Cocktail of the month: Christmas cocktails

I'm not going to lie to you. There is some effort involved this month. But once you've put in a bit of work making a versatile syrup, it's all easy. I have three (yes three!) cocktails for you based on the same syrup. You will be flouncing around looking fabulous and drinking cocktails in no time.

The syrup that ties this cocktails together is made from pomegranate and fresh orange juice. I decided it was a step too far to juice pomegranates myself so I bought pomegranate juice with no added sugar from the health food shop. The exact instructions are in the recipe below. Once reduced, the pomegranate syrup is the most fantastic deep purple colour and has an intriguing sweet but bitter, slightly spiced fragrance.

The first cocktail is based on my classic sour recipe. I hope you've memorized the formula by now. 4 parts alcohol: 2 parts sour: 1 part sweet. I spiced up the gin I'm using here by adding a cinnamon stick, a vanilla pod, a star anise and a cardamom pod to the gin bottle and leaving it to infuse for a week or two. The spices are still in there, infusing away until Christmas. The recipe below serves one but simply multiply the proportions and make in a jug if you have lots of cocktail drinking guests.

The second is a fizz based cocktail, extremely simple and perfect for when visitors call in. It's not too alcoholic either so you could have a good few of these without getting too messy.

The last cocktail is non-alcoholic. Perfect for children or anyone who has to drive. In fact it is also excellent when recovering from a Christmas hangover. It is extremely refreshing due to that slightly bitter tang from the pomegranate combined with the sweetness and the fresh citrus. It is actually quite addictive. This could also be made in a large jug ready to pour out.

In addition to the recipes given below you can find other Christmas cocktail recipes on my older blog: a Christmas pudding vodka cocktail, a Christmas apple punch and a spicy rosehip, rhubarb combination.

pomegranate and orange simple syrup

pomegranate juice (no added sugar) 500mL

freshly squeezed orange juice 500mL

sugar 500g

zest of one orange 

Combine all of the ingredients in a large saucepan. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and then simmer until reduced by approximately half the volume. Allow to cool and then strain through a muslin (or clean J-cloth) lined sieve into a jug. Decant into a sterilized bottle and store in the fridge if not using immediately. I put mine in a conical flask for show because I have one and I'm a big chemistry nerd.

spiced pomegranate sour (serves one)

 

spiced Christmas gin (see above) 60mL

freshly squeezed lime juice 30mL

pomegranate and orange simple syrup  15mL

3-4 drops cranberry bitters (if you have them)

Combine all of the ingredients in a large glass or cocktail shaker. Add plenty of ice. Stir until chilled. Strain into a prepared cocktail glass. Garnish with lime zest.

pomegranate fizz (serves one)

pomegranate and orange simple syrup  20mL

cava/prosseco/champagne 

pomegranate seeds and orange twist to garnish

Add the syrup to a champagne flute. Carefully top up with your choice of sparkling wine. Add pomegranate seeds and a piece of orange zest to garnish.

pomegranate refresher (serves one)

pomegranate and orange simple syrup  40mL

juice of 1/2 a lime

sparkling water

pomegranate seeds and orange slices to garnish

Add the syrup and the fresh lime juice to a large glass. Fill the glass 3/4 full with ice. Add the pomegranate seeds and orange slices before filling with sparkling water. 

You can hear me talking about these Christmas cocktail on the Flavour programme (Cambridge 105) at 12 noon today (Saturday 13th December).

Christmas presents: eat, drink, read

Advent calendars containing chocolate, non-charity Christmas cards, fake Christmas trees. I have a long list of "Things I Don't Approve Of" and many of these are Christmas related. Top of the list are useless and unwanted presents. It can be next to impossible to know what your loved ones would like without asking them outright. A present that can be read, eaten or drunk is the most likely to be useful.

 

Read

I'm a book obsessive and I believe a present involving books is somehow more morally upright than any other (I have very funny notions, see non-approval list above). Books can and do change lives.

 

A subscription to Books Ireland is a must for book lovers in Ireland (and abroad). Buy it for yourself or as a gift subscription. Published every two months, every time it arrives on the mat during the year it will remind the lucky recipient what a wonderfully thoughtful person you are. Bonus! I'm a subscriber and occasional contributor (don't let that put you off) and I still get very excited when it arrives. It's great for keeping up to date with all the books being published in Ireland including children's books and reading it informs my book buying every time. 

 

I wrote a piece for Books Ireland on Irish food and drink books and can recommend the following new books that have come out this year:

Sláinte by Kristin Jensen and Caroline Hennessy

A Simply Delicious Christmas by Darina Allen (new edition)

The Ballymaloe Cookbook by Myrtle Allen (new edition)

Gubeen by Giana Ferguson

Eat

We are still working our way through the blackcurrant jam mountain of 2013 (not to mention the green tomato chutney lake of 2011) so several people this year will be receiving homemade goodies. Whether it's Christmas puddings, biscuits, jams or chutneys they always go down very well.

Drink

I think you all know that I am a big fan of drinking. More importantly I'm very keen on drinking nice things out of nice glasses. It's easy to go and buy a bottle of champagne or a bottle of a spirit as a present but much better is the drink related present that keeps on giving: bitters! They add so much to a cocktail and last forever. While Angostura Bitters are a classic and widely available consider giving a bottle of a less well known bitters. I would highly recommend the following:

Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters

Any of the range from Dr Adam Elmegirab

Cambridge Wine Merchants on Cherry Hinton Road often have Rhubarb Bitters. In Dublin the Celtic Whiskey Shop on Dawson St have a great range and I LOVE the website masterofmalt.com for all alcohol related purchases.

  

If you have time, consider looking through charity shops and antique shops for cocktail glasses. This is where I get most of my stash. If you don't have the time for the search (and it is getting a bit late now) John Lewis have a delightful and affordable own brand range including these bad boys.

