A happy new year to all five of my dedicated followers. My New Year's resolution this year was to do more writing, and that means a return to the blog - among other efforts. Careful observers may have noticed a concrete life event that precipitated my writing falling off a cliff - the arrival of my second child (born July 2020) in the midst of early COVID isolation. Two children, global pandemics, two parents trying to work from home with a very active three year old and infant, and supply chain shortages meant that my opportunities for creative drinking fell by the wayside for some time.
With some creativity in the early pandemic months, we were able to resume our cocktail club, even if that meant meeting in partially open garages in the middle of winter. And as the world has opened back up, we've managed some pretty excellent creations. If only I'd written them all down! A few things I picked up over the past few years that will likely be featured in the coming months:
1) I like gin now. The cocktail club rejoices. I still don't like Campari though, so don't look for a Negroni recipe any time soon. However, variations on the Gin Fitzgerald are common in the bar, including this month's recipe.
2) Did you know rice washing was a thing? I think rice washing makes everything better, more to come on this.
3) You can make a syrup out of almost anything. My personal favorite odd syrup ingredient is fennel fronds, which also feature in the recipe for this month.
4) My efforts at making a sourdough started during COVID cratered quickly, but I've found a use for many other ferments in the bar. Funky old fish sauce punches up tiki drinks in amazing ways, who knew!
5) We just began dabbling in fat washing. My first attempt was a whole cocktail that was milk washed. It, um, didn't go well. We sat for an hour and waited for milk solids to strain out of a clarified cocktail, and all I got was a heavy cream drink with a little wine float. Going to work on this some more, maybe starting a little more basic with a bacon wash and moving on from there.
I hope that gives you a small taste of what is to come for the next few months. For today, I'm featuring a Bar Kiley special, the Nine Herbs Charm. Named for an old Anglo-Saxon healing incantation, the drink features fennel, chamomile, and juniper. Juniper isn't one of the nine herbs in the charm (fennel and chamomile are), but its English as heck, so it worked in my head. If you feel the need to add crabapple, mugwort, nettle, and others for authenticity, be my guest. The drink is a play on the Fitzgerald formula (a gin sour with 2 oz gin, .75 oz simple syrup, .75 oz lemon, and 3-5 dashes of bitters), and makes great use of discarded fennel fronds left over from your latest meal. This was one of the recipes we gifted to the Imfelds at their wedding shower (along with the Mrs. Rita), and I hope you enjoy it too!
Ingredients: 2 oz gin (Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin preferred), 0.75 oz lemon, 0.75 oz fennel syrup (see notes), 3-4 dashes chamomile bitters.
Preparation: Combine all ingredients in a Boston shaker over ice. Shake and strain into a Nick and Nora glass, garnish with a dehydrated orange wheel.
Notes: To make the fennel syrup, you will want the tops and fronds from one bulb of fennel. Save the lower bulb for making an awesome pasta sauce or for your next taco night. In a saucepan, combine 1.5 cups of water with an equal weight of sugar. Bring to a simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the fennel fronds, simmer for four minutes, and then remover from heat. Allow to completely cool, then strain out fronds using fine mesh and cheese cloth. Syrup will keep for 2-4 weeks.
