Kitchen Wench

Lee and I busted out our new blackberry gin a few Saturdays ago while watching the Capital Pride Parade roll through Dupont.  We subbed the blackberry-infused stuff for regular gin to make some mighty refreshing gin and tonics.  Be sure to include a healthy squeeze of fresh lime to balance out the sweetness. You won’t be disappointed.

Blackberry-infused Gin

• 2 pints blackberries
• 2 cups sugar, dissolved in 1 cup of water
• 2 cups gin

Combine all ingredients in a glass container with an airtight lid.  Mash up berries with a potato masher or large spoon. (I used a meat pounder.) Seal and allow to infuse for 2 weeks, shaking vigorously once a day.  Strain out berries, squeezing out excess juice.  You may wish to infuse for more or less time, depending on how intense you want the flavor.

I’ve been trying to come up with a way to use my rosemary-infused vodka, but it’s a pretty distinctive flavor.   Searching for inspiration, I started thinking about how I cook with rosemary: I like it on lamb chops.  I then thought about what other flavors I had kicking around that taste good on lamb (pomegranate, lemon, saffron, cardamom).  Turns out, they also all taste good together over ice.

And then I realized then when you make up a new cocktail, you have to give it a (stupid) name.  I thought about giving it a name that somehow referenced lamb, but that didn’t sound appetizing.  I googled “rosemary vodka” and got several hits for a drink called Rosemary’s Baby. Rosemary’s Baby, as you probably know, was a novel from the 1960s that was later turned into a Roman Polanski film starring Mia Farrow.  I’ve never seen it, so I decided to check out the plot summary on IMDB.

Well, it turns out that the movie is all about SATAN WORSHIPPERS.

I thought… well, I don’t know what I thought it was about, but satan worshippers was NOT at the top of my list.  Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be naming any tasty beverages after that movie.

Not Rosemary’s Baby

• 2 oz Rosemary-infused vodka
• 1 tbsp homemade grenadine (recipe below)
• 4 oz club soda
• slice of lemon
• dash of Sunshine Bitters

This would probably work better mixed in a cocktail shaker with ice, but this method will work in a pinch.  Combine vodka and grenadine in a glass with ice.  Stir to combine.  Top with bitters and soda.  Squeeze the juice out of the lemon, then drop rind into the glass so the citrus oils infuse the drink.  Stir and enjoy.

Rosemary-infused Vodka

• 2 cups vodka
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Place all ingredients inside a glass jar with airtight lid.  Seal and allow to infuse for 4 days, shaking vigorously once a day.  Remove rosemary.  You may wish to infuse for more or less time, depending on how intense you want the flavor.

Homemade Grenadine

Grenadine, as you may or may not know, it actually made from pomegrante juice.  A lot of people dislike the taste of grenadine, probably because the stuff you get in the store is artificially flavored.  Real grenadine tastes much better and is super easy to make.

• 2 cups pomegranate juice
• 1 cup sugar

Simmer juice and sugar until thick and syrupy.  Pour into an airtight container.  Keeps in the fridge indefinately.

Frankly, I don’t like eating cucumbers all that much.  They’re just so… watery.  And kind of, well… blah.  And every time I try to make a nice vinegary salad with them, they release all their liquid and dilute the dressing.  I’m not even sure if cucumbers have any real nutritional value aside from some fiber, which makes them even less worth eating in my book.

But cucumbers in a drink is an entirely different matter.  In fact, I think cucumber and gin might be the next great flavor combination, right up there with peanut butter and jelly or lamb and mint.  I’ve read that some gins (namely Hendrick’s) are made with cucumber, which explains why the flavors seem to pair so perfectly.  In any event, I really encourage you to try making your own cucumber gin.  It’s super easy and completely worth the effort because it takes the lowly gin and tonic to a whole new level.

Cucumber-infused gin

• 2 cups gin
• 4 garden cucumbers (the little chubby ones from the farmers’ market) or 2  supermarket cucumbers

Peel cucumbers and slice lengthwise.  Scoop out seeds and discard.  Slice or chop up cucumber — the shape doesn’t really matter, you just want to maximize the surface area.  Place cucumber and gin inside a glass jar with airtight lid.  Seal and allow to infuse for 4 days, shaking vigorously once a day.  Strain and discard cucumber.  You may wish to infuse for more or less time, depending on how intense you want the flavor.

