Posts Tagged ‘recipes’
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I have been totally fail at posting new cocktails, and I have a bunch, only now I have so many that I don’t even remember what-all I put in some of them. Two of them were good, too. One had gin, muddled stevia and pluots, but I don’t remember what else.
But here are drinks from this weekend.
On Friday, I did something I almost never do, and mixed a drink from a magazine. It was a drink from this month’s Food & Wine, made with Hendricks, arugula, lime, and agave. I mixed it for two reasons: one, because it had arugula in it; and two, because it accompanied an article that reflected a lot of my own thoughts about bartending (and particularly my thoughts on the pretentiousness of the term “mixologist” and the unsettling trend of people putting things in drinks purely as a type of liquid oneupmanship as opposed to making something that tastes good. I wasn’t fond of the agave, and think it’s just not really the right sweetener for gin, but the arugula was really nice.
On Saturday, I made this:
Basil Negroni
This isn’t quite a negroni with basil in it; it’s a little bit off a traditional negroni recipe and has a sort of duskier flavor.
Ingredients for two drinks
6 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz port wine
1/2 oz Grapefruit bitters
About 20 leaves basil, plus two pretty sprigs with blossoms
Instructions
Put everything in a shaker with ice, except basil flowers
Muddle until basil is bruised
Shake
Strain into two chilled cocktail glasses, add flowers for garnish
On Sunday, I started out my day by infusing a bottle of gin I wasn’t too thrilled with with lavender. We’ll see how it comes along next week.
Then I made this:
Elderfields Road
Elderfields Road is the name of the street my father grew up on. This drink is a variation on a Manhattan, and since he grew up right outside the city, I thought that was appropriate, considering the major ingredient here.
Ingredients for 2 cocktails
6 oz bourbon
Juice of 1 lime
2 oz elderberry syrup (homemade)
1 oz red vermouth
2 splashes blood orange bitters
Instructions:
Mix everything but the bitters together in a shaker with ice and shake
Pour into two chilled cocktail glasses, add bitters
Comment
This cocktail has a story.
Last night, when Rina came over, I offered to make her a drink. She said she liked Manhattans and drinks of that ilk, so I pulled out some bourbon and vermouth (Punt E Mes is my red vermouth of choice).
While I was doing this, I opened up a bottle of Fernet-Branca and asked her to smell it, toying with the idea of mixing it into the drink. But Fernet-Branca is one of those things that people either love or hate, so I didn’t want to put it in the drink if she wasn’t going to like it.
She took a sniff, and said “that smells like my childhood!”
Rina went on to talk about her Italian family and their cakes, which, and I agree from my experience with my Italian family, are always covered in delicious icing, but when you get to the cake part, it’s always drenched in liquor to the point that for a child who is craving sugary sweetness, it’s inedible.
So I made her a drink. Tonight, I remade the drink for my mother, who said it was “a better Manhattan.” It’s not as sweet, and the Fernet-Branca is a much more sophisticated flavor than, oh, maraschino cherries.
Here it is for you:
Ingredients:
3 oz bourbon (I used Eagle Rare last night, Buffalo Trace tonight)
1 oz red vermouth (Punt E Mes)
1/2 oz Fernet-Branca
Instructions:
–Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice, shake
–Serve in a chilled martini glass
(easy!)
In other proportions, served on the rocks or shaved ice, this is called a Fanciulli Cocktail, but I use a lot more bourbon here. And no ice.
So, man, it’s been almost a week and I haven’t told you all about the new addition to my family!
The bees are so friendly and happy! I love having them in the garden! They buzz around all day working hard and then they sleep at night and when you open the hive, the honey smells like cinnamon!
We will have honey in September! In the meantime, we still have honey from the people who gave us the bees!
I used the honey to make three cocktails this weekend! Here they are!
1) Ginger Bee
Ingredients for Two Cocktails
6 oz Pyrat XO Reserve Rum
1/2 oz honey
1 oz Cointreau
Ten leaves Cinnamon Basil plus two sprigs of flowers for garnish
1-2 oz candied ginger chunks plus two chunks for garnish
Instructions
Add honey, ginger and basil to shaker with ice and muddle well
Add rum and cointreau, shake
Pour into two chilled cocktail glasses, add basil sprigs and ginger
2) Bee Leg Fizz
(This is a variation on a Bootleg Fizz, but with bees! And de-highballed!)
