A vastly popular Italian aperitif.
75 ml prosecco
50 ml bitters, either Campari, Aperol, Select or Venice Aperitivo according to your taste
25 ml soda water
Pour into a large wine glass in the above order over ice. Garnish with a slice of orange or, if in Venice, a green olive.
For an eccentric botanical version use Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto as the bitter.
Made with St Germain Elderflower Liqueur this is called a ‘Hugo’ in south Tyrol.
juice of 1 lime
30 ml sugar syrup (dissolve raw sugar in water at 2-1 ratio in a small saucepan over heat and cool)
8 mint leaves
60 ml white rum, chilled
soda water, chilled
Take a highball glass and muddle the lime, syrup and mint in the bottom. Stand a few minutes. Fill glass with ice, pour over rum, top up with soda water and stir well.
I’m testing this recipe. My father used to make this after a memorable trip to the north of India where they drink it all the time.
1 1/2 cups water
5 Cardamom (Elaichi) pods, crushed
1 tablespoons ginger, grated
2 tsp Assam tea leaves
4 tsp sugar
1 cup milk
Put the first 4 ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil. Simmer 5 to 7 minutes until the water has yellowed.
Add sugar and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes til the water is a deep red colour. Simmering makes the tea strong. If you prefer a light version, reduce the simmering time, and check the colour.
Add the milk and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes more.
Strain and serve.
For when you are overrun with lemons from the tree.
2 cups sugar
1 tsp tartaric acid (cream of tartar)
1 tsp citric acid
2 cups boiling water
3 organic lemons, sliced thin, pips discarded
Pour the boiling water over the other ingredients in a large bowl and leave for a day. If your lemons have a lot of pith this may give the syrup a bitter edge. Moderate this by taking one of the lemons and peel off the skin only, then peel the pith and discard, then slice the rest thinly. Add the skin and flesh to the bowl.
Strain into a bottle, pressing the lemons well and keep in the fridge. Can be frozen.
A jolly good stiff drink for pandemic times. Sour, sweet and icy. Drink recipes often use fl.oz which measures volume and bartenders measure drink ingredients with special cups called jiggers, but weighing them on an electronic scale is the most accurate and for me, easier.
quantities for 1 drink:
43 g (1.5 fl.oz) good London dry gin e.g. Gordons or Bombay Sapphire
note: this is a single shot in the US
6 g (1 1/2 tsp) caster sugar
65 g (2) egg whites
30 g (2 tbsp) lemon or lime juice
Put the ingredients with plenty of ice into a cocktail shaker on the scales and measure in the ingredients. Shake hard, strain, rinse out the strainer, return to the shaker and shake hard again to get a fine foamy head. Strain into a cocktail glass.
The crux of this is the amount of sugar which should be just enough to make the citrus acid pop without cloying. I put in slightly less than the standard recipes, but I recommend you find your own level
This is finest when every ingredient is ice cold. Put your glasses in the freezer.
Put 2 cm of peach puree in a flute glass and top up with prosecco
20g gin
20g Green Chartreuse Liqueur
20g maraschino liqueur
20g fresh lime juice
Put plenty of ice into a Boston shaker on the scales and measure in the ingredients. Shake hard, strain into your chilled glass.
4 slices cucumber
6 coriander leaves
¾ oz syrup
1 ½ oz tequila
¾ oz triple sec
1 oz lime juice
¼ oz egg white
Put first 3 ingredients in shaker and muddle well. Add the rest, fill with ice, shake hard and strain.
60 ml tequila
30 ml lime juice
30 ml cointreau
20 ml grapefruit juice
Shake very well together with plenty of ice and strain into a chilled glass rimmed with salt.
First, a note on types of tea. Tea leaves are picked from their tree. Chinese green tea is simply dried, then packaged. It must be kept refrigerated and lasts no longer than 6 months. Beyond green tea are fermented teas of varying degree to fully fermented, or black, tea. Oolong is partially fermented. Darjeeling is a fully fermented tea, and will last a long time in a vacuum-sealed bag. Fermented teas do not need to be kept in the fridge.
