Liquor: The Classic Gin Martini

My tastes tend to skew towards savory rather than sweet (how many dessert recipes have you seen here?) but lately that's been refined very specifically to acidic tastes: pickles, mustard, vinegars, and olives. Olives, olives, OLIVES!

Right now I think I have about six different jars sitting in my fridge because I'm obsessed with trying everything new and delicious and wonderful that I can get my hands on. The only ones I haven't liked so far are the bleu cheese stuffed ones, which was a terrible disappointment to my cheese loving soul. However, those ones sit in a juice that is thick and syrupy, almost slimy, and I don't know if it's because of the cheese or what, but it's gross, and you should keep it the hell away from me and my martini.

Martini! Yes, truly my FAVOURITE way to enjoy some olives. What's that? You already know how to make a classic martini? 

 Yes, I did just make that specifically for this purpose. I am Batman.

Usually you know I let you guys do whateverthehell you want, but on this I say no. Vodka martinis are great, and popular, and this and that and the other thing, but a traditional martini is made with gin and I will not hear another damn thing about it.

NOW, there is considerable debate as to whether a martini should be shaken or stirred. A traditional gin martini should be stirred, not shaken, as according to my research shaking can "bruise the gin".

I don't know about this. My gin has never complained.  But after all my caterwauling about traditional and "classic" this and that, I have to say I like my martinis absolutely ice cold and that just can't be accomplished by stirring.

ALSO it's how James Bond orders his martinis and if you can't take advice from James Bond then I guess we're all screwed. I read somewhere once a theory that James Bond was so sophisticated that he would have known that stirring is the more common way to serve a gin martini, but that in his wisdom of being a spy and in charge of poisons/guns/motor vehicles, he always limited himself to one martini, and had it shaken so that more of the ice would melt, thus diluting the drink a bit more. This logic makes complete sense to me and lines up pretty well with what we see in the movies. He also drank vodka martinis, which are ALWAYS served shaken, not stirred, so maybe the dude just got confused. Whatever.

Besides, how else do you expect him to close the deal with [insert Bond girl here] if he has more than one drink? 

It's unfortunate that I don't own proper martini glasses, as the stem is necessary to keep the drink cold as we discussed in Boozing on a Budget. It's also regrettable that I wound up with small ice slivers in this martini. What can I say, my strainer was in the dishwasher!

CLASSIC GIN MARTINI
makes 1, preferably for James Bond

WHAT YOU NEED

• 2.5 ounces gin (We are led to believe in 1953s Casino Royale that Bond drinks Gordon's gin. I used my current experimental favourite, Plymouth, because I am not fancy enough to have two bottles of gin in my house at once.)
• 0.5 ounces dry white vermouth (Martini & Rossi is the most common brand)
• 1 or 3 olives, to garnish

The olives are obviously what started this whole post, but a classic martini can also be served with a twist of lemon peel instead. Why either one or three? Because two looks just weirdly symmetrical, and an even number of olives is supposed to be bad luck.

WHAT YOU DO

1. Combine the gin and vermouth in a cocktail shaker over lots of ice and shake for 30 seconds.

2. Strain (double strain with a second finer strainer to catch any ice shards that might be left) into a martini glass and serve with three olives.

If you want to try your hand at making a a proper classic gin martini, instead of shaking in the shaker simply stir gently until combined and proceed to step 2. By all means have at it, but if James Bond can break tradition and enjoy an ice cold martini then so can I.

If I am feeling extra debaucherous (possibly not a word) I like to make it a dirty martini by adding half an ounce of olive juice, right from the jar to the gin and vermouth before you shake. Enjoy, you dirty little birds!

Liquor: Grapefruit Rosemary Diamond Fizz

IIIIIIIIII have just discovered my new favourite morning drink! This is the MOST fun, because I think mimosas and Bloody Marys, while awesome, are totally played out. I get bored easily. When you're hosting a nice fancy brunch, you want to be able to offer something unique!

Alternatively this drink is classy and snazzy enough for an elegant evening dinner, perhaps with fish or a salad since it involves a light, dry prosecco. That's why it's called a diamond fizz instead of a regular gin fizz--prosecco/champagne trumps regular club soda or tonic water here. Cuz we fancy. Fancy doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, though--I picked up a bottle of Penny Stamp Prosecco at my local World Market for $7. When it costs less than a bottle of wine, you don't have to wait for a special occasion to break out the bubbles. A Thursday will do. Thursdays are great. Thursdays are Friday Eve, the pre-weekend. DO IT!

