Through the Looking Glass – Bloody Mary Variant

Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.

Ahem, Sorry about that. I’ve wanted to combine Marmite in a drink for a while. And when KJ did a Marmite-sriracha bread, I decided to take the opportunity to make a savory cocktail to go with it. This isn’t really a bloody mary in the traditional sense since it doesn’t contain any of the same ingredients aside from the tomato juice, lemon juice and vodka. The salt and umami flavours (the soy sauce and/or worcestire sauce) are replaced by the marmite, the Tabasco and black pepper are replaced by Sriracha, and the horseradish is replaced by wasabi. But the result has all of the things one would look for in a tasty bloody mary, but with a radically different flavour.

Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary,  Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary.

Bloody Mary

50ml Vodka

10ml Lemon juice

400ml Tomato juice

50ml Bloody Mary mix (recipe below)

Combine ingredients in a tall thin glass, stir to combine. Garnish with celery stalk and lemon.

Bloody Mary Mix

1 Teaspoon Marmite

1 Teaspoon Sriracha

.5 Teaspoon Wasabi

100ml Boiling water

Stir ingredients together in a glass. Allow to cool.

Bloody MARY BLOODY MARY BLOODY MARY BLOODY MARY BLOODY MARY

Huff and Puff: Smoked Stout Cocktail

In my continuing struggle to come up with interesting cocktails I try to come up with some weird stuff. Those who have been reading for a while now know that I love beer and frankly I’d like to see it used for as a cocktail ingredient beyond your typical lager and whisky Depth Charge. Thus I present the Huff and Puff, a smokey cocktail inspired by Bigby Wolf of the Fables series.

It may look simple but its complex flavour and strong alcohol content will knock you back. I got the idea from the horrific Nicotini idea. My idea was to start with the idea of cigarette, of which Bigby consumes thousands, and try to make something smokey but tasty. The result is a mix of cold-brew lapsang souchong, a type of Chinese black tea tried over pinewood fires to get a nice smokey flavour, stout or porter, and bourbon.

Ingredients

25ml Bourbon

35ml Cold-brew lapsang souchong black tea. Prepare this by putting one teabag is 300ml of water and let it steep for 2 hours.

330ml Stout, higher alcohol stouts or porters work best. Try to avoid smoked porter as it will overpower the flavour. I used Summer Wine’s Padrino Imperial Affogato Stout, which is sweet and nutty with a 9% ABV.

What do you call a lumberjack wolf?

A timber wolf!

The Rose Baron: Bourbon Caraway Cocktail

I’m a pretty terrible geek. I’ve seen a lot of anime, but I haven’t really seen most of the Studio Ghibli’s films. KJ has though, and not being one to rewatch films often we’ve been making our way through some of the lesser known ones. Of these our favourite is The Cat Returns. Primarily for the suave cat protagonist Baron Humbert von Gikkingen. Also after watching a lot of Studio Ghibli I’m pretty sure Miyazaki is directly responsible for at least half of the Furries in our current generation.

I wanted to create a cocktail that mimicked the classy aura that the Baron exudes. So I started with my favourite liquor, Bourbon. I used Four Roses for it’s smoothness and also for it’s rye content. Because what goes with Rye? If you follow KJ at Need to Knead you’ll know that Caraway seeds are essential for a nice rye bread. So for my rye cocktail I made a caraway and lemon simple syrup. For some reason the Baron reminded me of a cat version of Tuxedo Mask from Salior Moon, so I thought I’d stick with the rose theme and add in a bit of rose water. The result is a sweet and flowery cocktail with a pleasant bourbon punch.

Ingredients:

50ml High rye bourbon or rye whiskey

15ml Lemon Caraway simple syrup (recipe below)

1 Squeeze of lemon

4 dashes rose water

Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice, shake and double strain into rocks glass.

Lemon-Caraway Simple Syrup

2 Tablespoons caraway seeds

1 teaspoon lemon peel

90g caster sugar

100ml water.

Bring water to a boil and combine with ingredients. Stir until sugar has dissolved then remove from heat. After it cools to room temperature strain and put into a clean bottle. It will keep in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

Why was the sad cat in a hurry?

He was a Russian Blue.

Coyote Tango – A Pacific Rim Cocktail

Fair warning: this is the strangest cocktail I’ve ever made. The concept came from a coffee shop I frequented in London when I was interning for the BBC. Curator’s Coffee does a unique creation every so often. The month I was there they were making an espresso punch with mint and strawberries. It sounded terrible but I was proven so wrong. By pairing a fruity espresso with strawberry and mint the results were delicious and odd.

