Bay Leaf

Herb sugars are a relatively simple way to add complex fresh flavours to your home cocktails, just by bashing up your favourite herb with some sugar in a pestle and mortar. The Bay Leaf uses fresh bay leaves, readily available at most supermarkets now, and if you happen to have your own bay tree, even better! The resulting cocktail has a very delicate herbal flavour, a spicy cross between eucalyptus, citrus and lavender, and looks fantastic.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Vodka
• 2 shots freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 egg white
• 6 bay leaves
• 4 heaped teaspoons caster sugar

AND TO MAKE

Reserve two bay leaves for garnish, then add the remaining bay leaves and the sugar to your pestle and mortar. Grind the bay into the sugar until no leaf pieces are visible, and the sugar has turned a vibrant light green. At this point you may be left with the central spine of the bay leaves, fish these out and discard.

Add the bay sugar and the remaining ingredients to your cocktail shaker and dry shake to emusify the egg white. Add ice and shake again until foamy.

TO SERVE

Pour into two coupe glasses and garnish each with a bay leaf.

This cocktail has a lovely herbal flavour, it's one you'll keep going back to for another sip to taste it again! My glass is empty, how did that happen?

Love Myrtle xxx

Friday Night Cocktail: Minty

Jamie Oliver has a very simple recipe that involves making a mint sugar by pounding mint and sugar together in a pestle and mortar, which captures the lovely vibrancy of the mint both in colour and flavour. Jamie uses his on something called Pukka Pineapple, I'm using it to create a super minty variation of a mojito eliminating the need for the usual mint shrubbery in your glass.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Angostura 1919 Rum
• 2 shots freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 egg white
• 4 sprigs mint, stems removed and discarded
• 4 heaped teaspoons golden caster sugar

AND TO MAKE

Reserve two mint tips for garnish, then add the remaining mint leaves and sugar to your pestle and mortar. Bash-up your mint Jamie-style, until the leaves are ground up and you're left with a vibrant green fragrant sugar.

Add the mint sugar and the remaining ingredients to your cocktail shaker and dry shake to emulsify the egg white. Add plenty of ice and shake again until foamy,

TO SERVE

Pour into two coupe glasses and garnish each with a mint tip.

Merv says it tastes like minty sherbet. Jamie would say it tastes pukka, I'm sure...

Love Myrtle xxx

Pickle Back

While staying in New York at the Ace Hotel, I asked the mustachioed hipster bartender to recommend a savory cocktail to compliment the shucked oysters and littleneck clams. 

He recommended the Breslin Bar's house cocktail, the Pickle Back. While he was forthcoming with the basic recipe, he was as secretive as Colonel Sanders about the secret spices.

After much research, trial and error, the recipe below is my take on the Breslin's version, although you may wish to play with some of the spices to suit your own palette.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for a good party)

• 2 x 568 ml bottles of spirit vinegar
• 568 ml cold water
• 250g granulated sugar
• 5 tablespoons fine salt
• 1 tablespoon mustard seed
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 3 Indonesian long peppercorns
• Large bunch of dill
• 2 large cucumbers

TO MAKE THE PICKLE JUICE

Empty the 2 bottles of spirit vinegar into a saucepan, fill one empty vinegar bottle with cold water and add that as well. Add the salt, sugar, mustard seed, black pepper and long pepper and slowly bring up to a gentle boil.

While the ingredients are still warm, slice the cucumber into thin strips and layer with the dill in a sterilised Kilner jar (I just put mine through the dishwasher on a high temperature).

Once the pickling vinegar has reached a boil allow to cool a little and pour over the layered cucumber and dill until just shy of the rim. Seal the jar and allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating.

The pickled cucumbers can be kept for up to 2 weeks, and either eaten or discarded before re-bottling the pickle juice. Add some fresh dill to enhance the flavor and store until needed.


TO SERVE

Serve each shot in separate glasses

• 1 shot of Bulleit Bourbon
• 1 shot Pickle juice

The original recipe was with Jameson's Irish Whiskey, but the barman suggested Bulleit Bourbon as a smoother alternative.


Without teaching you how to drink, take a sip of the bourbon followed by a sip of the pickle juice.

Chin chin! Merv

Friday Night Cocktail: Sazerac

Last tuesday was Shrove Tuesday, that's Pancake Day for us in the UK, but more commonly Mardi Gras in the States, so what better to drink this week than the official cocktail of New Orleans, the Sazerac. I have made these on more than a few occasions in the past using Merv's best 12 year old Balvenie single malt whisky, and jolly good they are too. However, in the interests of tradition tonight's are made with proper Rye.

