October 28, 2011

Mandarine Deams


I am trying to comprehend jelly shots as not just something for people who don't like booze can eat and get really drunk from.

I can certainly see their aesthetic appeal, when I see pictures like these. But I'm still not sure I get them.

I had a few mandarins quickly loosing their appeal and figured I had better juice them, that done I remembered Jelly Shot Test Kitchens candy corn shots and figured I could do something similar, but with only two layers.

I started with the opaque layer:
  • 8 grams gelatin powder
  • 33 ml water
  • 33 ml condensed milk
  • 16 ml Absolut Vanilla vodka
  • 15 ml (clear) Bols cream de cacao
The gelatine I carefully dissolved in the water over slow heat stirring pretty much constantly. The three alcohols I mixed in a bowl and once the gelatin was completely dissolved I poured the warm liquid into the booze and poured a bottom layer into my molds. And put them into the fridge.
Barely twenty minutes later I could proceed with the orange layer:
  • 8 grams gelatin powder
  • 50 ml mandarin juice
  • 50 ml Cointreau
  • A dash of orange bitters
I dissolved the gelatin in the mandarin juice over slow heat and then poured it into the Cointreau with the dash of orange bitters added. By then the opaque layer was completely set and I could fill up the molds with this orange liquid.

Once I was ready to try my creations I used the rest of my mandarin juice in a modified Blood and Sand:
  • 2 cl rye whiskey
  • 1 cl sweet vermouth
  • 1 cl cherry wine (a wonderful Danish product from Frederiksdal )
  • 4 cl mandarin juice
Put all ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously then strain into small glass or in my case a small glass bottle.
Since a single mandarin had showed itself to have eating qualities I turned that into a bar snack by wrapping thin strips of a good quality fried bacon around the sections.

October 21, 2011

White Lady


Who wouldn't want to taste the favorite cocktail of Laurel and Hardy? I certainly would. The origins of the White Lady are - as with most cocktails - obscure, but it's down to the two Harries: It's either invented by Harry MacElhone at his bar in Paris or by Harry Craddock at the Savoy Hotel in London.

Essentially the White Lady is a sidecar, where gin replaces brandy and with an egg white add for smooth texture and wonderful soft foam.
  • 6 cl gin
  • 2 cl Cointreau
  • 2 cl fresh lemon juice
  • 1 egg white from a small egg (and don't take any pains to separate all the egg white just leave some with the yolk for a scrambled egg breakfast)

Put everything in a shaker, and shake for a minute. (Dry shake makes the emulsion of the egg to lemon juice easier) then add ice and shake for another couple of minutes.

Strain into martini glass og cocktail coupe. Garnish with lemon.

October 1, 2011

Monkey Gland

The name of this cocktail comes from a dark chapter in modern medicine.

In the 1920'ies a Russian-French doctor performed a series of xeno transplantations, where he put tissue from monkey testicles into mens testicles.

He predicted that would make the men more virile, but it didn't however the procedure was popular, more than 1500 men had it performed.

Among them apparently the founding father of modern Turkey Kemal Atatürk.

The procedure made it's way into popular culture: Songs were written, cocktails mixed and articles written.
  • 5 cl gin
  • 5 cl fresh orange juice
  • 5 cl pomegranate juice
  • 1 tablespoon absinthe
Stir everything with ice and strain into martini glass. Garnish with orange twist.