Oh! And I have to share this COOLEST OF COOL gadget I also found at World Market, the Rabbit Champagne Sealer. This little doo-dad expands to fit champagne and wine bottles of pretty much any size so that it doesn't go flat in the fridge until your next opportunity to drink. And it really works! How cool is that!

I am such a simple child.

I've gotten so used to using garnishes on drinks as an accompaniment, but champagne based drinks really don't require it and the shape of the glass doesn't reeeeeally lend itself to such. So it doesn't LOOK terribly fancy, and my photography sucks, but trust me--it's light, bubbly, delicious, and not too sweet.

What You Need
makes 1 bubbly cocktail

1 tablespoon of our previously made rosemary simple syrup
2 ounces fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (I had some tucked away from my most recent batch of Grapefruit Crushes)
1 ounce gin
Champagne or Prosecco, to top off

What You Do
1. In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shake the rosemary simple syrup, grapefruit juice, and gin together for 30 seconds until the mixer is frosty. Pour into a champagne flute and top off with prosecco or champagne.

Liquor: Cucumber Mint Gin

Back again with the booze! Yeeeaaahhhhh....I've been drinking my dinner most nights this week but also, ALSO! I'm moving back to Florida in three weeks and I need to eat my way out of the leftovers in the freezer, because evidently there is always some part of my mind that assumes that the zombie apocalypse is right around the corner, and god forbid I don't have enough gumbo and Italian Lemon Chicken and Orzo Soup on hand to get through it all.

In the meantime, I'm using GIN to get through all of THIS!

This past week my dearest Lilypad regaled me with a description of a drink she enjoyed in DC, something with cucumber and mint and gin. Since I have recently reignited my love affair with gin, I couldn't wait to reproduce it. I suppose this would be more apropos for all my Florida friends who are basking in the warmth of the sun and sand (SOON! Soon I will be with you, my people!) because it's light and utterly refreshing and delicious. Here, here it's just snow. Snow, snow, snow, and more forking snow, endless white bullshit. I'm back to being angry about winter.

In the meantime, mix this up and pretend you're relaxing on a warm porch swing somewhere in the South. That's what I'm doing. Cheers!

In correlation with yesterday's highly educational blog post on how to mix drinks when you are broke, this is a drink served without ice, and therefore SHOULD be in a stemmed glass. But, you can totally serve this with ice, if you want to. If it's actually warm enough to warrant a need for ice, where you are. (PS, GFY.)

Cucumber Mint Martini
serves 1

 What You Need
~3 inches cucumber, peeled and diced
2 fresh mint leaves
1/4 of a lime
2 ounces gin (I'm currently experimenting with Plymouth)
1 dash bitters (optional)
tonic water, to top off

What You Do
1. Throw your diced cucumber in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. Put the mint leaves in your hand, and clap. (This releases some of the fragrance and essential oils and also makes you look cool.) Add them to the shaker along with the juice of 1/4 of a lime, and the bitters. Muddle really really really well with a muddler or a wooden spoon. Add the gin and tons of ice and shake hard for 30 seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and top off with tonic water (you'll want a bit of that sweetness to round it out.) Serve with a fresh cucumber garnish.

Liquor: Rosemary Gin Rickey

Two cocktails in a row, woot woot! Yeeeaaaaaah buddy, I've been breaking out of my wine-only rut and am back to experimenting with the cocktail shaker. I think I got stuck in between ginger flavours and tequila for awhile, so I'm excited to have something new to present to you: a Rosemary Gin Rickey, from photographer Elizabeth Morrow. You can find the original recipe here.

Rosemary is a tricky ingredient, for me. It can be overwhelming at times, a strange combination of woody and floral fragrance and taste. I was intrigued to give this a try, and let me tell you, I am a full-on fan. The rosemary simple syrup is just subtle enough to that you only get a TASTE of rosemary, and the garnish of fresh rosemary provides the perfect whiff as you sip. As I noted before with the Pimm's Cup, in many cases, a cocktail garnish is NOT optional!!! A garnish serves the very important purpose of stimulating your sense of smell, which is of course closely tied to your sense of taste and part of the whole experience of a cocktail. A garnish is a complement to the drink. USE IT. 

Serve like so for effect, but of course, drop that baby tree into your drink before taking your first sip. I can't believe I actually have to tell people that, but there you go.

First, you must make the Rosemary Simple Syrup.

