First Christmas

What to do if there are too bloomin' many of you for Christmas? Why, have another one a week earlier. 
Call it First Christmas. 
Don't invite George Michael...he'll only crash the car getting there. 
Never mind Last Christmas - let's celebrate First Christmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI

You'll probably want a decent cocktail to celebrate. These wonderful, polite young gentlemen in the picture seemed to enjoy it...and it's pink!

Pink Christmas Cocktail

Ingredients:
4 fl oz Stolichnaya vodka
1 fl oz Triple Sec
2 fl oz Creme de Cassis
Handful of fresh blueberries
Good dash of orange bitters
Juice of half an orange
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 fl oz double cream


Method:
Place the cocktail glasses in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. I use champagne coupes for this cocktail – they're very celebratory, don't you know.
Place all the ingredients, except the cream, in a blender and whizz briskly. Add the cream and whizz for a few seconds.
Remove glasses form fridge. Place a sprig of mint in each glass then balance on the rim a cocktail stick on which a small wedge of orange (skin on) is skewered amid two fresh blueberries on either side.
Dust the surface of each glass with sieved icing sugar.
Serves six (with, hopefully, a little to spare for top-ups)

Suffice to say, don't overdo it. if you were to have too many you might end up seeing things...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=944cPciN-kw

Won by a neck

Race to it.

As Churchill almost said, “Some horse, some neck!”

This cocktail, famous as it may be, looks nothing like a horse’s neck, despite its taxonomy. Yet, as London Cocktail Week fades to a memory, I thought I’d better throw in my tuppence worth with a classic – but with a twist, naturally.

Click on the picture below for a bigger image.

The neck in question is supposedly represented by the curlicue of lemon peel residing in the glass then hanging out over the rim, in the way that a horse’s neck might.

I mean, who thinks these things up?

What you must have, however, is a small but very sharp knife in order to slice the peel off a lemon in one piece. The phrase ‘Don’t try this at home’ should really apply here but not to the rough tough type who enjoy a cocktail.

"Hey, I just did a 12-hour shift down a tin mine" doesn’t cut it, I’m afraid, with the fearless cocktail provider.

“Just drink this Horse’s Neck and give us peace. But wash your bloomin’ hands first!”

Before we start, have a listen to the following track. I know it’s a Stones song but this version is ten times better…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjpa_OYAEpo

Back to business. The classic Horse’s Neck cocktail is not unlike a Rye and Dry, ergo in my own recipe I like to jazz it up un peu.

On no account, entertain any so-called cocktail barman aficionado who, when commissioned to prepare this recipe, shakes his weary head and sneers, “Yes, hmm, but it ain’t a Horse’s Neck.”

Fact is, cocktail recipes change with the winds that blow these so-called aficionados in and out of town. One Horse’s Neck recipe might suggest bourbon as the main ingredient while another would plump for brandy.

So who cares? Be an iconoclast. It’s your personal taste that remains the only concern.

Here we go …

Horse’s Neck

Ingredients

2 fl oz good bourbon (Jack Daniels will do nicely)

8 fl oz ginger ale (a ratio of approximately four to one in favour of the ginger ale works best for my gang)

Juice of 1 lemon (strained)

Juice of 1 small orange (strained)

4 dashes of Angostura bitters

4 ice cubes

Peel of 4 lemons

Method

Place ingredients – NOT the ginger ale –  in a cocktail shaker and give it a vigorous workout.

Pour into a large jug and add the ginger ale.

Into 4 small tumblers, insert the sliced peel of each lemon, allowing the “neck” to hang out. (see picture above). Fill each glass up with more ice cubes then pour in the mixture from the jug.

Serves four but there will probably be enough left for a top-up. Always be prepared, as good Scouts would.

As with other healthy cocktails in my previous posts, this Horse's Neck can count as one of your five a day.

With trends like these, who needs enemas?

Do not, most definitely, try the following at home …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Z6eJOrP_Q

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri at True Originals

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri at True Originals

Berry poetic

THE best strawberries come, some might say, from the Clyde Valley. Others would argue in favour of those from the farms of Fife around the Leven area. Southerners would naturally plump for the strain from the great Garden of England that is Kent.

