House of Friends

House of Restlessness more like. It was a wet day or a snow day or something - definitely a day when we were stuck inside and we needed to release some energy with the kid.

1.5 oz Tequila blanco
1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse
1/4 oz Cointreau
1oz Agave Nectar
1 oz Fresh squeezed lime juice

Add all ingredients to shaker and fill with ice. Shake vigorously, and strain into a cocktail glass. Got the recipe here.

El Añejo

Himself came home with a bottle of Bénédictine and started the search for the perfect drink to make with it. We've had some experimentation but this, THIS is the one. Called Nouveau Carré in PDT Cocktail Book we only had Lillet Rose in the house (chilled as always) instead of the Blanc so we felt that justified a name change.

1.5 oz Añejo Tequila
3/4 oz Lillet Rose
1/4 oz Bénédictine
3 dashes Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice (no shaking required) and strain into chilled glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

Now he'll have to bring home some more Añejo - we're all out.

Margaroni

 

Delicious strawberries from a farmer's stand inspired me to make this almost exactly as the Margarita de la Primavera from Imbibe - the name didn't just work for me (and I turned the sweetness down a tad).

 

1 1/2 oz Tequila blanco

1/2 Campari

Tsp agave nectar

3/4 oz fresh lime juice

1 large strawberry

3 dashes rhubarb bitters

salt to garnish rim of glass

Orange peel

 

Rim glass with salt. Muddle strawberry and agave nectar at bottom of glass. Add remaining ingredients and ice, shake to chill and strain into the rimmed glass. Garnish with an orange peel twist.

 

Enjoy with a little World Cup sticker exchange.

Mother's Day

We make cocktails to match flowers for Mother's Day round these parts. It will be all the rage next year.

     1 1/2 oz tequila blanco
     1/2 oz Campari
     1/2 oz sweet vermouth
     1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
     2 dashes of rhubarb bitters
     Orange for garnish

Mix all ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice and pour into chilled glasses. Garnish with an orange wheel.

Now sit back and wait for someone to cook you dinner.

Meyer Lemonita

 

It's been a quiet January blog wise but lest you think it's been a dry January let me assure you that just by looking at our whiskey and Campari bottles it's not at all true. We've obviously been comfort drinking through this 'polar vortex' of a winter but we did have a break and created a Meyer lemonita.

 

I never really noticed Meyer lemons until last year and when I went to make something with them they were gone from the stores - they've a short season so I jumped at the chance this year to try some infusions and juicing them. Not disappointed either.

 

I infused tequila with the peel of two lemons (trying to get as little of the bitter white pith as possible) and kept it in the fridge of a few days. Every time I went to the fridge I'd give it a little shake and drool at the thought of it. This is what we did with it when it was ready ...

 

 

2 oz Meyer lemon infused 100% agave tequila

1 oz gin

2 oz Meyer lemon juice

Agave nectar to sweeten (to one's own taste)

 

Shake above with ice in cocktail shaker and pour into a salt rimmed glass (or sugar if that's your thing) and add some lemon zest for garnish.

 

Hot Lips

2 oz Tres Agaves Tequila Blanca

1 oz Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur

1 tsp agave nectar (or to taste)

3 basil leaves

3 slices jalapeno pepper (with or without seeds)

1/2 lime

Dash of lime bitters (optional)

 

Muddle the tequila with the jalapeno slices, the basil leaves and the half lime cut up into smaller pieces. Add ice and all the other ingredients and shake vigorously. Strain with a fine mesh strainer into cocktail glass.

 

Prepare to have your lips tingle!

Finn Dove

Time to use our home infused bitters! And this is what we did - a riff on the Paloma using grapefruit juice & club soda instead of grapefruit soda and the addition of the bitters - obviously. Without the soda I thought it needed a little injection of sweetness so I added some agave nectar, himself thought it was fine without - you can decide how you like it but without doubt the bitters gave it a nice complexity. 

The little guy named it (he's good at this!) when I told him I wanted  a change from 'paloma' which meant 'dove' he said to name it Finn Dove after the main character in the Flight of the Doves which we read together this summer. We'll call it Finn for short.

