“One of my best friends lives along the Uptown parade route. Every first Sunday they have a big watch party. I always bring this Carnival Punch,” says Katy Casbarian, co-owner of Arnaud’s Restaurant and the French 75 Bar. “The recipe incorporates first-of-the-season Ponchatoula strawberries for the Strawberry cordial, local pecans, funky rum, and Herbsaint and Peychaud’s bitters, which both originated in New Orleans.”
Carnival Punch
Yield: About twenty servings
1 750-ml bottle Hamilton Gold Rum
10 oz. Hamilton Black Rum
Strawberry cordial (recipe below)
Pecan orgeat (recipe below)
2.5 oz. Herbsaint
2 oz. Peychaud's bitters
15 oz. lime juice
5 oz. orange juice
20 oz. black tea, cooled
Pecan orgeat
1 cup crushed pecans
20 cloves
3 oz. brandy
1 oz. aged rum
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
Strawberry Cordial
10 oz. fresh strawberry juice (from Ponchatoula strawberries if you can find them)
4 oz. orange liqueur (such as Pierre Ferrand dry curacao)
½ cup white sugar
Preparation
- Combine ingredients in a punch bowl or pitcher. Serve in sugar-rimmed glasses over ice.
- For the Pecan Orgeat: Combine pecans and cloves in brandy and rum and soak for one day. Add sugars to the mixture and combine with 1 cup water in a saucepan. Simmer for twenty minutes and strain, reserving syrup for use.
- For the Strawberry Cordial: Stir all ingredients together until sugar dissolves.
Recipe from Katy Casbarian, co-owner of Arnaud’s Restaurant and the French 75 Bar