Plump, however, is the operative word.

Thin strawbs don’t cut it.

Get some quick as there are not many local varieties left now that summer has rapidly disappeared down the plughole.

To the cocktail I’m proselytising about here I’ve added, in elegiac mood, a splash of rosewater. Ergo, the last rose of summer …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzYUvAytrgI&feature=fvst

As the great poet of the so-called Scottish Renaissance might have put it...

The cocktail of all the world is not for me.

I want for my part

Only the frozen strawberry daiquiri of Scotland

That tastes sharp and sweet

And goes straight to the brain.

With apologies, of course, to McDiarmid, who perhaps might not have minded, given that he tried just about everything himself. And Scottish Renaissance? When did it ever die so that it required rebirth?

The cocktail lovers among you can continue with the occasional Banana Daiquiri that will see you through the winter and spring months, but if it’s local ingredients that you’re after in that green way of the ecological cocktail champion, then get this one over your neck sharpish.

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri

Makes 4 (see pic above)

Ingredients:

14 decent sized ripe strawberries. Plump!

2 fl oz white rum

1 fl oz crème de framboises (or some sort of Strawberry liqueur)

1 tbsp caster sugar

Juice of two limes

Juice of 1 orange

Dash orange bitters

Splash of rosewater

4 ice cubes

Method:

Retain 4 of the strawbs then plonk the rest of the ingredients in a jug blender and whizz the mixture like it's the Large Hadron Collider

Rub a slice of lime over the rim of each glass then dip it in sugar up to a couple of millimetres.

Pour into four cocktail glasses

Do something fancy with a strawberry and skewer it along with a quarter slice of orange and lay it in the glass.

Don’t forget to say “Cheers!” or some other convivial toast.

Sip, don’t gulp.

Ahhh.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3jrWVp2L7U

Coming up in a future blog …

Why I’d rather sip a horse’s neck than tip a horse’s ass.

Hee haw! (Sorry, that was a donkey).

The Third Drink...

When in Vienna, what do you do if you like a cocktail and are possessed with – or, most likely, by – a vivid imagination? Well, one of the best spots is the American Bar, just off Karntner Strasse.

The lady, being a cosmopolitan sort, generally plumps for a Cosmo. And to savour one outside this 1908 bar, designed by the Brno-born architect Adolf Loos in the art nouveau style – or jugendstil, as they term it locally –  was, she attested, "Just perfect."

In place of the common burnt slice of orange peel. the barman plonked a similarly charred chunk of lemon zest. 

Ahhh, delicious ... and that's just the Cosmopolitan.


Another fine spot in Vienna is the Imperial Hotel, which backs on to the square containing the fabulous Golden Saal of the Musikverein, famous internationally for its New Year's Day concerts.
At the Imperial's cocktail bar, I sipped a well-crafted Old-Fashioned, made with a very decent bourbon while a pianist with a lovely, insouciant touch asked for requests. The Time Goes By very nicely there.
But ...! What if your vivid imagination takes a turn for the worse and you begin to hear noises off?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4JpDUMXBqo

Oh no – it's that zither tune by Anton Karas. Once you've heard it you can't get it out of your head.
And who's that character skulking in the shadows in Josef Platz, scene of the fake death of one Harry Lime? It must be the Third Man, surely. Looking for his third drink, most likely.

Was it all a mirage? And why did we wake up in London? 
Ach, es ist sehr unheimlich, nicht wahr?

Let's Twist Again

Was Chubby Checker ever invited to Chequers? And if so, did he enjoy a cocktail there, provided by one Harold McMillan? 
"There you are, dear boy. You've never had it so good, what?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCO4sRLzsGk

Well, possibly not.
But speaking of cocktails...I often try to do something a little different – with a twist, as it were. So I wonder what old Chubby Checker, or Ernest Evans, to give him his real name, and our esteemed Prime Minister would have thought about these efforts...

