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

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

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

Feather In Capsicum

I found these vintage glasses today in an antiques shop in Hassocks today, and after a quick once over in the dishwasher they were desperate for a lovely cocktail to go in them! This one I found on the Hendrick's Facebook page. I have a feeling it was inspired by Beyonce's rumoured Mastercleanse diet, although I can't confirm that Beyonce added gin...

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots gin
• 1 shot maple syrup
• 1.5 shots lemon juice
• Half teaspoon of cayenne pepper

AND TO MAKE

Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker along with plenty of ice. Shake until icy cold.

TO SERVE

Pour into two chilled coupe glasses. Bootylicious!

Love Myrtle xxx

Clover Club

I have egg white in the fridge left over from the PX flips I made on friday night, and as I hate to waste perfectly good cocktail ingredients I'll be using it in a Clover Club. I also have fresh raspberries so they're going in too, they are not essential but should add a fresh note to the drink.

YOU WILL NEED

(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Bombay Sapphire gin
• 1 shot Chambord liqueur
• 2 shots lemon juice
• 1.5 shots sugar syrup
• 1 egg white
• 12 raspberries (2 for garnish)

AND TO MAKE

Reserve 2 of your raspberries for garnish if using them, then muddle the remaining raspberries in your cocktail shaker. Add all the other ingredients, but before adding your ice, dry shake the ingredients for 20 seconds. This will emulsify your egg white properly before you dilute it with the ice. I would recommend using a tea-towel around your shaker, the egg white has a tendency to expand and break through the seal of your shaker. (I forgot this and dribbled sticky pink drink on the floor). Once your drink is thick and foamy, add the ice and shake again until icy cold.

TO SERVE

Strain into your two chilled glasses. Sit one of your reserved raspberries on top of the foam in each glass, it looks pretty and adds the fragrant zing of fresh raspberry to your first sip of the drink. If you are not using raspberries, I would strongly recommend adding a couple of drops of Chambord onto the foam to add fragrance. Egg white adds a lovely velvety texture to your drink but the foam can have a tendency to have a very slight whiff of wet dog fur if you don't garnish it...

Do try to forget about Damp Fido (but I dare you to sniff the egg white before garnishing), it would be a shame to miss out on a delicious cocktail, and the Clover Club is a long-standing favourite of mine that I always enjoy drinking! Try it yourself, you won't be disappointed.

Love Myrtle xxx

Friday Night Cocktail: Snowball (original)

And here's the recipe for an original Snowball.  The last one went down a bit too easily!  This one has to be made with Rose's Lime Cordial, it has a stronger flavor than lime juice and adds extra tanginess.  You can omit the gin if you like for a truly classic Snowball, but I rather like it in.

YOU WILL NEED
(for each drink)

• 1 shot Bombay Sapphire gin
• 3 shots Warnink's Advocaat
• 1 shot Rose's Lime Cordial
• Lemonade
• 3 homemade Maraschino Cherries to garnish

AND TO MAKE

Build all ingredients in a highball glass, adding the lemonade last, and slowly, as it will froth up.

TO SERVE

Top each drink with 3 Maraschino Cherries on a cocktail stick, and serve with a straw.  Stir gently with your straw before drinking to combine the ingredients.

Love Myrtle xxx

Friday Night Cocktail: Snowball

It's been snowing all day here, and whilst we could venture outside for a snowball fight, we'd much rather stay toasty and just drink them!  It's a bit of a tradition here at Myrtle and Merv's to drink Snowballs on Christmas morning, here's my mother's version of a traditional Snowball which is a bit more substantial and more suitable for a friday night, not least because it includes gin...

YOU WILL NEED
(enough for Merv too)

• 2 shots Bombay Sapphire gin
• 6 shots Advocaat
• 2 shots freshly squeezed lime
• 6 homemade Maraschino cherries
• 2 teaspoons Maraschino liqueur from the cherries
• Lemonade

AND TO MAKE

Prepare your glasses by adding three cherries on a cocktail stick, and a teaspoon of Maraschino liqueur from the cherries to each glass.  In your cocktail shaker, shake the gin, advocaat and lime along with plenty of ice.

TO SERVE

Pour the shaken drink through a strainer into your prepared glasses.  Top up with lemonade.

Enjoy!  But beware, the gin makes it deceptively strong, so don't, like Merv, knock it back in less than 5 minutes...

Love Myrtle xxx

Marmalade Martini

Really it's a Breakfast Martini, but Marmalade Martini just sounds better.   Like a grown-up cocktail for Paddington Bear.

YOU WILL NEED
(enough for Merv too)

• 4 shots Bombay Sapphire Gin
• 2 shots Cointreau
• 2 shots lemon juice
• 3 teaspoons marmalade

AND TO MAKE

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

TO SERVE

Serve in a chilled martini glass.  Garnish if you like with an orange or lemon twist.  Present with or without one of Paddington's very hard stares...

Love Myrtle xxx