If your going to start mixing cocktails at home, and try to impress people, try using the freshest ingredients you can find. I don't just mean the alcohols and liqueurs. if a drink calls for a fruit or vegetable, use the freshest you can find at the time.
The freshest most often comes from just outside your door. Start a small garden. There are many cocktail recipes that call for herbs. Herbs don't take up much space and some are beneficial at helping other plants near by. Some herbs are perennial so you only have to plant them once. Most are annual, but the seeds are cheap and you can try different varieties each year.
The next on the list is vegetables. Many people don't consider vegetables when mixing drinks. They take up a little more space then herbs might. what you get in return is better than you'd think. Most of the vegetable can be started as seed, or bought already started. The greatest selection comes from seeds. with over 500 different types of tomato seeds to choose from imagine how that could change the taste of a Blood Mary. Or maybe an English cucumber as a garnish.
The next is fruit of course. Most fruit is grown on trees. which take up more room and also take a while before they bare fruit. In the north you can grow some tropicals such as lemons and lime in your house, but that's about it. Fresh fruit directly off the tree cant bet beat, weather; apples, pears, peaches or plums.
You can grow shrub type fruit like berry's. Any type of berry grown fresh in your own yard is a temptation to eat as you pick. Raspberries are probably the best, in my opinion. But I cant leave out the low growers, like strawberries. Or the vines, like grapes.
So maybe you live in an apartment and don't have any room to grow your own ingredients. Don't worry. There are farmers markets everywhere. This isn't exactly like picking your own but it is close. The flavors still beat the hell out of chain store bought fair. But be smart, if you don't need a bushel of produce, buy a smaller quantity. Also being that I am in the Buffalo, NY area, we cant grow fresh bananas and oranges. The farmers will probably have a better variety than grocery stores. With the farmers markets you have to know whats ripe when. Most often you wont see an item until it is ripe. You also wont find the stall open in the winter months.
This last option is where you have to be most selective. The grocery stores. Yes this may be the best place to get tropical fruit. They will have various produce throughout the year. But they growers need to get the fruit to travel great distances to get to the store. The produce is picked before its ripe and ready, so it will feel hard when you pick it up. Some grocery stores have taken to using ripening warehouses to get their produce to ripen. This is a large building set up as a methane gas chamber to ripen fruit. It may look nice and ripe but have no flavor. Go from store to store until you find one that consistently has ripe, fresh, tasty produce. also produce out of season will be more expensive.
One thing that you can make, is simple syrup. The name says it all, it is simple to make. Follow the recipe below.
Simple Syrup:
1 cup water
2 cup granulated sugar
In a sauce pan bring the water to a boil. Pour in the sugar and stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil, turn down the flame to medium and let simmer for 1 minute. This will give you a nice loose syrup. If you would like the syrup thicker keep heating and stirring until it gets to the consistency you need. Just be careful as it can burn. It is also bubbling and very hot.
If you need a caramel color and a little more flavor let the syrup cook until it darkens up. It is starting to burn at this point and that is where the color and flavor come from. the longer you let it cook the darker it will get. But too high a temperature will change it to a hard crackle stage and you will have lolly pops.
Rock candy: 1 cup water
2 cups sugar
Just as with the simple syrup. bring the water to a boil in a sauce pan. turn off the heat, and add sugar. Stir the sugar until dissolved. Pour mix into a wide mouth jar. Then suspend either clean string or wooden picks into the mix. Let sit for a few days while the water evaporates. After words you will have your own rock candy to garnish drinks. If you decide to make different colors you should make a separate batch for each color.
If you pull out these simple lessons for your next party, your guests will be impressed. With the flavors and the candy garnishes.
Until next time. Here's to a new year full of promises.
Cheers:
Steve "Spicy" Aniolowski
