11 posts tagged “cocktails”
It’s a nice calm easy Independence Day weekend at The Aerie this year. In addition to our national holiday, the weekend is always one of the biggest for tennis fans – this is the weekend of the Wimbledon finals.
So, to honor, I’m sorry, honour our nation's forefathers and tennis heroes alike, we made a very good cocktail from the latest issue of Imbibe Magazine.
The English Afterthought
3 oz gin
¾ oz St Germain liquor*
1-tablespoon fresh blueberries
1-tablespoon finely chopped ginger
Ginger beer**
In a Collins glass or large tumbler, muddle the blueberries and ginger. Fill the glass with ice and add gin and St. Germain. Stir and top with ginger beer. Garnish with a skewer of blueberries.
This drink is very tasty and effervescent – perfect for a relaxing summer afternoon. The mix of the tart blueberries, sharp ginger, sweet liquor and aromatic gin make for a great drink.
Cheers!
* St Germain is an elderflower liquor that has a very light, sweet honey-ish-but-not-quite taste. It rocks. In a pinch, you could probably substitute Drambuie, but I’d use less, I think.
** Ginger beer is a carbonated ginger soda that has a more intense ginger flavor than ginger ale.
Sometimes you need to start the weekend off early. And our CSA box (which has had some blood oranges in it) comes on Thursday, so there you go --- all the inspiration that's required.
The BOM (Blood Orange Martini) goes down super-easy, which has its pluses and minuses. I highly recommend one. Or two. :)
2 oz vodka
2.5 oz blood orange juice
1/2 oz citronage (or triple sec)
1/2 oz simple syrup
Mix the ingredients into a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into a cocktail glass.
After I made it, I realized I was supposed to try Hapalove's cocktail creation with blood orange juice from HER CSA box... d'oh! Thank goodness there are more oranges in the refrigerator!
If being out of work has any advantages, one of them is that Happy Hour always starts on time.
I know I lot of people don’t like the taste of different whiskeys – I used to be one of them. And I have to admit that I really don’t dig the taste of a Manhattan (classic drink that it is…). If you’re in my camp, that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy whiskey, bourbon and rye – and today’s drink is a perfect example.
The Pear Sling
2 oz rye (or bourbon)
2 oz. pear nectar*
¼ oz. simple syrup
½ oz. lemon juice
Mix ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously (which will produce a light foam) and strain into a cocktail glass – garnish with a little sprinkle of nutmeg. That's right, nutmeg. Just do it.
This drink is one of those that goes down verrrrrry easily – almost too easily.
*I use Kern’s which I can find in the grocery store
When the Beloved and I went to Chicago back in September, we had a fantastic meal at the restaurant Blackbird. In addition to the great food, the restaurant also had a fantastic cocktail selection.
In their menu, they listed the components for each drink, but not the proportions. So when I returned, one of my goals was to recreate the drink that I had that night: The Blackbird Orange.
I think I got it.
Mix together in a cocktail shaker with ice:
1 oz brandy (or cognac/armagnac)
½ oz gin
¾ oz Averna*
½ oz lemon juice
½ oz orange juice
Shake the hell out of it –this produces a wonderful foamy texture. Strain into a martini glass.
*Averna is a spiced liqueur from Italy that adds a complex “autumn-like” flavor to this drink. You can find it at well-stocked liquor stores (I found ours at BevMo).
Now, I’m usually not much of a whiskey drinker unless it’s a finger of good scotch at the end of the night. Me? I tend to gravitate towards gin and tequila. The Beloved, on the other hand likes her whiskies, preferably bourbon.
But I’ve developed an interest in classic cocktails. One of the firsts posts I did in this series was the Chelsea Sidecar – which reminds me that I ought to do a straight up Sidecar one of these days.
But if you’re going to go into classic cocktails, you have to think New Orleans, and if you think New Orleans, you think --- NO! Not a “Hurricane”!! – you think Sazerac.
The Sazerac is a cocktail made with rye or bourbon, with a dash of sweet, offset by bitters. It is a great sipping drink on a warm late summer’s evening.