The recipe below is straight out of the PDT Cocktail Book, the giddy lemon peel hearts are entirely my own addition for Valentine's week made by the cunning use of a pastry cutter and a sharp knife, and will probably make serious cocktail nerds recoil in horror.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Rittenhouse Rye whisky
• 6 dashes Peychaud's bitters
• 4 shots Angostura bitters
• 2 Demerara sugar cubes
• 2 strips freshly pared lemon zest
• Absinthe, enough to rinse two glasses

AND TO MAKE

Chill two rocks glasses in the freezer for 10 minutes, in the meantime muddle your two sugar cubes and both types of bitters in a mixing glass or jug. Add the Rye whisky, and stir until the sugar has completely dissolved, then add plenty of ice and stir again for about 20 seconds.

TO SERVE

Pour a small amount of absinthe into each chilled glass and swirl it around until the inside of each glass is fully coated with a fine film of absinthe. Discard any excess left over, preferably into a glass for later! Strain your mixed drink into both absinthe rinsed glasses, and twist your lemon zest over the surface of each drink to add citrus oils. Wipe around the rim of each glass with the zest, then discard. Dropping the zest into the drink is supposed to upset the balance of the drink, my lemon zest hearts are tiny so shouldn't cause too much damage...

Happy Mardi Gras! Hope anyone reading didn't give up alcohol for Lent...

Love Myrtle xxx

Breakfast Martini

Gin, tea and marmalade. Need I say more?

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Bombay Sapphire Gin
• 2 tea bags
• 2 shots freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 shot sugar syrup
• 1 egg white
• 2 generous teaspoons marmalade

AND TO MAKE

Infuse your gin with the two teabags for 10 minutes. Remove the tea bags once infused, and add the tea-infused gin to your cocktail shaker along with the rest of the ingredients and plenty of ice. Shake hard, until very cold and foamy.

TO SERVE

Pour into two glasses and garnish with finely grated orange zest, or a few drops of orange bitters. Serve with hot buttered toast if you're having one for breakfast!

Love Myrtle xxx

Friday Night Cocktail: Aviation

It's my birthday today, and Merv has promised to make all my cocktails! My first of the evening has to be an Aviation, it's my favorite cocktail - lightly floral and highly potent! You will need some less common ingredients - Maraschino and Violet liqueur - but once you have them you'll be making this again and again.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Bombay Sapphire Gin
• 1 shot Maraschino liqueur
• 0.5 shot of Violet liqueur
• 1.5 shots of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 shot sugar syrup

AND TO MAKE

Add all the above ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake with plenty of ice.

TO SERVE

Strain into two martini glasses and garnish each with a cocktail stick of home-made maraschino cherries, or a coin of lemon peel. Sip whilst pondering what to have as your next drink... Same again?

Love Myrtle xxx

Friday Night Cocktail: Ramos Gin Fizz

Named after Henry C. Ramos, this classic cocktail started life in New Orleans way back in 1888, and grew in popularity in the years following before Prohibition, so much so that during Mardi Gras teams of shaker boys were employed to keep up with demand! The secret to its luxurious silky texture is a very long hard shake for up to 12 minutes, which is fine if you happen to have a team of shaker boys to hand, but if you don't, you'll just have to shake until you think your arms might drop off. It does help to dry shake it first - do this without the cream to avoid ending up with a big curdled mess - and then shake again with the cream and plenty of ice, this also gives you time for a rest in between. The extra shaking is really worth the effort, the resulting cocktail is light, floral and silky smooth. 

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Bombay Sapphire gin
• 1 shot lemon juice
• 1 shot lime juice
• 1.5 shots sugar syrup
• 2 teaspoons orange flower water
• 2 egg whites
• 2 shots double cream
• Soda water, to finish

AND TO MAKE

Add all of the above ingredients, apart from the soda water and cream, to your cocktail shaker and dry shake as long as you possibly can (I managed 5 minutes), so all the ingredients emulsify and thicken - you should end up with a thick white foam with very tiny bubbles, very similar to the head on a pint of Guinness. Stop for a breather and add ice and the cream, then shake hard again for as long as you can, another 2 minutes should be more than enough.

TO SERVE

Strain into two tall glasses (I chilled mine in the freezer), topping each one up with a little soda water. Serve with a straw, no further garnish required!

The picture above is my third attempt of the evening and finally the correct texture - my first ones weren't thick enough, the second ones curdled but third time lucky! Follow the steps above and yours should turn out just right first time.

Love Myrtle xxx