Cosmopolitan – With  a Twist

The Cosmo is regarded more as a woman's cocktail – my good lady certainly loves an occasional one (occasional, as in "It's six o'clock and it's Friday. Where's my blooming Cosmo?!"

And as one should always try to do the right thing by one's good lady, I came up with this version for the delectation of us both. It is pretty much like a regular Cosmopolitan but just wait for it...

• Two measures of good Russian or Polish vodka. (Stick it in the freezer for an hour or two before serving. Vodka likes the freezer – when did you ever see one shivering?)
• One measure of cointreau or triple sec
• One measure of good cranberry juice
• Juice of one lime
• And...a good dash of rosewater.
• Place four ice cubes in shaker and add the ingredients
• Give it a really good shake.
• Hang a slice of lime on the rim of your cocktail glass (another little twist) and pour in the mixture. Before serving, slice off a chunk of orange zest (about 1x2 in) and hold the rind side over a flame for a few seconds until it blackens a little then plop that into the glass. (I like to use a long match for this – it connects me to the days when cavemen were inventing the first cocktails.)
• Then drink the thing! And jolly good it is. And with the addition of the rosewater – also used in religious ceremonies – you can have the added satisfaction that as well as indulging in a rather decadent pleasure, you're also communing with your maker on some level or other.

Another classic with a twist is the ....

Classic Champagne Cocktail with a twist

This is a great one to have before dinner with guests. I prefer inviting gusts to dinner actually. That way they're in and out sharpish.

• Add a dash of aromatic or Angostura bitters to a champagne flute and allow it to swirl around, its viscocity will ensure it cleaves to the glass.
• Add a dash of orange bitters and perform the same little ceremony
• Plop a brown sugar cube in the bottom of the glass
• Add a measure of Grand Marnier (this is instead of the usual cognac – hence the twist. And the orange bitters enhances the liqueur's flavour even more)
• Fill up with a decent champagne – Kristal is very nice. (Hahaha. Aye right, as they say in Govan).
• Munch it up, get the dinner over with sharpish and chuck out the gusts!

Charming, as they say in Notting Hill.

Dire Straits? Never

Istanbul may be a long way to go for a cocktail. But it's a better reason to go than to eat. I'll expand on that later. It's a good spot, too, to have a glass of tea, a baklava or two and puff on the old nargile (water pipe) while being entertained by some local musicians and a whirling dervish.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AglGJYby_pQ

If, however, you fancy going a bit upmarket, you can go on the roof of the Marmara Hotel in the Beyoglu district of the city. All 18 floors up.

That's the lovely Lula overlooking her empire (me!) while indulging in a classic Dry Martini. The rooftop bar doesn't have a cocktail menu as such but the staff are happy to make you a drink to the recipe of your choice. So, before you head skyward, you'd better know what you want – and how you like it. A little of what you fancy etc.

If the Marmara roof bar is too giddy an enterprise you could had a few metres south and enter a world of revitalised splendour: the Pera Palas Hotel, where the rich and famous have stayed down the years, including Mata Hari, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene and Agatha Christie. The room she stayed in during her famous 'disappearance' is available for guests to view. Also on view is a the original lift, one of the first to be built, and the remains of a sedan chair, used to transport guests to and from Sirkeci station, the end of the Orient Express line.

In their cocktail bar, one of several gorgeous public spaces in the beautifully restored Pera Palas, staff serve a mean cocktail, too. I had another Dry Martini – you musn't mix your drinks, no! – and Her Highness had a Cosmopolitan. Their recipe: vodka, cointreau, squeeze of lemon and, in place of the usual cranberry, they used sour cherry juice. No burnt orange peel but my companion pronounced it "just perfect".

Next day after a boat trip on the Bosphorus we had to head home to Blighty. 

Now it's the bus for us.

Great trip but the food could be better, one has to say. Kebab and chips everywhere. Even an apparently top restaurant we tried was less than wonderful.

What would old Ataturk think, I wonder?

Mustafa nother cocktail, possibly.

No offence, obviously.