Make Your Own Strawberry Bitters

I suddenly decided a couple of weeks ago for no real reason that we needed strawberry cocktail bitters. I'm sure such a thing exists commercially, but I haven't seen it, so I decided to make my own. It's really easy to make your own bitters - the most labor intensive part is sourcing the ingredients - but it takes a couple of weeks to get a finished product, so it's not something you want to leave until cocktail time. If you start now you'll be replete with bitters for holiday gatherings!

Strawberry Cocktail Bitters

2 cups sliced strawberries

1 1/2 cups overproof rum (I used Cockspur 130 proof)

1/2 cup chopped ginger

1 1/2 tsp gentian root

3 tsp whole cloves

4 1/2 tsp cardamom pods

4 1/2 whole star anise

5 sticks cinnamon

1 cup high quality strawberry liqueur

Combine all ingredients except the strawberry liqueur in an airtight container. Shake daily for two weeks. I removed the strawberries after one week.

Two weeks later: strain mixture and boil solids with one cup of water for 30 minutes. Be sure to keep the fluid, since you’ll be adding to it.

You might need to add a little water occasionally to keep the fluid level up while boiling. Cool, strain and add new fluid to existing fluid.

Add one cup of high quality strawberry liqueur, shake and you’ve got strawberry bitters! It may not look like much, but you only use a few drops at a time, so a little goes a long way. Cheers!

Strawberry Liqueur, Part 2

Our homemade strawberry liqueur is finished and I have to say that it is fabulous! Click here to find the recipe I followed. It's fresh and fruity and perfect for the crawl room we're planning for Ohana Luau at the Lake next year! Be sure to follow the link to recipe and make your own. You'll be hooked!

Homemade Strawberry Liqueur

I'm already planning our crawl room for next year's Ohana Luau at the Lake and the cocktail experiments have begun! I'm making a strawberry liqueur for the occasion, so that I have lots of time to tweak the recipe, if necessary. Here's where I found the recipe, if you'd like to try making your own. Three days until we can try it out! I'll let you know how it turns out!

Strawberry liqueur, part 1

Do you need a cookie?

I'm not going to lie - it's been a rough day here at the Kitsch-en. Nothing truly horrible - no one is sick or anything - but it's been a day filled with frustrating tech issues, a distinct lack of replies to mail and rejection. The good news is that it's time for happy hour! And a day like this demands lovely comforting libations, garnished with a cookie!

The Bucolic Banana

2 oz banana milk

1 oz dark Jamaican rum (I used Coruba)

5 dashes of the Bitter Truth's Xocolatl Mole bitters

Shake with ice and serve on the rocks. Garnish with a cookie on a stick*.

*Be sure to create a pilot hole in your cookie before putting it on the stick, so that it doesn't fall apart.

Blueberry Shrub: An Easy Fresh Fruit Cordial You Can Make!

Our Friday happy hour cocktail, the Blue Friday, features a homemade cordial that's a nod to colonial America. The great news is that it's really easy to make!

All you do is combine 1 cup of sliced blueberries with 1/8 of a cup of sugar:

Allow to sit overnight and render juice. Push the juice and remaining berries through a strainer or a mill until the solids are completely separated from the liquids.

It looks weird, but you can use the remaining solids to top ice cream, oatmeal or anything else that would benefit from a sweet and fruity topping!

After you have your liquid, add one 1 TBSP red wine vinegar. Some folks will tell you to add more vinegar, but I think 1 TBSP is plenty and won't make your cocktail taste like salad dressing.

That's it! Now you're ready to make your Blue Friday (or any other) cocktail!

Blue Friday Cocktail

2 oz light rum

1 oz blueberry shrub

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass!

Shooting Day At The Kitsch-en

Here's what the aftermath of a shooting day at the Velveteen Lounge Kitsch-en tends to look like:

Those are drinks for three Friday happy hour episodes and one Tuesday "time machine" episode. That's a lot of booze. If you're in our neck of the woods, please drop by and help us drink it! In the meantime, can I just say that I love what I do? 

The Golden Glow

Saturday morning I posted a truly fascinating recipe for a Jell-O mold from The Chiquita Banana Cookbook (1974) on Facebook and offered a prize to anyone who actually made it and posted evidence. Well, Bethany, of the fabulous Making It Modern web series, took me up on it and not only made it, but posted a live video of her sampling it. Her reaction was priceless and if you're on Facebook be sure to watch. We were so inspired that we did a live Periscope broadcast where we made our cocktail answer to this monstrosity in Jell-O! Here is the cocktail we made, incorporating as many of the flavors suggested in the original mold recipe as we could. Believe it or not, it's actually pretty good! There is little enough of the pickle juice that it just adds a tangy note and not an actual pickle flavor. Here's the original recipe for the mold:

And here's the cocktail version:

Golden Glow

2 oz vodka

1 oz Banane du Brésil liqueur

1 oz orange-carrot juice

1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

1/4 oz pickle juice

3 dashes of celery bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass!