Ingredients for Two Cocktails
6 oz Greylock Gin
Juice from one Meyer Lemon
1/4 cup chopped lavender plus two sprigs lavender for garnish
1/2 oz honey
1/2 oz lavender syrup
1/4 cup stiffly whipped egg whites
Instructions
Add honey, syrup, lemon juice, and lavender to shaker with ice, muddle
Add gin and egg white, shake like crazy
Pour into two chilled cocktail glasses, garnish with lavender sprigs.
3) Spicy Bee
Ingredients for 2 drinks
6 oz Dogfish Head Jin
1/4 cup fresh chopped mint, plus two sprigs for garnish
1/2 oz honey
1/2 oz dry vermouth
6 rings oil-packed deep fried hot peppers, plus 2 for garnish
Instructions
Add mint, honey, and peppers to shaker with ice and muddle
Add gin and vermouth, shake
Pour into chilled cocktail glasses, add mint and pepper garnish
I made two more flavors of ice cream this week!
Honey Ginger with Honey
Ingredients
1 2/3 cups Half & Half
5 Tbs honey
2 Tbs finely chopped fresh ginger
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 egg whites
Instructions
Put honey, sugar, and water in a small saucepan. Cook, stirring, until honey and sugar are dissolved.
Add ginger and bring to boiling.
Boil until the mixture is reduced to syrup
Lower heat to low, add half & half slowly, stirring
Remove from heat, cool to room temperature
Whip egg whites to form stiff peaks
Gently fold egg whites into milk mixture
Freeze according to your ice cream mixer’s instructions
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Ingredients
2 cups Half & Half
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
2 tbs cinnamon
1/2 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp chili powder
Instructions
Heat 1 cup of half & half in a medium saucepan with cocoa, orange, cardamom, and chili, stirring until cocoa is dissolved
Add the rest of the half & half and the cream, and cook just till it begins to bubble around the edges.
In a bowl, stir the egg yolks until slightly frothy and pale
Add the sugar to the eggs and mix well
Add the dairy mixture in 1/4 cup increments, mixing quickly and thoroughly to temper the egg mixture
Once half of the mixture is mixed into the eggs, add the rest and stir until the consistency is even
Return to saucepan and cook on low until the mixture reaches a temperature of 170 degrees F or 77 C
Remove from heat and refrigerate overnight
Freeze according to your ice cream mixer’s instructions
So, first, and I’d like to thank ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ldragoon for this one: If the RDJ Sherlock Holmes is House, MD, THIS Sherlock Holmes is LOST. It even has the horns. No time traveling. Yet. And this is definitely the Daniel Faraday version of Holmes–and oh, look! Smokey just made an appearance. If you have Netflix, it’s on Play Instantly, and you should all watch it for the lulz.
BUT WAIT NOW HE IS FENCING WITH PROTO DARTH VADER WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN. Seriously, yes, I realize I’m spoiling but you need to see it for yourself.
Second, and more importantly, I’ve been experimenting with my ice cream maker. Sadly, tonight’s batch didn’t turn out– I tried to make vegan ice cream, and it didn’t even freeze– but yesterday’s did!
Earl Grey Ice Cream
Ingredients
1 cup boiling water
4 Earl Grey Tea Bags
1/2 cup sugar
1 2/3 cups half & half
2 egg whites
Instructions
Steep 1 cup of tea with 2 tea bags
Take the hot tea and mix it with the sugar. Put it in a small saucepan and boil until the tea has been reduced to syrup.
Add the half & half, bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the syrup.
Steep two more tea bags in the hot milk and syrup mixture for 3-5 minutes.
Remove tea bags and chill mixture in fridge or freezer.
Whip two egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
Once mixture is cool, fold in egg whites.
Put in ice cream mixer and freeze according to ice cream mixer instructions.
I brought this to work today and it went over very well!