2oz Reposado Tequila (El Mayor)

Juice of half a lime
1 oz grapefruit juice
2 dashes grapefruit bitters
1 tsp Agave nectar (optional)
Club Soda
Shake first five ingredients with ice and strain into Collins glass with lots of ice and the spent half a lime.

"Yah-hah-hoo," shouted Uncle Paddy.

"Yah-hah-hoo," shouted Uncle Joe.

And for the very first time, Michael saw Finn really smiling.

Peach-Basil Margarita

 

One of our favorite chefs is Rick Bayless, his Mexican Everyday cookbook is often a go to in our kitchen, and we even made a special trip to Chicago once to eat in the Frontera Grill where the food did not disappoint but his cocktails blew us away. So it was a no brainer that his new book Frontera: Margaritas, Guacamole and Snacks found its way into our hands. The drinks require a little more preparation so I must remind myself to read it on Tuesday, shop for it on Wednesday and start preparing for it on Thursday to make the drink on Friday. Too much work?

This week, with the abundant supply of peaches and willingness for getting more involved in putting a cocktail together I made the Peach-Basil Margarita. We only had white peaches left (hence the pinky color) but I highly recommend you use yellow peaches - they add so much more flavor.

 

Basil salt (5-7 basil leaves chopped up small with the salt for the rim)

1 lime wedge

2 fresh basil leaves

1 1/2 oz 100% blue agave tequila

3/4 oz fresh lime juice

1/2 oz triple sec

1 oz peach puree (blend ripe peaches in blender with a little sugar until really smooth)

1/2 - 3/4 oz basil syrup (simple syrup with basil)

 



Wet rim of glass with lime wedge and dip in the basil salt.
Muddle the basil leaves and the end of cocktail shaker and then add in all the other ingredients with ice. Shake and strain into salted glass.

This went down really well! Make sure you make enough puree for a second!

Ghost Crab

 

 

We came up with the name before we came up with the drink so using the collective supply on hand we came up with this:

 

2oz Tres Agaves Tequila

1/2 oz Cointreau

Freshly squeezed lime juice

White of an egg

Shake in a tumbler with strain into glass over ice.

Optional: To enjoy when the sun goes down pour into a plastic cup, get a flashlight and bring the kids to the beach to look for ghost crabs. Ah yes, we love summer.

 

Salty Lemonade

I still had some of the lemony simple syrup left from here when I saw this and knew I had to give it a try. Salt and tequila and lemons is a winner in our book. As well as being salty it is quite potent (another winner for us!)
3oz tequila (reposado),
1 1/2 oz lemony simple syrup
1 1/2 - 2oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

Shake all together and pour over ice in a salt rimmed glass.

Yesterday I made more simple syrup but added rosemary and lemon peel to the pot - another winner.
Salty Rosemary and I will be at the pool later should anyone care to join us. 

Bloody Orange-ita

What if you replace triple sec in a margarita with Solerno blood orange liqueur?  Then add some orange juice instead of lime? What do you get?

A bloody nice drink, that's what!

Margarita 102

The last thing you need is another margarita recipe especially so late in the week of cinco de mayo but we realized that for all the cocktails here we have never actually featured one with tequila. Shock! Horror! Pick yourself off the floor because we actually love tequila and himself specializes in margaritas. We’re purists at heart – 100% agave tequila, freshly squeezed lime juice and triple sec in a 4:4:1 ratio with a bunch of crushed ice. 

What we have done to make it uniquely ours though are two things – the first is a salted foam topping. At Christmas I got a molecular mixology kit which has resulted mostly in disappointment (and a lot of washing up) but it did leave us one surprise – a salty foam made with lecithin and in a 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration kind of way we found the salted foam made the perfect topping for a margarita instead of the salted rim. And it looks good.

  

The second thing we do is add half a habanero chili as garnish straight into the drink (if you were very daring you might rub the rim with it) and it infuses the beverage as you sip it. By the time you get to the end it makes your lips buzz and your taste buds sing.

 

This last part is the best bit!

Is there a sight more beautiful?

 

Can't decide if it's the two margaritas or himself cooking.