Summer Espresso Punch Photo by Curator’s Coffee http://www.curatorscoffee.com/

I tried to recreate this with my cocktail. And the results were pretty good. The basic composition of the punch was similar to a mojito so I decided to try using rum. Captain being all I had in the house I thought I’d give it a go.

For coffee I used Pact Finca Manila prepared using a moka pot.

The result was interesting. Herbal and refreshing (both KJ and myself immediately thought Coke on the first sip) on the palate with a distinct tart bite from the strawberries and coffee.

Also, the name was just sort of thrown on here because I’m feeling excited about my Pacific Rim rewatch last week.

Ingredients
4 Strawberries, hulled and chopped.
100ml strong coffee prepared with 3 tspn sugar and cooled. I recommend a coffee with red berry, citrus or pomme flavour notes.
8 mint leaves
50ml spiced rum.
Soda water
Ice

Combine strawberries and mint in a mixing tin and muddle. Mix in rum and coffee and fill tin with ice. Shake well and double strain into pint glass full of ice. Top with soda water and stir slowly to combine.

Mocktail: Rocket and Groot Iced Tea

Guardians of the Galaxy is finally out and to celebrate I’ve whipped up my first mocktail. It doesn’t require a lot of mixing, but it will require some specialty ingredients. It’s a cold-brewed iced green tea infused with whole dried hops. 

I’ve wanted to incorporate hops into a non-alcoholic drink for a while, since there’s some evidence that hops have relaxation properties. Also the flavour range on hops is incredible. Hops can add flavours from floral (crystal hops), to citrus (centennial), piney (simcoe), and even cannabis (Zeus).

 The drink takes its name from Rocket, a racoon-like creature and the heavy weapons specialist in the film and his friend and bodyguard Groot, a walking/talking tree. In honour of Rocket’s lose of guns, I used gunpowder green tea (I’m not sure which kind specifically, but it’s at least gunpowder style) and for the Flora colossus himself hop flowers.

Source: MoviePilot.com

This is an interesting mocktail with a complex flavour that’s simple to make and cures that hop craving without having crack open a beer. The final flavour is light and slightly citrusy without bitterness.

 In the picture above it’s only been brewing for about 15 minutes, so the colour isn’t very dark yet. The finished picture is under the recipe.

Ingredients

1.5 Tablespoons gunpowder green tea

6-8 dried hop flowers

Combine in pitcher and fill with cool water. Allow to brew for 2.5 hours. Strain and pour into glass with ice. Serve with lemon (optional).

What type of dinosaur was the most relaxed?

The Tea-Rex

Child of Light (and Refreshing) Strawberry-Lavender Shandy

The brutal reign of summer continues for another month or so, so we’re going to depart from the booziness of my last cocktail for a low-alcohol refreshing drink. I present the Child of Light. 

This refreshing cocktail is based on a couple different sources of inspiration. Those familiar with Ben and Jerry’s ice cream may have come across the Liz Lemon-flavour of Greek yogurt, though I’m pretty sure it is only available in the US. 

Source: http://www.benjerry.com

The Liz Lemon yogurt is a blend of Lavender, blueberry and lemon. The flavours work well together, but primarily all you taste is sugar and blueberry. There’s a slight tartness from the lemon, but I’m pretty sure all of the floral taste I got was in my head.

But nonetheless it got me thinking about how to incorporate lavender into a cocktail. Then it hit me: Shandy (or Radler). Basically, a 1:1 blend of lightish beer with lemonade. This isn’t English lemonade by the way (what I would just call lemon soda) this is a blend of fresh lemon juice and water.

Child of Light by the way, is a fantastic game that KJ is hooked on at the moment. And since you play as the ginger protagonist I thought I’d make a ginger cocktail that’s a light red colour. 

Aurora from Child of Light                  Source: childoflightgame.tumblr.com

This recipe will make a pitcher of shandy. I’m going to use Titanic Brewery Golden Ale but you can use whatever you like as long as it’s light in colour and not too hoppy. Wheat beers work well with the fruity flavour, but the result will not technically be a shandy. 

Recipe (adapted from this and this)

100ml Fresh Lemon Juice (Juice from about 3 lemons)

300g Fresh strawberries, hulled and cut in half

400ml Water or Soda Water

200ml Ginger/Lavender simple syrup

500ml Lager or Ale of your choice

Chop up the strawberries and mash in a bowl. Strain them with a fine mesh strainer. The resulting juice should be be about 100ml. Combine ingredients except for water. Pour into pitcher and stir with water or soda water until fully combined. 

Your results should be about 800ml of fluid. Pour into pitcher and slowly pour in beer while stirring. It may start to foam up a lot at the point. Let it settle and then keep stirring. Pour into beer glasses and serve. 

