This week, I experimented with two flavors of bitters from Bittermens and The Bitter Truth, which my mother bought me as a Valentine’s gift! Here are the results:
1) Rabbitini
Rabbitini
Ingredients:
3 oz Hendrick’s Gin (this recipe is intended for Hendrick’s and not another brand of gin)
1 Kirby (small) cucumber, or 1/2 large cucumber
2 tsps white sugar
1 pinch celery seed
1 oz Dolin’s Vermouth
4 dashes The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters
Ice
Chill 2 martini glasses
Slice 2 slices cucumber and reserve
Chop remaining cucumber, muddle in shaker with sugar and celery seed
Add gin, vermouth and bitters, shake
Remove ice from glasses and pour
Garnish with cucumber, serve
This drink is crisp and refreshing, with a nice celery-cucumber taste. It’s great with seafood and salads– we had it with a scallop and green apple salad.
2) Red Chocolate
Red Chocolate
Ingredients:
1 blood orange
3 oz bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace)
4 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Chill 2 martini glasses
Slice two half moons of blood orange, reserve.
Squeeze juice from remaining blood orange into shaker
Add a few slices of blood orange peel from squeezed orange to shaker
Add bourbon and bitters
Mix sugar and cocoa together on a plate
Moisten edge of glasses with water or tiny bit of bourbon
Remove ice from glasses, rim glasses with cocoa-sugar mixture
Add a small bit of water (about 1/4 tsp) to remaining cocoa-sugar mixture and stir with fork until dissolved
Pour cocoa-sugar mixture into shaker
Shake and pour
Add lood orange wedge for garnish
This drink has a wonderfully complex flavor that starts out very bitter for the first few minutes after pouring but then opens up and becomes smoky and rich. It would go well with beef or pork– we drank it with flank steak.
I have been doing Hourly Comics For Hourly Comics Day
Click to see all the hourly comics from today so far!
More tomorrow when I can get things scanned!
Cocktails: Two fruity twists on classics
By Tea Berry-Blue on January 31st, 2010Posted In: Food and Drink
Cranberry Margarita
#1: Cranberry Margarita
This is a take on a classic margarita where the orange flavored liqueur (usually Cointreau or Triple Sec) is replaced with cranberry. It also includes my recipe for margarita salt– I mix the salt with a little sugar– and the trick I use to rim glasses perfectly every time.
For 2 drinks:
2 limes
5 oz good tequila (I like Don Julio)
1 oz Black Duck Cranberry Liqueur
1 Tbs fine sea salt or kosher salt
1 tsp evaporated cane juice or white sugar
Ice
Chill two cocktail glasses
Squeeze lime juice into shaker with ice. Reserve squeezed lime peels for rimming glasses.
Add tequila and liqueur, shake.
Remove ice from glasses, take squeezed lime peel and pinch it around the rim of a glass. Run it around the entire rim so there is a thin coating of lime juice on both sides of the glass.
Mix salt with sugar to make tangy margarita salt.
Pour margarita salt onto a plate, shake plate to crate an even coating.
Tip glass upside down and lay wet rim flat on plate. Turn around until rim is coated with salt, set glass upright.
Repeat with second glass.
Strain drink into glasses, serve.
Bloody Manhattan
#2: Bloody Manhattan
Manhattans are one of my favorite cocktails, and need no improvement. This Manhattan, however, uses blood orange and lime juice instead of sweet vermouth, and a little cherry juice, to give it a nice sour cherry citrus twist. If you like sour patch kids, you will love this.
For 2 drinks:
1 blood orange
1 lime
5 oz bourbon (I used Maker’s Mark)
6 Morello cherries plus 1 oz cherry juice from jar
4 dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
Ice
Chill two cocktail glasses
Squeeze orange and lime into shaker
Add bourbon, cherry juice, and bitters. Shake.
Remove ice from glasses.
Pour drinks into glasses, garnish with 3 cherries apiece