelier at Gramercy Tavern. Warm champagne doesn’t only taste yucky, it’s more likely to explode, since gas expands at higher temperatures.
Naturally, you’ll want to point the bottle away from people, but also tilt it at a 45-degree angle. If the champagne does get foamy, the angle will contain it so you don’t spill any.
King recommends taking the foil off the cork but leaving the surrounding metal cage on, and holding your hand over it. Grip the bottle at the base and turn it about six times, until the cork slides out.
“It should sound like an angel’s sigh,” King says. “The pop is festive, but it’s not correct.”
How to pick a bottle of wine
It helps to make friends with someone at a wine store who can guide you to the best buys. You’ll find friendly and knowledgeable staff at Astor Wines and Spirits (12 Astor Place, at Lafayette Street, [212] 674-7500); Union Square Wines and Spirits (33 Union Square West, at West 16th Street, [212] 675-8100); Crossroads Wine and Liquor (55 W. 14th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, [212] 924-3060); and West 57 Wine and Spirits (340 W. 57th St., between Eighth and Ninth avenues, [212] 247-5624).
Keep in mind that some guests will want red and others will want white – and that lighter wines of either color are more popular than heavy ones. So for red, go with a pinot noir or Cotes du Rhone instead of a big cabernet. In whites, a festive sauvignon blanc will go over better than a spicy, tropical chardonnay.
How to play poker
Novices who don’t know a straight from a flush should check out one of the many Web sites that list the basic rules of Texas Hold ‘Em, such as http://www.playwinningpoker.com.
Once you’ve got those down, you’re ready to move on to strategy and the No. 1 rule for winning poker: When in doubt, fold!
If you’re trying to make money (as opposed to just goofing around), fold if you have anything less than a strong pair (that is, 10s or above) or two suited connectors (such as a king and queen of clubs).
“Most players will do best if they only play about 25 percent of the hands,” says James McManus, author of “Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion’s World Series of Poker.”
“But when you do bet,” he adds, “bet aggressively.”
How to build a fire
Airflow is the secret of starting a fire and keeping it burning, says Patrick Haynes, who has become an expert after years of stoking the hearth at his cozy Greenwich Village restaurant, Ye Waverly Inn.
Start with crumpled-up newspaper and surround it with a pyramid of kindling and no more than two logs of dry wood, Haynes says. Once everything is burning nicely, you can add more logs to the fire – but never more than two pieces at a time, and always in a way that lets air get to the core of the fire.
“That way, it’ll burn all night,” Haynes says.
How to read a football spread
With the NFL playoffs on, everybody is talking football, and even betting on it (at least in Nevada, the only state where it’s legal).
That means reading a football line, like the one on page TK of today’s Post. For the uninitiated, here’s a guide to understanding one:
The team listed at left is the favorite, and if you bet on it, you have to predict it will win by more than a certain number of points, listed in the middle of the line.
Say you want to bet today on the St. Louis Rams to beat the Carolina Panthers this weekend. Since the line is currently seven, the Rams have to win by at least eight points for you to make money. If you bet on the Panthers and they lose, you can still win money, as long as they lose by six points or less. If the Rams win by seven, all bets are off (no one makes a buck).
The point spread is set by bookies in Las Vegas, and The Post’s line always includes the spread the bookies initially set (that’s the “opening” column), and the current spread, which fluctuates depending on how people are betting.
The (O/U) column stands for “over/under” and is published for people who want to bet on the total points scored in the game. You bet that the total will be over or under the O/U number.