Friday Night Cocktail: TBC

We're busy enjoying our cocktails tonight, this post will be updated tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Love Myrtle xxx

Friday Night Cocktail: Oliveto

A cocktail with olive oil? And why not! This recipe is from the Marvel Bar in Minneapolis, and apparently it's become rather popular there. It's a great recipe - the olive oil adds to the unctuous silky texture of the drink and provides a lovely background grassy taste, which is balanced by the vanilla and citrus flavours of the Licor 43 and lemon juice.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Bombay Sapphire Gin
• 1/2 shot Licor 43
• 2 shots freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 shot good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 shot sugar syrup
• 1 egg white

AND TO MAKE

Add all of your ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake hard until all the ingredients emulsify and your mix has a thick foamy head. Add plenty of ice and shake vigorously again for about 30 seconds.

TO SERVE

Pour into two chilled coupe glasses, and serve. Would be lovely with a side of fat green cerignola olives.

Love Myrtle xxx

Cheese Straws

Cheese straws go really well with a cocktail, and they are so moreish, it's a good job they are really easy to make. Use all-butter puff pastry if you can find it, as it's, well, more buttery.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 1 Pack Ready-rolled All Butter Puff Pastry
• 1/2 cup Freshly Grated Gruyere Cheese
• 1/4 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan
• 1 Tablespoon Fresh Thyme Leaves
• 1 Lightly Beaten Egg
• Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

AND TO MAKE

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius / 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix your two grated cheeses together with the thyme. Open your pack of pastry and place it on your worktop. Brush the pastry surface generously with the beaten egg, and then sprinkle the egg-washed surface with your cheese and thyme mix. Season well with salt and pepper.

Using a rolling pin, roll over the cheese-topped pastry lightly and evenly a couple of times. This will press the cheese and seasoning into the pastry so that it doesn't all fall off. Then divide into twelve even strips with a sharp knife, using a palette knife if necessary to loosen them from the worktop ready to twist.

Twist each strip and place on a non-stick baking tray, lined with a silicon sheet or baking parchment, and bake in your preheated oven for 10-15 minutes , until the cheese is golden brown.

TO SERVE

Allow to cool, then serve either piled up on a rectangular serving tray, or in a jug. They're perfect with my Sapphire And Steel gin and thyme cocktail, or try them with a dirty martini or fizzy bubbly cocktail.

Best eaten on the day that they're made, and although they will keep for a day or two in an airtight container, they won't last that long!

Love Myrtle xxx

Friday Night Cocktail: Sapphire And Steel

Sapphire and Steel was originally a late 1970s British Sci-Fi TV series that had a very confusing storyline based on Joanna Lumley (Sapphire) and David McCallum (Steel) mending irregularities in time. Imagine a lower budget seventies version of the spookier episodes of Doctor Who with Patsy from Ab Fab and you're pretty much there.

Thankfully the cocktail version of Sapphire and Steel is far less complicated, and contains just four ingredients - Bombay Sapphire (obviously), St. Germain, lemon juice and thyme sugar. To continue the thyme theme, I'm serving mine with cheese and thyme straws.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Bombay Sapphire gin
• 2 shots St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• 1 shot lemon juice
• 2 sugar cubes
• 4 springs thyme

AND TO MAKE

Reserve two of the thyme sprigs for garnish. Remove the leaves from the remaining two sprigs of thyme and discard the stalks, add the thyme leaves and the two sugar cubes to a pestle and mortar and grind until the leaves combine with the sugar leaving a very fine, pale green thyme sugar.

Add the thyme sugar to your cocktail shaker along with the remaining ingredients and plenty of ice and shake for 20 seconds.

TO SERVE

Strain your cocktail into two chilled coupe glasses and garnish each with the reserved thyme sprigs. Serve with a home-made cheese and thyme straw on the side, if you're feeling fancy.

Love Myrtle xxx