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Tiki Blinders: a Frozen Winter Cocktail at Test Pilot in Santa Barbara

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Winter’s Don’t-Miss-Drink in Edible Santa Barbara

Test Pilot Slushy by Liz Dodder

At Test Pilot in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, citrus is key. So are tropical fruits, Guyanese rum and absinthe foam. Owner Brandon Ristaino, who also owns The Good Lion, is intent on supplying high-quality, delicious and interesting drinks to the neighborhood, complete with housemade ingredients and perfect garnishes.

He’s also intent on buying local, and reusing as much produce as he can. “We buy all our citrus from Mud Creek Ranch for both locations, and we resuse every citrus twist.” All twists are saved, pressed and combined with juice for cocktails or old-fashioned shrubs. Lime halves are also saved, scooped out and then filled with absinthe foam for the bar’s signature Test Pilot.

To get to 90% local produce across both bars, Ristaino is looking to Carpinteria for tropical fruit and Harvest Santa Barbara, a local farm-produce delivery service, for the winter pears in this slushy, winter spice concoction. The pears are first made into a cordial, which is a fruit-based, fortified syrup that’s concentrated and used as an ingredient in various drinks.

Winter Adult Slushy at Test Pilot in Santa BarbaraTo make a pear cordial, Ristaino juices fresh Bartlett pears with the skin on, then strains the juice. He adds 1 part organic sugar to 1 part pear juice, and .75 ounces overproof vodka (or any neutral, clear spirit over 80 proof). Store in a fridge for up to 3 weeks.

To make the Tiki Blinders, pour 3/4 ounces each of VSOP Cognac (like Raynal VSOP), rum (like Hamilton Demerara Guyanese or El Dorado 12-year) and pear cordial into shaking tin. Add 1/4 ounces vintage or tawny port (like Ramos Pinto Reserva), 1/2 ounces lemon juice,
1 dash aromatic bitters (like Abbot’s), 1 dash cherry bark vanilla bitters and 3 dashes absinthe (like St. George). Shake vigorously for 8-10 seconds with ice. Strain all contents into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with fresh grated nutmeg.

Test Pilot adds this to their slushy machine with some water, but to make it at home, put all ingredients but the lemon juice into a sealable plastic bag. Add 3.5 ounces water and freeze overnight. To serve, add it and the lemon juice to blender and flash-blend. In a pinch, blend all ingredients with a few ice cubes to taste.

Winter Adult Slushy at Test Pilot in Santa Barbara

Caramelized Grilled Watermelon Salad at The Black Sheep

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Summer’s Don’t-Miss Dish from Edible Santa Barbara

Is there anything more delicious than cold, ripe watermelon in the heat of summer? Well, yes actually. When Chef Robert Perez sears watermelon, caramelizing it for this summer dish at The Black Sheep, the iconic red and green fruit is transformed. And it’s more delicious.

Chef Perez’s style of cooking is to take fresh ingredients and transform them into a whole new taste sensation – all while sticking to a base of traditional cooking. It’s also to buy local, and watermelon is consistently available form local growers all summer in Santa Barbara County. They usually show up in our farmers markets around July 1, and just get sweeter all summer.

This particular recipe was born out of Chef Perez’s grandmother’s famous pickled watermelon rinds. He remembers them fondly, eating the rinds during his childhood in the South, but regretfully, never recording the recipe. He tested many recipes to finally get the magic combination for his Picked Watermelon Rind (served with spare ribs or a pickled plate at his new restaurant La Oveja Blanca) and had fruit left over. So he tried grilling the watermelon, getting sweet crunchiness with a moist interior, perfect for a savory-fruity summer salad.

Grilled Watermelon Salad by Liz DodderTo make the salad, Chef Perez starts with a local, ripe watermelon and cuts it into 3 inch-long rectangles, 1 inch thick – with peel and seeds removed. Sprinkle the watermelon with olive oil, salt and pepper. Make sure the grill is very hot, and then place the watermelon on the grill for 2 to 3 minutes to get some nice grill marks. Then, turn it over to about a minute, just to warm the other side.

On a plate, spread some basil oil (or basil-infused olive oil), and then drizzle it with red wine syrup (made by heating 2 parts red wine, 1 part vinegar, 1 part sugar and some rosemary). Top with tomato concassé (blanched, peeled, seeded & chopped tomatoes), toasted pistachios and micro basil.

Spring Pea Salad at Mesa Verde

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Spring’s Don’t-Miss Dish in Edible Santa Barbara Magazine

Chef Greg Arnold’s modern plant-based cuisine at Mesa Verde Restaurant in Santa Barbara stimulates more than your appetite. Yes, the dishes’ vegetables come straight from the weekly farmers market. Yes, the menu’s inspiration comes from Mediterranean influences. But it’s the melding of all this plus art – what he calls “synesthesia” – that makes his food exquisite.

Spring Pea Salad - Mesa Verde RestaurantA vegetarian himself, Chef Arnold elevates plants to starring roles using a Mediterranean mindset. “This style of cooking goes so well with California produce because of our similar climates,” says Arnold. “My salads come from what I find here at the market, because ingredients in season tend to pair well together.” The Mediterranean’s diverse spices also give Arnold’s dishes power: the menu is threaded with bold notes from the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe.

It’s fusion cuisine at its best: street tacos, exotic spices, starring veggies and also art. Growing up painting, playing music and cooking, Arnold realized that with food, our senses mesh. How a dish looks and tastes is intermingled. So, beauty becomes delicious.

To make this simple salad, Chef Arnold roasts carrots in the oven with cumin seeds, thyme and olive oil until soft, then purées them. He also blanches fresh peas in salted water (it should taste like the ocean) for 1 minute, moves them to an ice bath, then purées them with water and lemon. He paints the plate with both, then adds halved peas and okra, torn kale and slices of cucumber, yellow squash, fennel and endive. Topping the salad is a sprinkle of blueberries, wood sorrel leaves and flowers with powdered sumac and chlorella on the side.

The dressing is also simple, yet powerful. Chef Arnold reveals his favorite super-easy vinaigrette based on a classic Levantine salad: fattoush. He blends grapeseed oil (it’s lighter than olive oil), lemon, fresh garlic, fresh thyme, salt and sumac, then lightly drizzles it over the top.