Chinese green tea
Boil water then allow it cool to 80’C. Place 2-3 g of tea (about a tablespoon) in a clear highball glass and add 200 ml of hot water. The glass is for you to enjoy the appearance of the leaves. They should be very green. Brew for 3 minutes then strain into a small glass serving jug, and serve from there into small tea cups. The tea should be drunk hot. The same leaves may be brewed 3 times, but at the same sitting.
Chinese partially fermented green tea
Take a chinese tea pot or cup and add 200 ml of boiling water to 3 g of tea. Brew 2 minutes, strain into a small glass serving jug and discard. Let the second brew stand a little longer than the first, the third longer than the second, and so on. The same leaves should yield 5-7 brews. Apparently the 3rd or 4th should be the finest. You can leave the leafs in the tea pot all day, brewing when needed.
As the Parisians make it. A drink for a king! This could be the ultimate way to take chocolate. (yields 4 x 175 ml cups)
550 ml milk
50 ml good quality water
60 g caster sugar
100 g dark chocolate 70%, finely chopped
28 g cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona, sieved
In a good-sized saucepan, stir together the milk, water, sugar and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the chocolate and cocoa and bring to a boil again, whisking until all has dissolved and the liquid has thickened. Reduce heat to very low and blend with a barmix for 5 minutes until the chocolate is thick and foamy. Allow guests to sprinkle ground cinnamon over if they wish.
Source: ‘It must have been something I ate’
50 ml cachaca (Brazilian spirits)
1/2 lime cut in wedges
2 tsp sugar syrup
Pound lime with sugar in an old-fashioned glass with a pestle. Add ice and cachaca and shake vigorously. Pour into a rocks glass and garnish.
4 liters unfiltered apple juice
a bottle of brown rum
200 g unrefined sugar
1 vanilla pod, split
10 star anise
1 lemon, grated rind and juice
1 tbsp cardamon pods, lightly crushed
Heat everything except the rum together and stand for at least a couple of hours. Adjust sugar and lemon juice to balance the toddy’s acidity.
Just before serving heat to below boiling, add the rum and serve immediately. If your guests are thirsty, make lots!
From: Camilla Plumb
I hate coffee. Apart from this wonderful, fragrant version that I first had in the desert of Saudi Arabia that tastes nothing like coffee.
Saudi coffee beans (on how to roast your own see below)
cardamon pods
cloves
saffron
Very roughly grind the coffee, grind the whole cardamon pods in a mortar. For each 200ml of water use one heaped table spoon each of coffee and cardamon, 2 cloves and a quarter teaspoon of saffron. Boil for 5 minutes then reduce heat and leave to very slightly simmer for half an hour. Taste and if not strong enough leave to simmer longer. Strain into a serving jug. Serve in very small amounts in tiny cups, together with dates, the Saudi “Sukkary” variety are the best.
Variations: some people add ground ginger or a little cinnamon or rose water instead of cloves.
HOW TO ROAST YOUR OWN SAUDI COFFEE
Get fresh green 100 % Arabica beans. You can roast in a frying pan over medium heat or in a 260 degree C oven on a perforated baking sheet. They should be roasted to a very light golden brown, which takes between three minutes and up to 20 minutes, depending on the intensity of the heat and the roasting method you’re using so it is best to watch them closely and remove them from the heat as soon as they’re ready.
Grind your coffee to your desired fineness. The most traditional means of grinding Saudi coffee is with a mortar and pestle, although the easiest and most common way is to use an electric canister grinder. You may also find that a hand-crank style burr grinder will grind the beans quickly while giving you greater control over the fineness of the grounds. Finer grounds will result in a stronger and somewhat more bitter brew, while coarser ground give you a milder, more mellow flavor.
Source:
Noman Kidwah & http://www.ehow.com/how_4865871_saudi-coffee-using-fresh-beans.html
meltingpot 