Posts tagged ‘alcohol’

Sep 4

Marx Food Cocktails And Mocktails Recipe Contest-Bloody Mary And Plum Juniper Berry Fizz

Bloody Mary

This months challenge from Marx Foods is to make 2 drinks a Cocktail which would include alcohol and a Mocktail, well you know what that is, no booze. All of us that participate in this challenge were sent a box of goodies, spices and other items, one of which has to be used in each drink. I received, saffron, juniper berries, dill and fennel pollen, long pepper and dried fresh pineapple. We have to use at least one of these items in each drink. I do so love a challenge and this in particular was challenging for me as I am not an accomplished mixologist, honestly the extent of my expertise is opening a bottle of beer or wine. I do love a good cocktail or mocktail as long as someone else mixes it for me.

My first entry is a Bloody Mary, that I tweaked a bit, it’s not your traditional drink other than the fact that it contains tomato juice. For this drink I used two of the ingredients from Marx Foods, the long pepper and fennel pollen. I used the long pepper instead of black pepper and rimmed the glass with a combination of kosher salt and fennel pollen. It’s a bit spicy thanks to the long pepper and hot sauce, a bit tart from the lemon and I also added a pinch of sumac which is both peppery and citrusy. It’s best to make the tomato juice mix the day before serving so that everything melds together. I was happy with how it turned out, maybe I’ll start mixing more cocktails from now on.

The mocktail was a lot of fun to make. I wanted to use something seasonal, I had some beautiful methley plums, (they are so gorgeous with their dark almost black skin and bright red flesh), that were perfectly ripe and I thought that the juniper berries would go beautifully with them. I love the combination, the syrup with ripe plums, sugar and juniper berries is delicious, so good I am thinking it would make outstanding jam. This drink is very simple, plum juniper syrup, sparkling water and lime. The plums with the juniper berries give it a complex flavor and the lime gives it some zing, It’s pretty too!!

Bloody Mary

Makes one 8 oz drink

Cocktail

4 oz tomato juice or V-8 vegetable juice

1/4 tsp homemade celery salt

juice of 1/2 Lemon

splash worcestershire sauce

splash of hot sauce, tabasco, sriracha, cholula

pinch of sumac

pinch of ground long pepper

3 oz vodka

To Rim glass and Serve

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp fennel pollen

small young celery stalk with leaves for garnish

slice lemon for garnish

Homemade celery salt

1 tbs celery seed

1 tbs kosher salt

To your spice grinder or mortar and pestle add the celery seed and the salt and grind. Store unused celery salt with your spices in an airtight container.

Pan roast a couple of long pepper, just for a few minutes, remove from heat and let cool. Grind in spice grinder or mortar and pestle (these can be used instead of black pepper and when you dry roast the flavor intensifies)

Crush kosher salt and fennel pollen using mortar and pestle.

Add tomato juice, lemon juice, celery salt, hot sauce, worcestershire sauce, ground long pepper and sumac stir together and refrigerate for at least an hour or preferably overnight.

Rub around the rim of the glass with lemon and dip glass in salt fennel pollen mixture.

Add some ice cubes to prepared glass, pour in vodka, top off with the tomato juice mixture, garnish with celery and lemon if you like.

Plum Juniper Fizz

Mocktail

Plum Juniper Berry Fizz

Makes 2-4 drinks depending on how much syrup you use

2 1/2 cups ripe plums cleaned and quartered skin left on. (I used Methley plums that have a dark almost black skin and red flesh)

1/2 cup sugar

4 whole juniper berries

1/2 cup water

Juice of half a lime (approx 1 tbs)

Place plums, sugar water and juniper berries in medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium/low and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let sit until it cools to room temperature.

Strain into a jar with lid and refrigerate until cold.

To Make Drink

Rub lime wedge around the rim of the glass, dip in sugar (optional) Pour 1/4 cup (4 tbs) plum syrup into glass add lime juice, top off with sparkling water.Serve garnished with lime.

