Cocktails Archives - Food, Booze, & Baggage

Pink Peppercorn Gin and Tonic

October 8, 2015 by Mariah 10 Comments

It’s been far too long since I’ve sat down and shared a cocktail with you guys 🙂 I’m a little obsessed about infusing all the liquors, ever since I got inspired by the Infuse book. I have a huge list of infusions I still want to try. Anyway, so yes, another infused liquor is involved in this one, get use to it 🙂 Also, I had to share my newest tonic obsession as well, which is Fever Tree. This tonic is different than your traditional tonic, it’s less sweet, less sharp, so well balanced, and makes the perfect G&T!!

Infused Pink Peppercorn Gin

16 oz. Gin (dealers choice, I used Bombay)
1 tablespoon pink peppercorns

Pour gin and pink peppercorns into mason jar, shake, and infuse for 24 hours. This one needed the overnight infusing to really start to pick up the flavors. Strain out peppercorns, you can use a cheesecloth or I used the pour-over cone with a coffee filter. Store strained infused gin in fridge, until ready to use.

Pink Peppercorn Gin+Tonic

3 oz pink peppercorn gin (two 1.5oz shots)
Ice
Fever Tree Tonic
Twist of lemon peel

Fill glass with ice, add pink peppercorn gin, and fill remaining room with tonic. Twist lemon peel over glass to release some of the oils and drop in. Stir and serve.

As a note, I threw in some pink peppercorn for garnish in the glass above, don’t do that. I ended up having to pick it out to drink the drink, it’s just not a good idea. In my defense, we did have a gin and tonic in Vegas with peppercorns in the glass, so it wasn’t completely left-field thinking. Of course you do what you want 🙂

Cheers!!

Do you have a favorite tonic or is it just me?

BTW I purchased this tonic myself, I wasn’t paid for this post. Even if it sounds like an ad 🙂

Dirty Watermelon Martini

July 16, 2015 by Mariah 16 Comments

This is a take on a dirty martini, with a summer twist. Instead of olive juice, I’m using salted watermelon juice. I’ve been having fun coming up with new cocktails and I couldn’t pass up using a quintessential summer fruit, watermelon. This is a perfect cocktail for summer, especially if you are like me and have a hard time using up all of a watermelon. Multi-tasking, multi-tasking 🙂 I know this cocktail sounds strange, but it really does work!

I used Black Cap Vodka for this cocktail. This is the vodka P and I brought back from Maine, umm over a year ago. We still had not opened it!! This is why I’m playing with so many new cocktail recipes, we need to start using some of this stuff up, instead of using it as decoration 🙂

The Dirty Watermelon

Salted Watermelon Juice

2 heaping cups cubed watermelon (remove as many seeds a possible)
1/2 teaspoon SEA salt
1/4 cup water (if needed)

Place the watermelon and water (if needed) in your blender. If you have a Vita-mix or similar you may not need the water, my blender needs a little liquid to get started. Once all the way blended, add in the salt and blend well. Strain through cheese cloth. I used the coffee filter/pour-over cone trick again. This should give you about 1 1/2 cup juice (once strained).

Dirty Watermelon Martini (1 cocktail)

2 oz vodka
3.5 oz salted watermelon juice

Pour the above into a shaker full of ice. SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! Strain into martini glass, and garnish with watermelon wedge. Best enjoyed immediately and cold…like any good dirty martini 🙂

Cheers friends!!

What are you drinking that says summer to you?

Strawberry Green Tea Ginjito

July 2, 2015 by Mariah 12 Comments

Yes a ginjito, never heard of it? Well, it’s because I just made it up. It’s a mojito type cocktail made with gin instead of rum. This was inspired by Infuse: Oil, Spirit, Water and a Costco gin purchase. I have a huge bottle I got from Costco, but it’s not my favorite. It’s a good brand and all, but not my go-to for gin and tonics. I was overcome by the novelty of buying alcohol at Costco and the cost savings, plus I tend to make snap judgements to just get out of there. So long story, expect lots of infused gin around these parts 🙂 Now back to the cocktail at hand. I like tea, I like gin, why not try them together. I feel like strawberry and mint are great additions to green tea and thus was born the ginjito. It was an experiment of flavors, that was a success!! This is the perfect summer cocktail, very light and refreshing.

Green Tea Gin (yield 1 cup)

1 Tbsp. loose green tea*
1 cup gin

*Go for a milder green tea, don’t use matcha or sencha. If you don’t have loose tea or you don’t want to strain it, you can use bags about 3 bags. I used the pour-over cone and a coffee filter to strain and didn’t lose a drop.

Place tea and gin into a Pint Mason Jar, give it a good shake, and leave at room temperature for 24 hours. Strain tea leaves or remove bags, and place in refrigerator until ready to use.

