The Gibson is a classic, old school cocktail that is a variation on the Gin Martini where the olive or lemon twist is replaced with a cocktail onion. Interestingly, according to the oldest published recipe for the Gibson in the 1908 book, "The World's Drinks And How To Mix Them" by William Boothby, a Gibson is equal parts gin and French vermouth stirred with ice and strained into a cocktail glass and sometimes served with an olive. Except for the ratios, this sounds suspiciously close to a typical gin martini to me.
As you can see, no cocktail onion was on the team. When the cocktail onion came into play is as heavily debated as who created the Gibson in the first place, and frankly, m'dears, I don't give a hoot. The Gibson, as we know it today, is garnished with a cocktail onion (though usually one of those ubiquitous, soggy little orbs of a sad excuse for a vegetable) and that's it's iconic signature garnish!
At this point I'm sure you all know how I feel about bottled, canned and mass manufactured ingredients in my cocktails. I avoid them like the plague and upgrade them with a fresh, homemade, nutrient and flavor packed alternative wherever possible. In the case of the cocktail onion, it's very possible and extremely easy with a quick pickled fresh green onion, and, yes, I've provided you with my personal recipe for Quick Pickled Green Onions below.
So, instead of a mushy and tough excuse of a pearl onion you get a crunchy and savory bite of zing at the end of your Gibson!
At least an hour or two ahead of time pickle your green onions. (Recipe below.)
Chill your cocktail glass in the freezer or fill with ice to chill.
Fill your cocktail pitcher with ice, add the vermouth and stir a few times.
Add the gin and stir for about 12 seconds then stain into your chilled glass.
Garnish with a Quick Pickled Green Onion, a few of the juniper, coriander and cardamom seeds from the pickling liquid, add a dash of salt and pepper then serve.
Yes, you will see a few drops of the olive oil floating in your cocktail as a result of the pickling liquid from the onions and the spice seeds. Believe it or not, the olive oil acted like a secondary garnish bringing tiny bursts of the vinaigrette on the palate, a nice little surprise!
Quick Pickled Green Onions Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 C. Water
1/2 C. White Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 C. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tsp. Kosher Salt
1/2 Tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
1 Tsp. Sugar
1/4 Tsp. Juniper Berries, Crushed
1/2 Tsp. Coriander Seeds, Crushed
3 - 4 Cardamom Seeds, Crushed
1 Tsp. Dried Orange Peel
1 - 2 Bunches of Green Onions, Trimmed
DIRECTIONS:
Crush your seeds lightly, just to open them up.
Heat everything but the green onions in the microwave for one minute.
Pour the warm pickling liquid over the onions and allow to cool.
Refrigerate for a few hours until it's cocktail time!
The pickling spices I used, inspired by the botanicals used in the Ford's Gin, give the onion a nice tiny kick of juniper, coriander and lemon when eaten, like a last goodnight kiss.
I love chocolate covered strawberries and, because I do, one of the first cocktail recipes I ever created was this chocolate strawberry martini. I got to enjoy my favorite dessert as a cocktail and it started me on my mission of creating culinary cocktails for as many of those ubiquitous food holidays as possible.
For me those food holidays do serve a purpose beyond promoting some food or business, they inspire new cocktail recipes. Interestingly enough (though there are Chocolate Covered Anything, Nuts and even Raisins Days) there is no Chocolate Strawberry Day, no Chocolate Covered Strawberry Day, not even a Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Day.
Bah-freaking-humbug!
Therefore, in honor of my mom who loved chocolate strawberries and since someone has already created a fake food holiday and gotten away with it, I declare August 29th (Mom's birthday) Chocolate Strawberry Day!
My original recipe for this cocktail was very sweet and lacked complexity so, to celebrate this new (entirely legit) food holiday, I've remastered this chocolate strawberry cocktail. I added a perky herbal touch of very dry vermouth and some extra depth with some chocolate bitters. It's still a sweet cocktail, but now it's got some character.
The
CHOCOLATE
STRAWBERRY
Martini
(Yes, I'm still gonna call it a martini, deal with it.)
INGREDIENTS
2 Oz. Pinnacle Strawberry Vodka
2 Oz. Bols White Creme de Cacao
1/2 Oz. Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth
1 (+/-) Tbsp. Simple Syrup*
Dash White Pepper
3 Dashes Scrappy's Chocolate Bitters
4 - 5 Pureed Strawberries
GARNISH:1 Large Chocolate Covered Strawberry
DIRECTIONS
Add the fresh strawberries to your blender and puree.
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, add the pureed strawberries, strawberry vodka, white creme de cacao, vermouth, white pepper and the bitters.
Shake until chilled.
Strain** into your chilled cocktail glass and garnish with the chocolate covered strawberry.
VOICEOVER VIDEO WITH INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS:
* COCKTAIL TIP: Strawberries can run a gamut of sweet intensity so you might want to taste your cocktail as you add the simple syrup to check the sweetness. An easy way to taste a cocktail to insert a straw into the mixture and hold your finger over the top of the straw then lift the straw to your mouth and drop some of the cocktail on your tongue. By not touching the straw to your mouth you can reinsert it to taste again.