You’ll need:
2 oz rye or bourbon (I used bourbon)
½ oz simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
5 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Splash of Herbsaint
Herbaint is a anise-flavored liquor that became a substitute for absinthe when it was outlawed in the US.
Take your glass, splash the glass with Herbsaint, add about a half glass of ice. Cover the glass with your hand and shake vigorously so that the Herbsaint coats the inside of the glass. Discard the ice and excess Herbsaint.
Now, add both bitters to the bottom of the glass, then the bourbon and follow with the simple syrup. Mix and add fresh ice. Traditionally, the garnish is a lemon twist, but I like maraschino cherries, so there.
What's your favorite time of day and why?
Well, that’s such an easy question, it hardly bears answering. My favorite time of the day is: Happy Hour!!
Tonight, the Beloved is enjoying a zanahorita, and I’m prepared to enjoy a tall, cool tequila sunrise, which I think is an incredibly under-rated drink. It’s also a great, easy drink to make and perfect for summer:
Tequila Sunrise
Fill tall glass with ice:
Add tequila to there (first row of blue dots)
Add orange juice to there (second row of blue dots)
Top with club soda
Mix with spoon, and drizzle in grenadine (or maraschino cherry juice). They heavier syrup will collect at the bottom producing the “sunrise” effect.
Happy Friday!
It’s a holiday weekend, so why not start a little early, right? A couple of weeks ago, while we were at Lola in Cleveland, we tried one of their signature martinis -- Hot, Dirty & Bleu -- and really enjoyed it.
So, continuing the apparently recurring themes of reconstituting other restaurants drinks and a new affinity for spicy drinks, here it is:
3 oz Vodka (and use the good-stuff)
¼ oz Olive-brine (from the jar of olives you’re going to use as a garnish)
¼ oz Dry vermouth
~5 drops Tabasco (or other hot sauce)
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass and serve with a skewer of bleu-cheese stuffed olives. The cold, cold martini, the salty-bleu cheese-olive taste and the spicy hot sauce are a really great mixed sensation. I recommend using a vinegar based hot-sauce (if you have one) and nothing that’s been thickened – I think it will disperse better in your drink. Also, while I'm a fan of the traditional gin-martini as well, I think hot sauce and gin sounds really terrible.
(Of course, you can make it as “hot”, as “dirty”, or as “dry” (varying the vermouth) as you like – that’s sort of the joy of martini-making…)
Bottoms-up!
When I was in my 20s, and you were at a wedding reception (and we're going to one this weekend...) and wanted to get a mixed drink, it was a screwdriver. It was easy and tasty, but it hardly conveyed any sense of sophistication. It's the default for a lot of folks that feel "on the spot" when having to come up with a mixed drink.
Well, I say…put down your screwdrivers!
Tonight’s Happy Hour drink is: Agent Orange
2 oz vodka
1 oz Grand Marnier
½ oz Patron citronage (or cointreau)
½ oz orange juice
Mix the ingredients together with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a cocktail glass. Smooth citrus flavor, with a remarkably small amount of actual orange juice (that's a veiled word of warning).
Happy Friday!!
Note: Apparently, I’m starting a series of some of my favorite drinks using my favorite cocktail shaker.
The Sidecar is a one of the earliest known cocktails – thought to have originated in Europe around the end of the First World War.
The classic sidecar is made with equal parts brandy (or cognac), cointreau, and lemon juice. In many ways, it is the grandfather to very popular drinks like the margarita. Generally, you have the spirit, a sweetened citrus liqueur, and citrus juice (booze+sweet+tart = :D ).
Tonight, my choice is the Chelsea Sidecar.
The Chelsea Sidecar is made with gin in place of the brandy/cognac. You can vary the ingredients to taste. Here’s my version:
2 oz. gin (use a good one too, like Bombay Sapphire or Hendrick’s)
1 oz triple sec (we like the Patron citronage, cointreau is good too)
¾ oz lemon juice
Shake vigorously in an ice-filled cocktail shaker and stain into a martini glass. Enjoy!
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