Monday, December 13, 2010

Tony's Food 101: Improving and Inventing Cocktails

Hi guys and gals,

Things have been wildly busy lately, with one of our residents out on medical leave, medically leaving the rest of us to shoulder his calls. I did get out of the hospital recently, for a cocktail holiday party at my best friend's house. The premise was great: everybody dressed in sports coats ties and dresses, with a huge assortment of liquor with mixers left on ice, and some pretty interesting cocktail recipes framed on the wall above. The guests were hesitant at first, making slow circles around the bottles, except me. I dove right in, egg in hand, and whipped up a Ramos Gin Fizz for my girlfriend. After that, all sorts of drinks were flying off the bar and into the eagerly waiting hands of party guests. A couple of things needed to be tweaked here and there (especially with the more complicated libations like the Ramos), so I had to do some quick thinking on my feet. An altered Ramos recipe is below, as well as an off-the-cuff cocktail present for the party's hostess, who's a die-hard amaretto fan.

The Ramos Sans Flowers
Not having an ethnic grocery store near his house, we didn't have any access to orange flower water, an arguably essential ingredient to the Ramos Gin Fizz. We made due with some substitutes, or equally incredible results:
  • 2 oz gin. I like New Amsterdam in this one because of it's great citrus notes (plus the architectural bottle looks impressive on a home bar).
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  • 1/4 oz triple-sec
  • 1/2 oz orange juice
  • 1/2 oz. St. Germaine (which everyone at the party is now officially obsessed with).
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 oz. heavy cream

Combine all ingredients, more or less in that order (but definitely cream last due to the acids in the citrus juices) in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until your arms literally hurt. The key is to get a huge amount of delicious foam on the top of the drink. Pour into a tall glass then add club soda until the foam rises to the very very edge of the glass, then enjoy. As an aside, a bartender once told me that this drink tastes like "lemonade and a creamsicle making sweet love."

The Christmas Cookie

This was my small gift to the party's hostess, who loves amaretto. She is also very much a franophile, so the inclusion of two wonderful french liquors was an added bounus.

  • 2 oz. Domaine de Canton ginger liquer.
  • 1 oz. amaretto
  • 1/2 oz. St. Germaine
  • 1/2 oz. heavy cream

Shake with ice until creamy and foamy, and strain into a martini class. It could be garnished with one of those Pirouette cookies that are ubiquitous around the holidays.

I will try to post more now that things are slowing down, I hope everyone enjoys their holidays and has a great New Year!

No comments:

Post a Comment