Juneteenth

About a week ago, The New York Times Cooking newsletter showed up in my email inbox including a very pretty picture of a strawberry cocktail and a link to Nicole Taylor’s story entitled “A Juneteenth of Joy and Resistance”. Admittedly, it’s the picture of the strawberry cocktail that caused me to open the email, read the newsletter and then clink on the link.

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Nicole Taylor’s story describes how the coronavirus and protests over the killing of George Floyd have complicated the upcoming celebration of Juneteenth, the June 19th holiday that honors the day in 1865 when, Taylor writes, enslaved Africans in Galveston, Texas, learned from Union soldiers that they were free, two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

For her story, Nicole Taylor interviewed black chefs from across the United States and collected recipes, including for the James Beard award-winning Seattle chef and an owner of JuneBaby, Lucinda and Salare, Edouardo Jordan’s Juneteenth red punch (remember that pretty strawberry cocktail I mentioned above). She also curated a collection of NYT Cooking recipes for the holiday available here.

Prior to reading this New York Times Cooking newsletter and Nicole Taylor’s story, I am embarrassed to admit I had never heard of Juneteenth. Its troubling that I did not learn about Juneteenth in school (and I was one of those annoying, sit-in-the-front row with her hand raised types so it wasn’t that I was sleeping through class!).  Since reading Taylor’s story, however, numerous Juneteenth references have popped up in my Instagram feed, including an invitation to sign a petition to make Juneteenth a national holiday. And this week, I have taken the time to read and learn about Juneteenth and the importance of the holiday. Some of the resources I found helpful are linked here, here, and for kids here.

And, as a Northeast Seattleite with the JuneBaby, Lucinda and Salare restaurants just down the street, I was esecially intrigued by chef Edouardo Jordan’s Juneteenth Red Punch. Why red? According to Atlas Obscura, for centuries, hibiscus flowers have served as a base for teas in West Africa. It was also customary to chew the caffeine-filled red kola nut or drink it infused with water. Culinary traditions that came across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas as part of the slave trade. The result? Red-tinted drinks. And according to Fred Opie, a history professor at Babson College, red could also be traced back to Yoruba and Asante celebrations that involved “offering up the blood of animals.” Red foods and beverages have become staples of Juneteenth from Big Red, a sweet cream soda native to Texas, to red velvet cakes and strawberry pies. But according to Nicole Taylor, red also symbolizes generations of suffering and perseverance, and writes that the hue is “a symbol of ingenuity and resilience in bondage.”

Yesterday, in preparation for and honor of Juneteenth, I baked red velvet cupcakes with Sam and Emma and talked with them about why we would be celebrating. And for the adults, I did a test run of Edouardo Jordan’s Juneteenth Red Punch.I highly recommend you try it tonight in honor of the holiday and then keep drinking it all summer long!

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JUNETEENTH RED PUNCH

INGREDIENTS:

For the Strawberry Syrup:

• 1 ½ cups fresh strawberries (about 6 ounces), hulled and halved
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup sliced (unpeeled) fresh ginger (about 2 ounces)

For the Cocktail:

• 6 ounces strawberry syrup, cooled
• 4 ½ ounces Cognac
• 3 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice
• 3 ounces unsweetened pomegranate juice
• 2 ounces lime juice
• 3 ounces ginger beer
• Ice, for serving
• 12 ounces dry sparkling wine
• Fresh strawberry for garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare the syrup: In a medium saucepan, bring strawberries, sugar, ginger and 3/4 cup water to a simmer over low heat and cook for 15 minutes until liquid reduces. (If it starts to boil, lower the heat as needed.) Remove from heat, cover with a lid and let it cool to room temperature.
2. Strain cooled syrup through a fine-mesh strainer, mashing the pulp to extract as much liquid as possible. (You should have about 1 cup.) Refrigerate until ready to use. (The syrup will last for 1 week.)
3. Batch the cocktail: In a large mason jar or pitcher, combine 6 ounces syrup with the Cognac, juices and ginger beer. Stir with a wooden spoon and seal. (You can mix it up and refrigerate to 1 day in advance.)
4. When ready to serve, fill six old-fashioned glasses with ice. Stir the batched cocktail (in case it settled while chilling) and divide it equally among glasses. Top each glass with 2 ounces wine and garnish, if desired.

Or, instead of batch-style, if you want to make only one cocktail: 

• 1 oz strawberry syrup 
• .75 oz cognac 
• .5 oz pineapple juice 
• .5 oz pom juice 
• .25+ oz lime juice 
• .5 oz ginger beer 
• 2 oz sparkling wine

Recipe Credit: New York Times Cooking

If, like me, this Juneteenth Red Punch makes you want to cook more recipes from Chef Edouardo Jordan, I will soon be trying his macaroni and cheese recipe that I found here and dinner roll recipe from Food & Wine here.