For the Simple Syrup

100g Fresh ginger, chopped

3 tbps of Dried Lavender

2  tbsp lemon zest

200g caster sugar

250ml water

Bring water to a boil, combine with other ingredients. Stir until sugar fully dissolves. Remove from heat and let fully cool. Strain and bottle. Will keep in airtight container for up to a month.

Why are strawberries such good musicians?

Because they’re always jammin’ 

Cuppa Joy

The Cuppa Joy is a sweet and boozy cocktail that’s delightfully British. The name comes from my girlfriend Kim-Joy of NeedToKnead, who made the teabag shaped biscuits you see in the later pictures. It’s also her teapot. This week I’ve decided to continue with my love of infusing simple syrups. Last week we explored using fresh herbs as the flavouring agent in the simple syrup, but now we’re going to try something dried. The Cuppa Joy is a martini-style drink made from gin, lemon juice, and Earl Grey-infused simple syrup with a beautiful reddish-brown colour, fragrant nose, sweet taste and bitter finish.

Last week I suggested using a mid-range gin like Bombay Sapphire, which you can still use for this cocktail. Or you can try using some of the 5 quid stuff I bought for a party. But this cocktail is all about the gin, and the quality of your creation is directly tied to the caliber of gin you use. I recommend an upmarket gin such as Hendricks if you prefer a more earthy-vegetable taste in your martinis, or Masons if you prefer a clean yet herbal flavour.

Source: http://needtoknead.wordpress.com/

Ingredients

Ice

50ml Gin

30ml Earl Grey-infused simple syrup (recipe below)

10ml lemon juice

Length of orange peel for garnish

Combine ingredients with ice in a transparent glass. Stir with a long spoon and the ice will begin to melt. Once the volume of the liquid has about doubled (this will mellow out the boozy-ness). Strain into chilled martini glass or tea cup if you prefer. Remove the peel from the orange with a vegetable peeler and twist it above the drink. You will likely see a tiny spritz come off of the peel, that’s orange oil and it’s super flavourful and aromatic. Drop the peel into the drink and serve.

Earl Grey infused simple syrup

50g white sugar

150ml water

1 teabag of Earl Grey

Bring the water to the boil, combine sugar and tea bag. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Once it’s cool, remove the teabag, give it another stir and bottle. It will last for one month in an airtight container.

How do Americans make their tea?

They throw it in the harbour.

Auron’s Cucumber Cooler

For my first cocktail I decided to tweak an old favourite of mine. It’s a blend of gin, lime, basil and cucumber. This is pretty much the ultimate summer cocktail as it’s refreshing and extremely versatile. It’s more of a spritzer than a cooler, but I like alliteration. The name comes from Final Fantasy X’s Auron who always sort of remains calm in high pressure situations. It might seem like a stretch, but since his character is sort of a Kurosawa-esque samurai I should probably make a version of this with sake.

This cocktail is best with a mid-range gin, since the other ingredients will mask any bluntness in mediocre gin, but will also make the subtleties in a really nice gin go unnoticed. I recommend Bombay Sapphire, at 15 pounds it’s not too expensive and the slightly higher sweetness of Bombay blends nicely into the flavour. I used Whatever I Found in the Liquor Cabinet brand gin.

The reason I called the cocktail versatile is because you can make lots of little changes to suit your palate. This just happens to be the way I prefer it. You can substitute vodka for gin, though I’d recommend increasing the simple syrup ratio to compensate for the loss of sweetness. You can use rosemary instead of basil for your simple syrup.  Soda water can be swapped out for tonic water or left out entirely and served straight up if you’re anything like the guests at my barbecue.

Ingredients:

Ice

50ml Gin

20ml Basil Simple Syrup (Recipe below)

25ml Cucumber Essence (Recipe below)

10ml Fresh lime juice

Soda water or tonic water to top

Sprig of basil to garnish

Combine all ingredients except for soda and sprig in shaker. This is a dry shake so don’t use any ice. Strain contents over a short class full of ice, top with soda or tonic. Give it one final stir with the sprig of basil to make sure it is fully combined.

Basil Simple Syrup

50g white sugar

120ml water

10-15 fresh basil leaves

Bring water to a boil and stir in sugar and basil leaves. Once the sugar dissolves remove from the heat and let  cool. Once it’s cool strain the basil leaves out and the syrup is finished. It will keep in an airtight bottle for about a month.

Cucumber Essence

1/2 English cucumber

150ml water

Peel half an English cucumber and cut into chunks. Put into blender with the water. Blend until the cucumber is fully pulped. Strain the liquid into a container and discard the pulp. The essence will last for a couple of days in the fridge.

I was going to end every post with a joke. But I’m skipping the first week because every cucumber related joke I found was disgusting,