Mixology Monday - Basil Vodka Gimlet

Food and beverage blogging has turned into an addiction. Every day I get new posts sent to me from all over the world. The connections other bloggers have made in the broad universe we all occupy often provide even more leaps for me find out more. I can't help clicking! I heard about Mixology Monday this way. Mixology Monday is a monthly online cocktail party. Did somebody say cocktail party?

For this month’s event on September 20th the subject is lime. Lime is epic when it comes to cocktails and is always best when used fresh. My cocktail for the party is a Basil Vodka Gimlet made with hand-infused basil vodka and a lime syrup made from lime zest and juice.

Lime Syrup

½ cup water
½ cup superfine sugar
Zest of 1 lime
Juice of 4 limes

Slow simmer the sugar, water and lime zest for 5 minutes. Take it off the stove and allow to cool. Strain the cooled syrup to remove the zest. Add the lime juice and mix well. Chill and use at the bar.

Basil Vodka Gimlet

2 parts hand-infused basil vodka
2 parts lime syrup

Mix vodka and syrup in a rocks glass and add ice to fill glass. Garnish with fresh basil and/or slice of lime. The flavors in the drink a nice and clean and the lime provides a crispness and acidity that makes this drink and ideal refresher for a hot summer day.
I wrote about my first attempt with this drink, a few others and the process I used to make the basil vodka back in July. You can check that post out here.

Earlier this week I also made a batch of pirate grog that also features the eponymous lime in an old cocktail. Arrrrrr, come check out my spin on grog!

Cheers!

--Jason

Twists on Lemonade

I love lemonade in the summer. I’ve made it many times and the variations have never strayed from mint and berry or a half and half with iced tea. That was, until this summer.

It started last weekend.

For simplicity in what follows my lemonade recipe is 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of bottled lemon juice and water to 2 quarts.

I had pieces of leftover pineapple from the grilled fruit adventures. I added it, some basil leaves and made two quarts of lemonade. I shook it quite a bit and placed it in the fridge for the flavors to infuse for a while. The aroma was of savory tropical food and the taste was a wonderful blend of lemon and pineapple with a nice foundation of basil. I didn’t actually get a taste of this creation until the next day, but I had more basil lemonade a bit later in the day.

Sitting poolside with family I was alternating some homemade wine with plain old lemonade on the count of the heat. I ran out and queried my sister-in-law as to whether she had lemon juice and sugar for a refill. On the way in the house I saw her beautiful basil plant carrying some sizable leaves that needed to be picked. I asked if I could work some magic with them and received a strange face. A few minutes later I was shaking a way at a container of basil lemonade to some slanted and nervous eyes.

Those faces changed to smiles after trying some. Without a lot steeping time the basil flavor was subtle, but present. Very refreshing on a hot day.

Yesterday I made a gallon of sage lemonade to serve alongside other non-alcoholic offerings at a wine tasting we hosted at home. We made up the lemonade in the morning using two kinds of sage (purple and a traditional green style, a handful of each) and let it steep until early afternoon. The pitcher we used has built in mixing wand, which was used several times before serving to help the flavor infusion. The reception to this twist on lemonade was overwhelming, everyone who had it made a point to let me know that they found it to be extremely flavorful and interesting. I think a sage infusion happens more quickly and with that in mind I would take care not to leave the sage leaves in too long to ensure the flavor didn’t become overpowering.

You could use this as a base for cocktails as well and a Collins or a whiskey sour are the first things that comes to mind. In the most recent issue of Imbibe magazine there is a recipe for a Tequila Sage Smash that is really a sage lemonade with tequila and sweetened with honey syrup.

Cheers!

--Jason

Celebrating Basil!

I believe it is fair to say that one of the best things about summer is all the fresh ingredients. Growing up I never really had much access to right off the vine anything. We were primarily a canned or frozen food family. As an adult I have come to look forward each year to going to the Farmers Markets or Farmstands that are plentiful here in New England. As we work through the summer I am sure that I am going to have numerous posts on our fresh fruit and veggie adventures. Especially now that we belong to our local organic vegetable food share that starts on June 16th.


This weekend I kicked of our fresh veggie season with one of my favorite summer treats, basil picked right from our herb garden. In the past Jay and I have used this in various ways. One of our favorite summer-time snacks is crusty bread, basil, tomato and sharp cheddar cheese. Assemble it and place under the broiler to melt the cheese. Simple and delicious! This year we are growing a lot of basil so we decided to finally make our own pesto.

The first thing I needed to do was get over my fear of the food processor. Jay insists that it is irrational, but he is the one that stressed to me over and over how sharp the blade was when we first got it. Gee, I wonder why I was frightened of it? In the end it was not that scary, and kind of fun after a stressful week at work to demolish something like that…even if it was basil, garlic and nothing like the old Bass-o-Matic from SNL.

Here is the recipe for the pesto. We used a recipe from fellow Foodbuzzer “Great Eats With Petes” as a guide. You can check out the recipe and process at http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/2279291-basil-pesto. We made a few adjustments to customize it to our taste and it came out great!

1/4 cup pine nuts
4 tsp minced garlic
Bunch of basil (2 cups, lightly packed, minimum)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Olive oil to desired consistency
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

Chop the nuts & garlic in the food processor. Add basil, salt & pepper and pulse to combine. Add oil and pulse until you have achieved the desired consistency. Add the parm cheese and pulse to combine. Eat it!

Jay is on the trail to become a sommelier and decided he needed to try to make basil infused vodka. He is pretty weird, but this seemed to be an OK idea. It turned out alright, although his first Basil Martini was more basil than anything and not very good. The Basil Vodka Gimlet on the other hand was savory AND sweet in one mouthful, and very drinkable. Here’s to a summer of exploring more flavors of basil!

Mangia!

Margot