Four I'm Under My Host

My mother-in-law just gave me a new cocktail recipe book called Artisanal Cocktails by Scott Beattie, former bartender (or cocktail chef) at Cyrus, a fantastic restaurant in Healdsburg where I have had the pleasure of dining in the past. Needless to say I was eager to try it out.

The perfect opportunity presented itself almost immediately. Our Parisian friends Amanda and Michel and their kids invited us to spend the night at their oceanfront rental house in Stinson Beach. Michel is not a cocktail drinker but Amanda is, so I knew she would be an enthusiastic audience. We were headed straight from Napa to Stinson and I wouldn’t have all my bar tools with me so I choose a fairly simple concoction, the Sunny and Dry. I won’t bother recapitulating the recipe because you can watch Scott make the drink!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDczAeZo63Q]

You can check out the recipe on the Nirvino blog. I used sunflower petals and I created the mint simple syrup using fresh mint instead of essential oils as Scott recommends. I haven’t tried his technique yet but certainly will. It would be convenient, certainly, to be able to create a flavored syrup without a trip to the grocery. I do have a sneaking suspicion that the fresh mint version is better. Plus it gives the drinks a nice green hue. And I soaked cucumber cubes in the mint syrup first before adding them to the drink. Scott recommends this in the book but doesn’t do it in the video. Either way, delicious and gorgeous!

Like all of Scott’s drinks it is a visual treat as well as being delicious. I really recommend the book, not just for the recipes but for the techniques he describes, especially on how to create foams (coconut milk? go figure) and how to build the beautiful floral concoctions the book is filled with.

Sunny and Dry(ish)

Of course those of you who have visited a Northern California beach during summer know that cocktail hour is often neither sunny nor dry. The fog rolls out late and rolls in early. And unless it is quite hot I generally prefer a cocktail served up, so I started thinking about an evening-time variation of this concotion. Taking further inspiration from Scott’s book and Rob’s Tropical Gin Fizz I thought it should be a bit foamy. Here is the result.  Still need a name for this one….

• 3 parts gin (I used Sarticious, which was new to me)
• 1 part mint simple syrup
• 1 part lemon juice (freshly squeezed, of course)
• Cubes of cucumber soaked (for 1 hour or more) in mint simple syrup. About 8 small cubes per drink
• Egg white, 1 per 2 cocktails

Put the egg white in the cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. This should cause the egg whites to become frothy. Add cucumber chunks and muddle lightly. Add the rest of the ingredients and ice and shake vigorously again. Dispense into martini glasses. Garnish with a mint leaf or a thin slice of cucumber. Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. A Taste of Persia
2. Lemon Mint
3. The Post-Script