17.9.09

Un panaché, s'il vous plaît...

To celebrate my first two ever accents typed on my Mac, let's make panachés, shall we?

Oops sorry, I jumped the gun a bit. After le Sous-Terrain Français tonight in Gville I was consumed by an urgent need to tidy up the house, its having reached critical mass a bit early this week, and this was perfect encouragement. Anyway, read on to catch up with me...

Ever audacious I refuse to do any online research about panachés. I am confident that whatever crazy faux-panachés you all might have found on the internet, they will pale (npi) next to the real deal.

You need...
Equal parts, cold:
  • A nice blonde (...not THAT kind - this is a nice light lager; I almost exclusively use Stella Artois - no big if it's not an import, etc., but you don't want something with a very strong taste nor do you want something that tastes crappy [e.g. pretty much any American beer - Bud and the like] so don't go too cheap either)
  • Some limonade (equally misleading perhaps - false cognate - French limonade is not lemonade. It is a soft drink like 7-Up or Sprite altho less lemony/sweet and slightly less fizzy.) Use the clear variety of Lorina French limonade if possible - available at World Market among other places (our BiLo actually carries it altho it is upwards of $2/bottle). Otherwise try for a generic 7-Up wannabe. Often I go ahead with 7-Up (I never use Sprite b/c it's considerably more lemony and you don't want it to be SUPER citrusy) but then I use a ratio of about 1:3 (1 part 7-Up to 3 parts beer) to compensate for the lemonyness.
  • If you've found another limonade stand-in and you're not sure what kind of ratio to aim for, focus on the taste. The actual taste should be almost equal, beer and lemonyness. The perfect panaché gives you the satisfaction of beer's quench plus a lovely lightness with about 3 hints of lemonyness. From one instant to the next the taste should seem to go back and forth equally; you should taste beer, then limonade, then beer, so that your taste buds are almost confused - but delightedly quenched even in their ignorance.
It will fizz quite a bit so do the tipped-glass pour you learned when you were waitressing or bartending in college. Aside from reducing fizz you will impress the majority of those around with your ability to pour a beer with minimal foam.

Before you pour be sure to give me a heads-up so I can come over and enjoy it with you. I'm bound to be done with mine by then anyway. Alternatively we could fly to Paris so we can people watch as we sip. Or we could go cycling. Absolute best panachés are after 50km or so of road before heading to the campground...

Huge thanks to the Bill formerly known as Mystery Bill for this great blogpost idea. Might be my favorite recipe post yet.

7 commentaires:

Bill a dit…

Merci tellement Mlle Susan (yes I'm playing with the on-line translator again so hopefully that translation is NOT something offensive)!

I'll be off to the store tonight to see what I can get for limonade. I remember seeing an Italian version in the store but I'll have to check around for the Lorina French limonade. The Stella is no problem because I get that every once in a while for myself (Massachusetts is Beer Heaven). Couldn't agree with you more about the comment on Bud!

I will report back on results after some experimenting. Thanks again for this great blog. Looks like you're already comfortable with the MAC.

:-)

Bill a dit…

My word, I just noticed the time that you posted this! An even bigger thank you for getting this done so late.

Susan a dit…

yeah - you can thank my Mac, Bill, for being so irresistible! ... and also whatever it was that made me so wired after I had finished tidying the house... - quite successful online translator use, btw, there's a certain art to it - and the limonata (sp? I forget and am too lazy to look right now) should be the same as Fr. limonade, i.e. just fine! - maybe in that case you'd like to opt for Peroni instead of Stella!

Bill a dit…

Well Susan I could not thank you more for posting this recipe. After one of those days at work where it seems like everyone has taken a stupid pill (managers of course), this really hit the spot.
Went to the store and found San Bennedetto Limonata. I bought a six pack of Stella and the results are really really nice. I'm sipping away at it right now while watching a movie called 'Paris, je t'aime' - I thought you would appreciate that.
My very intelligent cubicle mate and friend Stephanie suggested I try this mixture with a Belgian Wheat Ale so I bought a six pack of Blue Moon. Although the company suggests that a slice of orange be given with a Blue Moon we normally use a slice of lemon here so we both thought it might make an interesting combination. I'll let you know how that one turns out later.

Thanks again Susan.

Susan a dit…

you're entirely welcome Bill - honestly it's not exactly selfless, this blog thing but I appreciate being appreciated anyway :) as for your current goings-on, wow so much goodness at once! a panaché AND "Paris, je t'aime"! what more could a guy want after a day surrounded by imbeciles?! I can't wait to hear how your version of the panaché worked out; sounds imminently yummy - and you're right, it really hits the spot after an iffy day! You'll have to send details of your PJT impressions - I love it except for about 3 scenes... maybe you should start a "what I did today while enjoying a panaché" blog, Bill. salut!

Bill a dit…

So here's my update after drinking panaches for the past 4 days. Definitely worth going for! I love them. The experiment with the Blue Moon Belgian Wheat was not bad but not as good as I thought it would be. The Stella was stellar. The big question for me is that the Italian limonata has an opaque color, not the clear like the Lorina. I'll definitely be on the lokout for the Lorina since I want to compare that with the San Bennedetto Limonata. It does take a bit of adjusting for taste but I can say that each and every one was wonderful.

So if you're in need of a cold libation and you're missing Paris (or missing anything for that matter - use your imagination) then make yourself a panache! You won't be sorry.
And check out Camille's 'Ta douleur' video clip on Susan's Des Clips widget. It will be the soundtrack for your enjoying the cold one (you may have to play it a few times to get through the whole panache unless you drink really really fast).

Merci Susan.

Susan a dit…

do they rock or what?? so glad you like them Bill - definitely worth trying with non-opaque limonade one day but I'm sure your current version is as close a facsimile as my 7up ones are... I've been playing that Camille album nonstop in the car lately- at first I only liked a couple of songs but I am liking it as a whole more and more and more... aside from her wacky and wondrous noise/voice talents she is a marvelous lyricist (as Billy pointed out on his blog) - my favorite line so far: Pourquoi tu m'appelles "beauté" comme si ça se voyait pas? (Why do you call me "beauty" as if it's not obvious?) :)
(At least I assume they're her lyrics - I can't seem to find any evidence to the contrary but neither have I found anyone saying she definitely wrote all the songs... Another websearch to add to my list for that rainy day that never seems to come!)