Jun 4

12 Comments

Coco-Lime Slushy

Next to the the Lemon,Lime, Campari Sorbet this is my second favorite summer drink. It’s cold and refreshing, creamy and delicious. I made this drink with more lime than pineapple and used unsweetened coconut milk and lime simple syrup so that I can control the sweetness. I also did not use crushed ice I find it waters it down so instead I froze the coconut lime mixture in an ice cube tray. The cubes are solid but easy to break up in the blender. The result is a slushy coconut lime and pineapple drink that is so refreshing. You can add as much rum as you like or make it virgin, it’s equally as delicious. One other cool thing about this drink is that because the drink base is frozen in ice cube trays you can make 1 or more and leave the rest in the freezer for use later on. Remove the cubes place in freezer bag and store in the freezer.

Lime Simple Syrup:

1 Lime peel removed (Use the peeled lime for the drink base)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

In saucepan add sugar and water, bring to a boil let boil for approximately 2 minutes until sugar is completely dissolved take off heat, add lime peel. Cover and let sit until cool. Remove the lime peel. Store in jar in refrigerator. You can easily double this to make more simple syrup.

The Slush:

1 13.5 oz can unsweetened coconut milk

1 Lime peeled and all of the pith removed and quartered (Use the lime you used for the simple syrup)

4-6 tablespoons lime simple syrup (Make it as sweet as you like)

2 -3 ounces Pineapple juice (unsweetened) Start with two and if you need a little more liquid to break up cubes in blender add another ounce.

1 ounce Rum (Add more if you like it stronger)

To your food processor add the quartered lime and coconut milk. Process until lime is pulverized. Strain into measuring cup.Add 4-6 tbs of the lime simple syrup. (Adjust the sweetness to suite your taste. Pour into ice cube tray and freeze.
When coconut lime is frozen remove from ice cube tray, place in blender (depending on the proficiency of your blender you may want to break up the cubes) add pineapple juice and rum and blend until the cubes are broken up and it’s a slushy consistency. Pour and serve. Garnish with lime and pineapple.

Ready to Freeze

May 29

32 Comments

Lemon,Lime Campari Sorbet Float

Lemon,Lime Campari Sorbet

It has been really hot in NYC, too hot to cook. My thoughts have turned to cold drinks and one of my favorite light on the alcohol summer drinks is Campari and soda. Campari is a liquor made from herbs and fruits and is widely used as an apertif in Europe. I was first introduced to Campari when I lived in Italy and every time I take a sip it takes me back there, sipping the cold, slightly bitter drink in a cafe in Naples, well actually I drank them while traveling the entire coast of Italy. A Campari and soda is usually served with a slice of lime, so I took that lovely combination of flavors and made a sorbet. It’s makes a wonderful float or can be eaten on it’s own. The sorbet, because it contains alcohol takes a little longer to freeze than a regular fruit sorbet so be patient. The first time I made this the scoop of sorbet sunk to the bottom of the glass, to solve this problem I found that by whipping the sorbet at intervals while it’s freezing produces a scoop that floats beautifully in your glass. You can of course skip that step it’s totally optional.

Serves 4

1 1/4 cup Juice from freshly sqeezed lemons and limes you can decide the ratio as long as it equals 1 1/4 cups I used 4 limes 3 lemons

1 cup water

1 1/2 cup super fine sugar

1/2 cup Campari

Very cold seltzer, club soda or sparkling water

Combine the juice of the lemons and limes, super fine sugar, water and campari mix until the sugar is disolved. Place in the refrigerator to chill, should be very cold. Pour into your ice cream maker and churn away.When the sorbet is thick and the consitency of a slurpee pour into a freezer container. Its best to freeze over night or until it is scoopable. (See step 3 for optional method) Chill your seltzer, club soda or sparkling water make sure its very cold.
Get a tall glass put two scoops of the sorbet in each glass and fill with the ice cold sparkling water, club soda or seltzer. Garnish with a slice of lemon or lime and a sprig of mint. Enjoy!
This step is optional: If you want your scoop of sorbet to float you have to whip it. Here is what you do: After taking out of the ice cream machine put in the freezer for 1 1/2 hours take it out and whip it with your electric mixer right in the container you are freezing it in. Beat for one minute it will get slushy thats ok. Put it back in the freezer for another 2 hours then take it out and whip it again for another minute return to the freezer and let it freeze. Because it has alcohol in it it takes longer to freeze to a scoopable consistency. If you don’t care if your sorbet sinks to the bottom of the glass omit this step.
I purposely made the sorbet very intense so when added to soda water you an really taste the flavors. If you want to make the sorbet less intense simply decrease the lemon/lime and add water equal to what you took from the citrus.