** I single strain (just through the cocktail shaker strainer) because I don't mind the pulp and the seeds from the strawberries. Feel free to double strain through a fine mesh strainer if you prefer a pulp and seed free drink.
National Chocolate Covered Anything Day is December 16th and - now - National Chocolate Strawberry Day is August 29th.
Today I'm having a celebration of all things gin, after all it's Gin Day so what better to time to celebrate such a venerable spirit?
Herein lies some great Gin Cocktail Recipes, a few gin quotes and a little trivia and information on this wonderfully herbal and drinkable potable.
What is gin? It's a clear alcoholic spirit distilled from grain or malt and flavored primarily with juniper berries though many other botanicals come into play. It started out, like many other spirits, as a medicinal cure, having originally been tinctures, infusions and decoctions of ethanol juniper and other herbal extracts.
If you think you don't like gin, rethink and try some of these
cocktails. If you've been infusing your vodka with things like juniper
berries, rosemary, cardamom, lemon peel or a few other botanicals you've
started making gin! Basically (and I'm probably going to get lots of
haters for this) gin is
pretty much flavored vodka. Don't believe me? Check it out, that's
what it is.
Gin is probably the biggest player of all in classic cocktails most likely from it's bastard child, bathtub* gin from Prohibition. Though most people think of gin as an English spirit it was originally from Holland. The English just stole it from them when they saw Dutch soldiers having a little genever aka "Dutch Courage" during the Thirty Years' War in the 1600s. But to give the English their due, they do well by their gins and even started a whole category called London Dry Gins.
There are more types of gin than any other spirit and we're not including "flavored" spirits here. Genevers (or Jenevers), Old Tom Gin, Plymouth Gin, London Dry Gin and New American or International Gin. Most are juniper forward except for the last group where other botanicals are more prominent than the juniper.
Gin is an acquired taste. You have to grow up and develop an adult palate to appreciate the lovely notes of all the different gins available on the market today. Once you do you'll discover a whole new world of drinks and cocktail enjoyment. In my opinion, gin is not a sipping spirit, it's a mixing spirit and is best served by a great supporting cast of fresh juices, crisp sodas, rich spices, just plucked from the garden herbs and an attitude of adventure.
So, come on a gin adventure with me today.
GIN TRIVIA:
As early as the 11th Century juniper berries were being used to flavor distilled spirits by Italian Monks.
Gin was used as a cure for the plague.
It's said that Old Tom gin got it's name from a tom cat.
Slow gin is not gin, it's a gin based liqueur flavored with sloe fruit.
Gin gets it's name from the juniper berry. The original drinking gin, genever or jenever, is from the Dutch "jeneverbes" for juniper berry. The French call juniper berries "baies de genièvre" and the Italians call them "bacche di ginepro".
Gin was added to mask the bitterness of quinine water which was used by the British as an anti-malaria drug. I was the birth of the Gin and Tonic!
* Bathtub gin was not always made in bathtubs, in fact rarely. It just got that name because of the nasty, even dangerous, home brewed versions that abounded during Prohibition, some of which did get made in a few bathtubs.
National / World Gin Day is always the 2nd Saturday in June.
Tiki drinks are making a big comeback, and this includes the blue ones which have been so despised in past years. Unlike the seventies through the nineties where bars threw together cheap rum, bottled mixers and tossed in a pineapple chunk and cherry, bartenders today are getting into the old style Tiki cocktails from the first days of Don the Beachcomber's and Trader Vic's.
Back in the late 1940's and 1950's the godfathers of Tiki cocktails like Harry Yee (of the Hawaiian Village Hotel, creator of the first Tiki cocktail and inventor of the Blue Hawaii), Ernest Gantt (aka Donn Beach of Don the Beachcombers) and Victor Bergeron (of Trader Vic fame) employed fresh juices, great syrups like Falernum and Orgeat and good quality rums to create rich, complex cocktails worthy of the Tiki culture. Between these three, despite the bickering of who created what, most of the original Tiki cocktail recipes sailed in from the islands to the shores of the haole.
I have always been fond of Tiki cocktails because I enjoy sweet, fruity cocktails on occasion, they make me feel like I'm on vacation. Another thing I like is a well garnished drink and Tiki cocktails are accessorized like a two dollar hooker, they have more bling than a Las Vegas showgirl. This new Tiki resurgence is a boon to someone like me. So I had to go there and I'm taking you with me!
This drink is a combination of two Tiki classics, the Pina Colada and the Blue Hawaii. Thanks to a little trick with some ice sphere molds it starts out as a Banana Pina Colada and slowly morphs into a Blue Hawaii. The only changes I made were adding a banana to the Pina Colada (because I had a banana on hand) as well as a bit of Orgeat syrup and lowering the ratio of rum in the Blue Hawaii so it would freeze. The rest of the transformation is taken care of by nature!