What You Need

makes 1 cup of simple syrup; scale as necessary

1 cup white granulated sugar

1 cup filtered water

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

What You Do

1. Making any simple syrup has the same (simple, hah) process: combine 1 part filtered water to 1 part sugar (usually white granulated) plus your flavouirng agent. You may recall we've used one before with before with the smashing Lemon Ginger Martini, with the original recipe being explained in the Carlos O'Brien. So all you do here is combine the ingredients in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often to make sure the sugar doesn't burn or stick to the bottom of the pan. Let it boil for 1 minute such that the sugar is completely dissolved, then cover and remove from the heat. Let steep for 30 minutes, drain out the rosemary sprigs, and store in the fridge in an airtight container.

I absolutely adored the light, baby-spring-green colour the simple syrup wound up having (not evident in the photo above, unfortunately). You also eat with your eyes, after all! Onwards we go.

Rosemary Gin Rickey
makes 1 drink

What You Need
1 ounce rosemary simple syrup
1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
1.5 ounces gin
club soda (I always prefer tonic water) to top off
spring of rosemary + white granulated sugar for garnish

What You Do
1. In a cocktail shaker over lots of ice, combine the first three ingredients. Shake for 30 seconds until the shaker is frosty. Pour into a highball glass over ice and top off with bubbles to your desired strength. Moisten a sprig of rosemary with water and roll around in some white sugar to give it that pretty, frosted look.

Oh, and hint hint--this would be a fantastically complementary pre-dinner cocktail for that Short Rib Ragu.

Liquor: Lemon Ginger Martini

So I have this really pathetic little game going on with myself right now, where I give myself a blue star (literally just a star scribbled in blue ink) on my wall calendar for every day I don't drink this month. There's no incentive for doing this; I've not promised myself anything, am not rewarding myself in any way, and have not been commanded to do so by any sort of rehabilitation programme. I have no idea why I play these games with myself.

Today is February 19, and I have 7 blue stars.

Don't you judge me. It's largely because of this drink! The Lemon Ginger Martini.

Easy-peasey lemon-squeezy.

This drink recipe comes entirely from my friend Lilypad, who is just so tres chic it's no surprise at all that she would come up with such a sophisticated drink. I love it because it's not too sweet, and so refreshing I know this is going to become my signature summer drink. With over a foot of snow piled up outside, clearly I am already pretending it is summer! I think it's about time I switch back to liquor from wine and beer, too, in trying to make smarter caloric decisions--so you can expect cocktail recipes to pop up more often, especially "skinny" ones. Cos summer IS coming. Thank god.

Lemon Ginger Martini
makes 1 martini

What You Need
2 ounces gin (BECAUSE YES, ACTUAL TRUE MARTINIS ARE MADE WITH GIN, NOT WITH VODKA) As you can see I used Tanqueray, but usually Bombay Sapphire is my go-to. Lilypad, because she maintains only the most exquisite taste, likes Junipero, which I must say I quite like.
1 ounce freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice (I forbid you to bastardise this simple deliciousness with the bottled stuff!)
0.5 ounce (or 1 ounce if you like things sweeter) ginger simple syrup, recipe here

What You Do
1. Did I or did I not say easy-peasey lemon-squeezy? Shake all over ice in a cocktail shaker for 30 seconds and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lemon slice.

Liquor: Gin Rickey

This isn't a real recipe. I'm only posting it because it was so beautiful outside yesterday that I decided to take my book ("Z": A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler) outside to the patio to read, and because it was a day ending in "y" I had plans to have a drink. In keeping with the theme of the Roaring 20's of the novel, it didn't take me long to decide on an absolute classic: a Gin Rickey.

Gin Rickey

What You Need
1.5 ounces gin (or 2 ounces if you're feeling wild; I like Bombay Sapphire)
juice of 1 freshly squeezed lime
club soda

What You Do
The proper way to serve this drink is in a tall Collins glass, which is a clear glass with tall straight sides and a thick bottom, but this is also supposed to be an easy, relaxed drink so you can make it in a Pyrex cup for all I care. Put in some ice, squeeze the lime really well over it and add the gin. Top off with fresh club soda and stir gently. I like to throw in a quarter of the squeezed lime because I like a little bit of the bitterness from the oils of the lime skin in the drink, but it's not necessary. You can garnish with a regular lime wedge or a couple of pretty lime slices if you're feelin' fancy. Go outside, sip, and enjoy.