Strawberry Syrup (yield ½ cup)

2 cups chopped strawberries (about ¾ of a pint)
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup water

Place all ingredients into small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let boil 2 minutes and then reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, you want the strawberries to be very soft. Allow to cool and strain into bottle or jar, refrigerate until ready to use. If it thickens in the fridge you can add a little water and shake it up to thin back out.

The above will give you just enough for a few cocktails, so for a party you would want double or triple the gin and syrup recipes. For a full quart of strawberries do 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. If you want several cups of syrup just increase using the full pint ratio.

Strawberry Green Tea Ginjito (yield 1 mason jar cocktail)

5-6 fresh mint leaves
2 ½ Tbsp. strawberry syrup (or to taste)
1 cup ice
1 ½ ounce green tea gin
½ cup club soda

Place mint leaves and strawberry syrup into a pint mason jar (or shaker), muddle mint leaves, add in ice, add in green tea gin. Cover and shake well. Add in club soda, stir, and top off with additional ice.

Have you tired infusing your own liquor?

This post contains Amazon affiliated links. If you purchase from one of these links I will receive a small commission.

Roasted Tomato Gimlet: Inspiration from Infuse

May 21, 2015 by Mariah 11 Comments

Eric Prum & Josh Williams authors of Shake, just released their newest book this week, Infuse. I was lucky enough to receive a copy from Blogging for Books and got to try a few recipes first-hand! The book as it’s aptly named, shares over 50 different infusion recipes utilizing oils, spirits, and water.

Not all infusions take weeks, Infuse includes recipes for infusions that can be enjoyed immediately, short (up to 24 hours), and long (one day to a few weeks). Infuse is the perfect book for those who like to “play” around in the kitchen and get creative. So many of their recipes can be tweaked and it’s a great book to keep you inspired. Just from my initial flip through, I was already coming up with variations and fun ideas using their base recipes.

I was particularly excited over the Oils section. P and I have not bought store-bought salad dressing in close to two-years now, and I’m excited to add some new flavors to our salad rotation. Prum & Williams share three of their favorite variations on the classic vinaigrette, I’m looking forward to trying the Spaniard soon as it contains anchovies (and I love anchovies). This section also contains how to flash-infuse oils, which opens up even more dressing variations. The oil section does contain recipes beyond salad dressings. P made the mistake of testing out the honey-sriracha popcorn recipe, and I’m not going to be satisfied any longer with a splash of salt on my movie night snack.

The next two sections Spirits and Water are just as inspirational as the Oil section. Is it bad sign that I’m considering making cocktails out of some of the water infusions? P was literally flipping through the spirits section saying, “can we make this, can we make this”. We have lots of experimenting ahead of us. And I’m sharing my first experimentation with you, today…

The Roasted Tomato Gimlet is inspired by Prum & Williams’ Spicy Cucumber Gin. I decided to go with the vegetable theme and produced a roasted tomato & basil puree to pair with their infused gin. A twist on the flavors of a bloody mary.

Spicy Cucumber Gin (From Infuse)

12 oz of gin
10 sliced rounds of cucumber
½ jalapeno, halved lengthwise and seeds removed

Combine all ingredients in a 16oz Mason jar. Seal and shake for three seconds.
Infuse at room temperature for 12 hours
Strain through cheesecloth. Store in the refrigerator.

My gin turned out great, a hint of spice, but not mouth-burning.

Roasted Tomato & Basil Puree

3 roma tomatoes
1 teaspoon kosher salt
5 basil leaves
½ cup + 2 tablespoons water
⅛ teaspoon celery salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 F

Slice the tomatoes and place on rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes until soft. Stir once mid-way through baking.
LET COOL!
In a blender add in roasted tomatoes, 5 whole basil leaves, ½ cup + 2 tablespoons water, and ⅛ teaspoon celery salt. Puree until very smooth. You can taste it and decide if you want to bump up the salt, especially if you didn’t add the celery salt. I like a little saltiness to my cocktails. I did not strain my purée, and it didn’t have any large chunks. If you want zero pulp then strain through a cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer. I have a regular blender and was able to get minimal seeds remaining, just a small amount of tomato skin. This makes about 1 cup. You can make this a day or two ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator.

The Roasted Tomato & Basil Gimlet

2oz Spicy Cucumber Gin
1 oz tomato & basil purée

Place in cocktail shaker, fill remaining space to ¾ full with cubed ice. Shake, shake, shake. Strain into martini or coupé glass. Garnish with cucumber or basil leaf. Enjoy, it’s practically health food 🙂

If you are looking for some great cocktails, summer refreshments, and dressings/marinades Infuses is the book for you. The recipes are so easy, anyone from beginner to pro can make use of Infuse. This is the perfect book to kick-start your creative juices, and right in time for summer parties!

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.