Cucumber gin and tonic

• 2 oz cucumber gin
• 4 oz tonic water

Combine ingredients in a glass with ice.  Stir.  Garnish with a slice of cucumber, if you like.

I’ve been shaking and tasting my infusions every day and, one by one, they are reaching the point where they’re ready to be strained and drunk.  I’ve been working on a few recipes and will be publishing them as I perfect the proportions.

Here’s my recipe for basil-infused vodka and a lemon and basil vodka gimlet.  (I’m not sure if it’s still technically a gimlet without lime juice, but I don’t know what else to call it.)  I can’t take credit for the flavor combination — I saw it on this blog, but they used a different method to make the drink.  In any case, it tastes amazing: bright, refreshing, and perfect for summer.

Basil-infused vodka

This recipe is based off of Chow’s recipe for a basil digestif.  The digestif recipe calls for Everclear 151 because it picks up the flavor faster than vodka.  Everclear is also really strong, and I probably would not be able to type this blog post after consuming a cocktail made with it!  If you want to use this as a mixer, it is probably worth waiting the few extra days it takes to infuse using vodka.

• 1 cup vodka
• 3/4 cup simple syrup
• 7 fresh basil leaves

Place all ingredients in a clean glass jar with an airtight seal.  (I used Mason jars.)  Seal and allow to infuse for 10 days, shaking vigorously once a day.  Remove basil leaves.  You may wish to leave the basil in for more or less time, depending on how intense you like your flavor.

Lemon Basil Vodka Gimlets

• 2 oz basil-infused vodka
• 1 oz simple syrup
• juice of 1 lemon
• 4 oz club soda
• sprig of fresh basil

Crush the basil leaves in your fingers to release the oils.  Combine all ingredients in a glass with ice.  Stir and enjoy.

Oh, hello there. I haven’t blogged in quite a while, mostly because I’ve been out of town a lot, busy at work, and thus not keeping enough food in my house.  It’s gotten to the point where I’ve been making the same three pasta dishes over and over (penne with either carbonara sauce and peas, amatriciana sauce, or chard, raisins, and ricotta cheese).  I was boring myself.  But now that it’s summer (what happened to May?!), I’m excited again to cook and bake things with all the nice fruits and vegetables in the farmer’s market.

Between reading this article on digestifs on Chow.com and getting a giant bottle of homemade cherry cordial for Christmas, I’ve been wanting to infuse my own alcohol.  On Tuesday, I decided I was going to just do it.  So I spent the next two days running around after work in search of Mason jars and buying an embarrassing amount of vodka from the corner liquor store.  For the record, it’s surprisingly difficult to find larger glass canning jars.  If you live in the District, you’ll need to go to either The Container Store in Tenleytown or True Value Hardware at 17th an P.

Once you have your equipment, it’s pretty easy.  I stuck with gin and vodka, as they have pretty neutral flavor profiles.  You will want to use something with a high alcohol content, as it will draw the flavor out of your fruit/vegetable/herb faster. Beyond that, you just put it in the jar with the alcohol and let it hang out until the flavor is the desired strength. Some recipes also call for the addition of simple syrup, but otherwise there’s not much else to it.  Currently in the works are cucumber, blackberry, and ginger gins and lemon, orange, grapefruit, Asian pear, basil, rosemary, and Darjeeling tea vodkas.  I also made a small bottle of Sunshine bitters.  I also whipped up some ginger and lime simple syrups, along with homemade grenadine.

Right now I’m still waiting for most of my flavors to finish infusing.  If they don’t taste terrible, I will post the recipes, along with any original cocktail creations.  I’m generally planning to keep it fairly simple — cucumber gin and tonics, lemon basil vodka gimlets.  However, I am getting pretty excited at the prospect of an alcoholic Arnold Palmer with tea vodka and lemonade.  I’m also contemplating the future: Green tea vodka, soda, and lemongrass simple syrup? Coffee vodka with vanilla bean syrup?  Well, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here…  I had no idea it would be this fun.  So many possibilities… in the meantime, I need to clean my apartment so I can start inviting people over for drinks.