The
SNEAKY TIKI COLADA
BLUE HAWAII ICE SPHERES
1/2 Oz. Appleton Extra 12 Dark Rum
1 Oz. Bols Blue Curaçao
1/2 Oz Coco Lopez Creme de Coconut
1/4 Oz. Orgeat syrup
2 Oz. Fresh Pineapple Juice
1 Oz. Water
Freeze mixture in ice sphere(s) overnight.
BANANA PINA COLADA
3 Oz. Pineapple juice,
1-1/2 Oz. Cruzan Light Rum
1/2 Oz. Appleton Extra 12 Dark Rum
1 Oz. Coco Lopez Creme de Coconut
1/2 Fresh Banana
4 Ice Cubes
Blend everything until smooth and creamy.
To build the drink:
Add the Blue Hawaii ice sphere to a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Pour the Banana Pina Colada around then over until the sphere is covered. Garnish with a banana slice or pineapple slice or both, a couple of cherries for a pop of color then add a fun cocktail umbrella. If you have an edible orchid add it too! With Tiki drinks, less is not more!
The fun happens when the Blue Hawaii slowly melts into your Sneaky Tiki Colada and not only changes the color but becomes an entirely different cocktail as it slowly dissolves.
It was hot and muggy from storms that were crawling up from the Gulf of Mexico. Thanks to the humid heat all I wanted was something tall, cool and refreshing and a moment to sit out on my deck and watch the storm clouds roll in. I had a few strawberries in my little deck garden, I always have fresh basil in the summertime and I had vodka and tonic water.
Muddle, mix, pour, garnish, done.
STRAWBERRY BASIL
VODKA TONIC
INGREDIENTS:
1-1/2 Oz. Vodka
4 Strawberries, sliced
3 Fresh Basil Leaves, chopped
1 Tbsp. Sugar
Tonic water
GARNISH
Basil Sprig
Strawberry
TOOLS
Jigger, Measuring spoons, Muddler, Collins glass.
DIRECTIONS
In the bottom of the your glass muddle the strawberries, basil leaves, sugar and vodka.
Fill your glass with crushed ice and top off with tonic.
Give your cocktail a good stir to chill and garnish with a fresh strawberry, the basil sprig and enjoy.
Today is the final race in the Triple Crown of American Horse Racing, the Belmont Stakes. The winner of the Triple Crown must win, in succession, The Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and, finally, The Belmont Stakes in order to take home this jewel of American horse racing. Thousands upon thousands attend all three races and thousands upon thousands of attendees drink cocktails at each race.
Since Belmont can't seem to settle on any single drink for too long, I've decided to take a little from all three recipes Belmont and create my own libation for the Belmont Stakes.
The original Belmont cocktail, the White Carnation, was almost an alcoholic Creamsicle with vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice with a splash of cream and soda. The Belmont Breeze features bourbon, orange and cranberry juices plus a splash of sherry, while the Belmont Jewel is bourbon, lemonade and pomegranate juice.
What I have come up with takes a little from all three; some bourbon, a little sherry, orange juice, some egg white for texture and a lovely froth, and a bit of pomegranate (Grenadine) to add a little color and a little more sweetness. Then I add a dash of orange bitters and garnish with an orange twist.
It's Negroni Week and I can't let it go by without doing my version. You know me, I cannot let well enough alone and a classic Negroni is very "well enough" with it's perfect ratio of equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and Campari nicely garnished with an orange peel. But you've seen a ton of that classic recipe this week so why not try it with a little Martini Diva twist?
I didn't do much meddling with the classic Negroni, just added a few blackberries and switched out the sweet vermouth for Punt e Mes, an Italian vermouth. Punt e Mes translates to "point and a half" in Piedmontese*, referring to the flavor being one point of sweetness and half a point of bitterness. It is more bitter than sweet vermouth and, I think, balances nicely with the extra sweetness from the blackberries. Then I used 209 Gin because I think the citrus and floral botanicals complement the blackberries.
Now I know a lot of you like your happy hour sweet, as do I, most of the time. I have a gigantic sweet tooth even when it comes to my drinks, but a walk on the wild side of the bitter truth of imbibing is a wonderful change and suits the palate occasionally. It perks up those taste buds and refreshes a sip at a time. Just keep your perking and refreshing to one or two of these, they're powerful magic!
Ready to take that walk on the wild side?? Then get your bitter booze set and go:
The
BLACKBERRY
NEGRONI
INGREDIENTS:
8 Blackberries
1 Oz. 209 Gin
1 Oz. Campari
1 Oz. Punt e Mes
Orange Peel
TOOLS: Mixing glass, Bar spoon, Julep strainer, Mesh strainer, Old Fashioned glass
DIRECTIONS:
Place 7 of the blackberries in your mixing glass and muddle.
Add your gin, the Campari and the Punt e Mes then fill the mixing glass with ice.
Stir and double strain into your chilled glass.
Express the oils of your orange peel over the drink, rub around the rim, twist and drop the peel in the glass. Garnish with the last blackberry and enjoy.
