Posts Tagged ‘vodka’
The Russian Pirate
Now, I’m not much of a vodka drinker. I don’t hate it, like many of the people involved in this internet cocktail malarky. Though, the last time I bought a bottle of vodka, it was a bottle of 42 Below Feijoa and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t opened. Sad really, Feijoa and Apple juice is a great summer drink and I’m quite fond of that bizarre flavour. But I digress.
Today is Mixology Monday and the theme is “Vodka”. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about vodka is russians. Not the kind that invented it, but the kinda that the dude drinks. White Russian. Caucasians. It just so happens that I’ve already posted about the White Russian (one of the first posts on this blog) so that ruled that out. Pity I’d already bought a bottle of the necessary coffee liqueur, hired the Big Lebowsky and settled in on the couch.
S
o I set about making some improvements on one of my favourite drinks. The sad thing was, that any improvements I thought of, and call me uncreative, involved taking the vodka out of the drink (I swear I don’t have anything against vodka.) I certainly hope I don’t offend Amelia by taking the vodka out of the cocktail.
Gin would be the first thing to try, but we are out. Sadly, there is actually 5 empty bottles of gin in the bar. 5 bottles, 5 brands and I’m sure I only bought a new one a few days ago. Who knows what happened there.
Finally, rum was it.
- 30ml of Mount Gay XO.
- 30 ml of Kahlua
- 60ml of Milk.
Shake (cause we want the foam on top) and serve in a dodgy tumbler as though you are really poor imitation of the Dude. Grate some chocolate over the top.
You should follow me on Twitter.The Perfect Bloody Mary Recipe
Regarded as one of the best alcoholic hangover cures the Bloody Mary might be described as a spicy tomato juice and vodka, but that would be selling it far too short. As with most cocktails the basics remain mostly the same but the interpretations vary greatly. Perfecting it is an exercise in balance and flavour, not enough spice, it becomes watered down tomato juice, too much and it is a peppery assault on the senses.
The number of ingredients pale in comparison to the number of variations of this seemingly simple drink. Worcestershire and tobasco sauce are staples as are tomato juice and vodka but that is where the similarities across recipes ends. Salt or lemon, wasabi or horseradish sauce, port or shiraz, chilli vodka or plain and this isn’t to mention celery, basil or muddled cherry tomatoes.
It is hard to know what the cause of all this conjecture is. Perhaps it is due to the number of people who have attempted to make one, or the universal popularity of the drink, or it being a testament to the versatility of tomato juice. One thing is for certain though, everyone’s recipe is the best. Including mine.
- 45 ml vodka
- 15 ml Worcestershire sauce
- 4-5 dashes of tobasco (to taste)
- 10 ml of lemon juice
- 20 ml port or shiraz, port for a sweeter drink, shiraz for spicier
- approx 100ml Tomato juice
Stir all ingredients with ice until super-cold, strain into a highball glass, crack pepper and garnish with an aromatic stick of celery or a lemon wheel.
You should follow me on Twitter.Advokaat Cocktails
As the theme for Mixology Monday this week, hosted at A Mixed Dram is “Broaden your Horizons” I headed down the local liquor store and started browsing. The budget was a little bit tight otherwise I might have taken home a bottle of brandy, a bottle of Irish Whiskey and a bottle of Advokaat and started mixing but all I ended up grabbing was the Advokaat.
As far as I can tell there is really only 1 common cocktail that’s made with Advokaat – the “Fluffy Duck.” This is quite nice although it is a little too creamy. However, I thought a change here and there could truly turn it into something nice. The resulting cocktail, the “Fiery Dick” is:
- 30mL Vodka
- 45mL Advokaat
- 30mL Lemon Juice
Build over ice in that order and top with soda and garnish with a lemon wheel.
You should follow me on Twitter.Martinis: 8 Random Pieces of Trivia
This is going to come across badly to the purists, but a Martini isn’t a particularly “nice” drink, gin, vodka and especially vermouth are all, straight, generally offensive to the palate. In my time working behind a bar I’ve discovered that the drinkers of Martini’s are a not dissimilar to the drinkers of Champagne. While the drinkers may like the taste, and can definitely distinguish between the quality of the drinks, most of the drinking is about making a statement about who they are. Now, as a barman you can’t let that bother you, and one thing is for certain regarding the Martini, people that drink them love them and those same people tip well.
Tipping here in Australia and New Zealand is not an organised affair as it is in other locales, people are not required to tip and generally don’t unless there is a good reason to. This means that if someone orders a Martini your best smile, wit and banter should be on show, so as to convert this chance into some cold hard cash. If you are still with me, the purpose of this post is not to describe a recipe and process for making a Martini, that is for another time and another post. The purpose is to provide some tips for conversation with your potential tipper. Some of these are unsubstantiated, others may be wives-tales and others may be completely made up by me right here, nonetheless they should work for some good conversation.
- Martin’s aren’t supposed to be shaken, they should be stirred. This is because shaking them bruises the gin working with that, you could shake a vodka martini because you can’t bruise vodka.
- Further to the previous comment, I think it’s probably bullshit – that is the whole bruising of gin.
- There is a study that suggests shaking gin activates more antioxidants in it, and this might be a reason why James Bond is so healthy. (from Wikipedia)
- It’s unlucky to have an even number of olives in a Martini, so you should have 1 or 3. Never 2.
- James Bond likes his martinis dry, very dry, shaken not stirred.
- Hawkeye from MASH liked his martini’s about as dry, stating that the perfect recipe was to pour a glass of cold gin while looking at a picture of the inventor of vermouth. To translate, that’s a cold glass of gin with an olive or 3
- A martini with a cocktail onion is called a Gibson
- Methyphobia is the fear of alcohol
The White Russian
The White Russian, or better (not commonly) known as the Caucasian is a simple drink. Coffee and Milk that get’s you pissed – what’s not to like. The name Caucasian stems from the movie The Big Lebowsky. I want to believe that The Dude has a White Russian in his hand in every scene of the movie, but that just isn’t true, though he has a fair crack mixing a few up when he clearly wasn’t welcome. Anyhow, The Big Lebowsky – great film you should get it out or download it.
Before you get your hands dirty, you should know that the White Russian has a cousin/brother, the Black Russian. We won’t talk about that right now.
The White Russian is a great drink, strong and tasty. Take a short glass, (also know as a rock) fill it up with ice, add 1 nip of Kahlua, 1 nip of vodka and top it up with milk. Stir and serve with a straw. I want to talk a little bit about some other variations of this, some places will put this all into a shaker, shake and then strain it into a glass of new ice. I don’t have a particular abjection to this being shaken, but it should be shaken gently and definitely not strained. Shaking normally breaks the ice and adds some water to the drink, normally this doesn’t hurt a shaken drink but in this case milk and water definitely do not go together.
Another version of this replaces milk with cream, I actually have a suspicion this has happened because of a problem with translation between the US and the rest of the English speaking world. Americans often refer to full cream milk as cream, and if I for example didn’t know that I would read a drink recipe containing this so called “cream” add cream to my White Russian and not get it how it’s meant to be. Anyway, aside from that cream doesn’t go badly and it doesn’t go that well in a Caucasian. I don’t recommend it, but whatever floats your boat. Just remember, this drink is pretty good as it always has been.
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