There's Gin Martinis, Vodka Martinis, Dirty Martinis and now there's a Smoky Dirty Martini! And you don't need any fancy smoking gun to make one either.
I had a few friends over for cocktails this last week and one of them brought a nice bottle of vodka and a jar of Mezzetta Applewood Smoked Olives along to share (thanks, Miguel!) I popped one of the olives in my mouth and immediately knew what cocktail I was going to make for us.
I made ours with vodka because he had brought vodka with him, but you can easily do the same recipe with gin. I've done both since and I prefer the gin because I love the botanicals, but the smoky flavor is more pronounced in the less flavorful vodka. It's your choice, nobody here will judge you or go into a boring diatribe about how real martinis are only made with gin . . . .
My
SMOKY DIRTY MARTINI
2-1/2 Oz. Quality Gin (or Vodka!)
1/2 Oz. Brine from the Smoked Olives
1/8 Oz. Dry Vermouth
3 Smoked Olives for Garnish
Chill your martini glass. Fill a cocktail pitcher or shaker with ice then pour in the gin (or vodka), the dry vermouth and that lovely smoky olive brine. Stir or shake as desired, strain into your chilled glass and add a cocktail pick loaded with 3 of the smoked olives.
I served mine up with extra Smoked Olives and some lovely, salty Fricos!
Why 3 olives? Because 2 is considered bad luck! As for stirring versus shaking; shaking can "bruise" the gin and can create ice shards in the cocktail, but shaking chills the drink more (and some drinkers love those little ice shards!) Shaking also creates some cloudiness in a cocktail (from the air bubbles that are created in the shaking process) while stirring creates a clearer drink. Again, the choice is yours, martinis are a very personal experience, both in the ratio and method. If you don't know what you like, experiment!