I like to use vodka as a base spirit when I really want the other flavors in the drink to stand out. That was definitely the case here. Banane du Bresil is the only commercially available banana liqueur I've found that actually tastes like bananas and not banana candy. If you can't find it in your neck of the woods, there are recipes online for making your own banana liqueur that result in a great product! Ingredients like pickle juice sound awful, but a little dash can give your cocktail zing. Don't overdo it! We have an episode coming soon that utilizes balsamic vinegar in a drink with the same effect. 

If you have a "fascinating" recipe you'd like us to reimagine in cocktail form, let us know! We love a challenge!

And look for us live on Facebook video soon! Periscope is great, but we think most of our people are on Facebook, so we'll see you there!

Whiskey Cocktails From Yesterday's Periscope Broadcast

We got a request for whiskey cocktails on our Facebook page from the fabulous Ginger Wilkins, so those became the theme for yesterday's Periscope live broadcast. First up was our version of the classic Rock-N-Rye, at Ginger's request, then we created one in her honor, the Ginger 75! Here are the recipes!

Ginger 75

1 oz bourbon (I used Old Forester)

1/2 oz ginger liqueur (I used Domaine de Canton)

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

2 dashes of Angostura orange bitters

Chilled prosecco

Combine all ingredients in a champagne flute and stir gently.

The Ginger 75

Rock-N-Rye

2 oz rye (I used James E. Pepper 1776 Straight Rye Whiskey)

1/2 oz rock candy syrup

2 dashes of Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a rocks glass with ice, stir and garnish with an orange peel.

We also did a variation on the classic Manhattan, at the request of our friend Doug. Here's what we came up with:

2 oz bourbon (I used the Old Forester again)

1/2 oz Aperitivo Cappelletti 

2 dashes of Angostura bitters

Shake with ice, strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.

Here in New York we're stuck with a dismal, gray Monday and I'm working with a horrible internet connection, which has been an issue for days and makes uploading video for the show a real challenge. But the good news is that it's practically happy hour and these recipes are just what the doctor ordered! 

Have a fabulous week!

Easy Fun Margarita Variation!

For tonight's happy hour we're featuring Aperol Margaritas with Tabasco-infused salt! It couldn't be easier to change up your Margaritas if you want to play and add different flavors! All you do is substitute your chosen liqueur (in this case Aperol, which is technically a bitter, but same idea) for the orange liqueur in the Margarita recipe. Have fun and try different liqueurs! We've used ginger, elderflower, pomegranate and many more!

To make the Tabasco-infused salt, all you do is pour some salt into a plastic bag, followed by several large dashes of Tabasco.  Agitate until the Tabasco is incorporated with the salt, then spread out on waxed paper and allow to dry completely. It sounds crazy, but adds only a subtle spicy kick, which is tremendous fun! Bottoms up!

Door Knock Cocktails

Does anyone else remember the TV show Door Knock Dinners, where Gordon Elliott and a chef would show up at some unsuspecting person's home and the chef would make dinner using only ingredients that the homeowner had on hand? I loved that show! It was such an inspiration, not only for taking a second look at your pantry, but for seeing the items you already have in a whole new way. There are many lists available online for suggested pantry ingredients to keep on hand although, sadly, Door Knock Dinners is no more. Gordon Elliott and the chef du jour may not show up at your house ready to whip up a meal, but a well-stocked pantry means that you'll always be prepared to throw dinner together.

However, what about your liquor pantry? Suppose you've invited a few friends for drinks, but one requests a Martini and you have no gin? You don't need dozens of bottles of hooch to offer a wide selection of lovely libations! By keeping these items stocked you'll be prepared to make many of the classics and you can expand your collection as you discover new liquors that strike your fancy!

The Basics

Gin 

A blended whiskey

Brandy

A light or amber rum

A silver or gold tequila

Vodka

Mixers

Fresh limes

Dry vermouth 

A nice orange liqueur

Simple syrup

Club soda

With the above you can make Martinis, Sidecars, Daiquiris, Margaritas and all kinds of sours and highballs! Add wine and you'll have sangrias and spritzers in your arsenal as well, not to mention the many variations on the French 75 if you have champagne! And, the more juices you keep on hand, the more you can play! As you add new liquors and liqueurs to your collection you'll find that your choices grow exponentially! But, with just these items available, you'll have plenty of choices to please just about any visitor to your home and keep yourself in lovely libations for quite a while! Bottoms up!

The world of liquor is your oyster!