Here is one of the recipes I am asked about regularly when I mention ‘smoked cherries’. The process is simple – wash, stem and pit the cherries, heat up the barbeque or smoker, make a simple syrup, and squeeze a lemon for the fresh juice. Smoke the cherries and combine them with the simple syrup, lemon juice, and brandy. Then transfer the cherries and brandy mixture into mason jars and cool thoroughly before topping the jars. Refrigerate the jars for 4 to 6 weeks before using in cocktails or adding to desserts. That last…
I recently had this cocktail at a restaurant near my office. Yeah, it was happy hour so I thought, “What the heck?” Well, I liked it a lot even though this establishment made every effort to ensure I would never return! Anyway, I thought I could tweak this beauty a wee bit and share it with you. This cocktail, created by New York’s Sam Ross (of Penicillin fame), uses equal parts of 4 ingredients (Bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and lemon juice) to produce a beautiful and delicious drink. Given that one of…
This riff on the deliciously popular French 75 relies on tequila instead of gin and swaps lime for the lemon. The beauty is that this cocktail really rocks – especially if you use a good quality sipping type tequila. A perfect sipper for this first Friday of Summer, although our weather today has been a bit cool and showery. So I will enjoy this tasty tipple inside tonight… and perhaps I will revisit it again tomorrow night when the warm weather returns while relaxing in the gazebo with a bit of jazz playing. Now that…
Tonight I tested our smoke infuser with a cocktail, something I think everyone that enjoys making their own cocktails should try. This negroni riff was perfect for adding a bit of smoke to; it tempered the sweetness of the bourbon and gave it a slightly scotch like quality. Experimenting with this new product is going to be fun (and delicious) based on the results of the few tests I have performed so far. This new product is easy to use and produces volumes of smoke. It will be useful for creating smoke effects as well as…
This cocktail relies on a polarizing ingredient – Fernet-Branca. This amaro-like digestivo is extremely and uniquely flavorful and that in itself is the polarizing aspect. People either love it or hate it. Me? I like it… and since I have been on a huge amaro kick lately, this famous Italian fits into the stable neatly alongside the others. This cocktail was invented at London’s famed Savoy Hotel and is perfect for this chilly Friday of Negroni Week 2018. Yes, it is a negroni riff and it does an exemplary job representing…
Tonight’s dish is a Japanese favorite that I had never heard of until today. The name Oyakodon roughly translates into Parent and Child Bowl. That is pretty twisted way to reference the two primary ingredients chicken and eggs. But even if that name a bit out there, this dish is delicious. It is simple to prepare (when you use a dashi powder!) and easy to tweak and augment if desired. This dish is referenced as Japanese soul food, which really causes me a bit if discomfort. How could I never have heard or experienced…
Created during the Prohibition when adding citrus and sweeteners helped make ‘bathtub gin’ more palatable, this cocktail is ‘the bee’s knees’. That slang term means ‘the best’ and this easy sipper is perfect for a warm Friday night on this first evening in June. For those curious about honey syrup, it is simply 1 part honey dissolved into 1 part hot water. This thinned honey probably contributed to the cocktail’s name and being thinned,the honey is much easier to mix with the gin and lemon…