Spring Ahead, Kick Back!

Cocktail caviar is a fairly simple, yet effective way of impressing your guests while hitting taste/texture sensations they've never heard of!

Spring is just around the corner, and it’s time to shake things up – or stir things up, depending on the drink!  Here are some completely random recipes that have crossed my lips this month.  If you or your staff have recipes you think might be of interest to Behind Bars readers, please drop me a line!
 
The Montgomery
Named by Ernest Hemingway in honour of the British general who, he claimed, would fight the enemy only if he had 15 soldiers to their one – that was also the proportion of gin to dry vermouth in the martinis Hemingway ordered.
(Source: The Harry’s Bar Cookbook, Arrigo Cipriani)
Adapted recipe for a 60ml “Montgomery” martini

3.75ml    dry vermouth

56.25ml  top shelf gin
Combine ingredients in boston glass, fill with ice and stir for 60 seconds. Julep strain into chilled cocktail glass and add twist, olive, cocktail onion, or cucumber spear if desired.  Serves one.
 
New Haircut
aka: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 (sung to the tune of the famous Sesame Street song by the Pointer Sisters – you know the one!)
15ml Pimm’s No.01

45ml Tanqueray No.10 gin

15ml Triple sec

30ml fresh squeezed blood orange juice (can substitute ruby red grapefruit juice)
Combine all ingredients in a double old fasioned glass. Top with ice, stir gently. Garnish with blood orange or ruby grapefruit slice. Serves one.
From Ashley Wilson, www.verticalrestaurant.ca
 
Truby Trio
30ml Grey Goose l’orange vodka

30ml Campari

30ml sweet vermouth

1tsp chunky marmalade
Combine all ingredients in boston glass, top with ice. Shake well to dissolve marmalade. Pour all (including ice) into double old fashioned. Top with more ice if needed. Garnish with orange or blood orange slice.  Serves one.
From Sean “Chico” Baillie, www.kulturarestaurant.com
 
And finally … a more complicated recipe for the truly adventurous bar chef!

Singapore Slingshot
This drink plays with the concept of the Singapore Sling, using some basic molecular mixology techniques to add visual and textural interest.
2 oz gin

2 dashes aromatic bitters

2 dashes orange bitters

6 cherry caviar (see recipe below)

Benedictine caviar (see recipe below)
Place caviar into shot glass.  Carbonate the gin and bitters using the Perlini system, strain into shot glass and garnish with candied lemon wedge
 
Cherry Heering Caviar
3 oz Cherry Heering

1 oz water

1 oz lemon juice

¼ oz sodium alginate
Mix all ingredients together with an immersion blender and let sit for five  minutes.  Place the mixture in a plastic bag and vacuum seal.  Release seal and place mixture into a plastic squeeze bottle, then drop small balls of mixture one by one into a calcium chloride bath.  Rinse with Cherry Heering when set, and store in a 1:1 Cherry Heering/water bath.
 
Benedictine Caviar
4 oz Benedictine

1 oz water

¼ oz sodium alginate


Mix all ingredients together with an immersion blender and let sit for five  minutes.  Place the mixture in a plastic bag and vacuum seal.  Release seal and place mixture into a plastic squeeze bottle, then drop small balls of mixture one by one into a calcium chloride bath.  Rinse with Benedictine when set, and store in a 1:1 Benedictine/water bath.
You may notice that the Slingshot possesses all of the flavours of the original Sling: Benedictine and cherry in the form of bursting caviar, lemon juice in the form of the candied lemon wedge, by carbonating the gin and bitters with the Perlini cocktail system, the drink delivers the illusion of soda water, but with the alcoholic punch of a shot.
The Perlini is a fantastic system that acts as a cocktail shaker, but also allows one to carbonate the ingredients within. This makes it possible to not only carbonate the gin mixture, but also to chill and properly dilute it, ensuring that the shot is indeed a pleasant one.

The proper way to imbibe the Slingshot would be to take a bite of the candied lemon, followed by a large sip of the shooter, thus ensuring that you have the sensation of lemon on your palate when you consume the liquid portion of the drink.
From Jamie Boudreau, http://spiritsandcocktails.wordpress.com
 
Stay thirsty, 

Rob Montgomery, Bar Chef The Miller Tavern
• Despite the title of this article, you can’t buy my love!  I have tried all products mentioned and have no affiliation with parent companies.