Ratafia

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Lou Amdur, owner of the wine bar Lou on Vine, has a passion for creating homemade liqueurs, particularly the fruit ratafias (infused brandies) and vin de noix, or green walnut wine, traditional in southern France.

Lou first learned about them reading Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of Southwest France decades ago, then tried them during a trip to the region. He puts a local spin on these French classics by taking advantage of Southern California’s abundant seasonal produce. At any one time, he has several concoctions working in jars he stashes beneath his kitchen sink.

Fortunately, Lou loves to share what he’s learned. On Sunday, he and his wife joined a group of friends at my house for a ratafia-making party. Think arts and crafts for adults where everyone takes home a jar of ratafia that will be ready to drink on Valentine’s Day.

Over the years, Lou has made ratafia with several different fruits. The best, he’s concluded, are high-acid citrus such as blood oranges, kumquats, quince and bitter lemons. For the base alcohol, vodka (a reasonable substitute for the distilled grape spirits found in France) or brandy is traditional.

On Sunday, we used Satsuma tangerines, at their peak right now, and Armagnac for a touch of luxury. Lou’s recipe calls for fruit zest, fresh-squeezed fruit juice, simple syrup, one whole clove (lightly toasted to bring out the flavor) and one cardamom pod (also lightly toasted). More fruit creates a more interesting ratafia, he says. The Satsumas were easy to peel, so the real work was scraping off the bitter white pith. With everyone pitching in, it was half an hour of chaos and then a quick assembly job (see recipe below).

When we sat down to brunch, Lou poured everyone a glass of his vin de noix. Made with green walnuts available in early June, vin de noix is far more complicated to create and has a longer gestation period than the simple ratafia we made. Still, it was an example of the delicious possibilities. The earthy, black walnut wine was just sweet enough, not cloying. Rather than the syrupy viscosity of commercial liqueurs, it was thin, like an intense eau de vie. It tasted so delicious with the brown sugar pecan and oatmeal cake I served that I poured a little right on the cake.

Recipe: Ratafia reflects your personal taste. We based our proportions on a 750-ml bottle of Armagnac. We used 12 tangerines, each about the size of a child’s fist, which gave us 2 cups of zest cut into strips the size of toothpicks and 2 cups of juice. We added 1 cup of simple syrup made by dissolving a cup of sugar in an equal amount of water, threw in the clove and cardamom pod and muddled the whole mess to release the flavors. Using quart jars from Cost Plus with rubber seals and wire closures, we divided our ratafia into four parts with equal amounts of zest in each jar. Lou instructed us to keep our jars out of the light to preserve flavor and color, and to shake them every day or so to keep the ratafia mixed. When it’s done, filter out the solids. To retain the fresh flavors and acidity, refrigerate it once you’ve opened the jar.

-- By Corie Brown