Love Unit 405

My variation on the Ryan Magarian’s Love Unit theme resulted in a truly great concoction: after careful consideration of different basic formulas i modified his recipe using yellow bell pepper instead of red, creme de cacao instead of vanilla rum, changing some ratios and skipping sugar syrup altogether – creme de cacao is sweet enough…
Now [...]

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Tarragon Snap-Pea irinha!

As one might notice i’m into unusual ingredients in cocktails. And what can be more unusual than snap peas! Introducing tarragon snap-pea irinha: a smart riff on caipirinha:

The original recipe didn’t call for any herbs but to me pea just called for either mint (classic) or tarragon. Here is my formula but all credit [...]

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Sangre de Frambuesa

Still in a state of fascination with basil-flavored drinks.
Also a sudden urge to use some raspberry vinegar (artisanal no less!), half-empty bottle of it collecting the dust in my pantry (well, how many beet salads one can make).
The point of departure was Sangre de Fresa from the excellent Art of the Bar book. And it [...]

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Backyard Delight

ok so the truth is that lovage is not the only herb that survives in my backyard – basil does well too and here’s the proof:

now somewhere along the way i got tired of basil as a ubiquitous salad herb: that’s why it was such a relief to discover its great flavor value in cocktails!
I’ve [...]

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Lovagely

I’m a poor gardener: and the only plant that hasn’t failed me is lovage. It comes back year after year, just begging to be used more.
So here’s to you lovage!

A simple gin and tonic base. Dash of Peychaud bitters. A muddled celery stalk. Lovage straw adds its subtle anise/celery flavor. Quite an elegant drink.

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Kamikaze Sunrise

i can’t bring myself using vodka in cocktails; there are so many interesting base spirits out there that vodka seems like a waste… I know – empty canvas and stuff, but my palette (pun not intended) is limited…
So i worked from the classical kamikaze formula but made it with tequila. And some lemon thyme.

nice [...]

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Poquito Picante

A great list of ingredients and a clever name. Add to this a
recommendation from a friend and the drink of the night is pretty much sealed.

The original recipe calls for Tanqueray but Hendricks works well considering its obvious cucumber background. The drink is a bit sweet but so pleasantly so…
Ingredients in my version:
6 to [...]

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Green-Eye Sour

My first serious attempt in creating a cocktail. I wanted to experiment with lemon thyme and chartreuse. The inspiration came from the Green-Eye Daiquiri. I chose a daiquiri formula from The Joy of Mixology: liked the ratio and also how Regan suggested to serve the drink in an ice-filled wine glass. And instead of rum [...]

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Roasted Chicken as Grouse

Well i never tasted grouse but Jeremiah Tower was convincing enough so i marinated a small spatchcocked chicken in Chivas whiskey, olive oil, crushed juniper berries and thyme and then roasted it 425F oven for about an hour (covered breast and lowered temp to 350F sometime in the middle).
Excellent bird, one of the recent best.

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