Cocktail of the month: sloe warmer

I was struggling with the loss of summer last month. A few Autumn acclimatisation cocktails later and I am back with the seasonal programme. I am out a lot enjoying the scarf and gloves weather (I'm really going for walks so I can listen to the Serial podcast).

When I get back after a late afternoon ramble a warming cocktail seems like just the ticket. This weekend I hope to get organised enough to make it in advance and bring it out with me in a flask.

This is a really easy cocktail. A light sugar syrup infused with spices forms the base and is topped up with sloe gin. You can make a little or a lot of the base depending on how many people are coming out to enjoy the Autumn weather with you.

sloe warmer

2 parts water (I used 2 cups)

1 part sugar (I used 1 cup)

1 part apple juice (I used 1 cup)

spices: cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamom pods, juniper berries

squeeze of lemon

sloe gin or vodka

Heat the water, the sugar and the apple juice with the spices in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for at least an hour. Your house is going to smell fantastic at this stage. Strain out the spices, return to the pan and add a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Ensure the mixture is nice and hot. Warm a cup or heat proof glass with boiling water. Half fill the glass with the light syrup and then top up with sloe gin. Garnish with lemon slices and spices.

You can hear me talking about this Autumnal cocktail on the Flavour programme (Cambridge 105) at 12 noon today.

Cocktail of the month: Autumn acclimatisation

I find the change in the seasons the most difficult. Once I get into the swing of Autumn I adore it: scarves, tights, hats, soup, bonfires, leaves, harvest hymns. I love it all. But while I'm adjusting, I find it tricky. I made it hard on myself this year by grabbing a few days in sunny Spain at the start of October which just delayed the inevitable. This change of season manifests itself as extreme tiredness, crankiness and an overwhelming urge to hibernate. I prescribed myself an Autumnal cocktail in an attempt to get over it. It had to be sloe based. It serves as a reminder to get out into the hedgerows and pick the last of the sloes.

 

Autumn acclimatisation

50mL medium apple juice (I like the juice from Watergull Orchards)

30mL sloe gin or vodka

20mL Adnams Winter spiced liqueur

15mL ginger & spice infused simple syrup

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

3 drops apple cider bitters

Combine all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker or pint glass. Taste and add more lemon juice if necessary. Pour into a lowball glass filled with ice. Top with slices of apple and sloes if you have them (I freeze some every year when I collect them for garnish purposes).

Hear me talking about this lovely Autumnal cocktail on the Flavour programme (Cambridge 105) at 12 noon today.

Wake up with Wintercomfort brunch

Wintercomfort is a fantastic Cambridge organisation who support men and women who are homeless or vulnerably housed by offering them vital welfare service and opportunities for learning and development. To mark World Homeless Day this Friday 10th October and to raise funds for their vital services, Wintercomfort are encouraging the people of Cambridge to get together for brunch or breakfast. All the details including recipe ideas can be found on their website here.

I held a brunch event for friends this Saturday in advance of the big day. Somehow I squeezed 10 guests into my dining room. Between the cocktails and the Irish black pudding I think we managed to send them home satisfied. Special mention has to go to The Husband for outstanding pudding frying and washing up skills. Running around like a lunatic din't give me much time to take photos, but here are a couple of particularly rubbish ones to give you an idea:

My main thanks are reserved for my lovely guests who took a chance on brunch Chez Aoife, donated their hard earned cash and also contributed to the Toiletries Amnesty, a genius idea from Karen at idontlikepeas.co.uk. It's not too late! Get busy organising an event or come along to the breakfast organised at The Centre at St Pauls on Friday.

Cocktail of the month: cigarettes and alcohol

On a quiet day recently the strains of a song from my teenage life reached out across the years. "......'cause all I need are cigarettes and alcohol". Oasis; boy had it been a long time since we were acquainted. But, as is the way, I just couldn't get the damn song out of my head. I slowly realised it was in fact a cocktail vision. A challenge from the universe.

The alcohol component I  have covered, it's got to be bourbon. But cigarettes, in a cocktail? How was I going to pull that one off? I toyed with infusing my bourbon with tobacco but even my adventurous spirit draws the line at experimenting with ingredients likely to poison my drinkers. I turned instead to an ingredient I have had my eye on for a while, Jade Perique Tobacco Liqueur. This liqueur is flavoured with Louisiana Perique tobacco, apparently one of the rarest tobaccos in the world. It's delicious: smooth, woody and herbal. I didn't want to over complicate a cocktail called cigarettes and alcohol so I based my recipe on an old-fashioned.

cigarettes and alcohol (serves one)

30mL bourbon

30mL Jade Perique Tobacco Liqueur

10mL simple syrup (I used my Christmas spice syrup for additional spice notes)

3-4 dashes of orange bitters (you could use angostura instead)

large piece of orange zest

ice

cherry and orange wheel to serve 

Combine the bourbon, tobacco liqueur, simple syrup, bitters and orange zest in a large glass or cocktail shaker. Add ice and stir well. Strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice and garnish with a cherry and an orange wheel.

You can here me talking about this cocktail on the Flavour, Cambridge 105 podcast here.

Simple cocktail: flat peaches, elderflower and lime

I had just polished off a cocktail I call "cigarettes and alcohol" recipe coming soon). I felt it was time to redress the balance a little. 

I was inspired by a bag of overripe flat peaches, given to me free by a lovely Cambridge market trader at the end of the day. I pureed the peaches, added a dash of agave nectar (the health freak's choice of sweetener) along with lime zest and lime juice. Delicious just by itself, I had to stop myself eating it there and then. Loosened by a glug of elderflower gin (approx 30mL), it still looks healthy even if it does have a little kick. Served over ice and garnished with slices of peach and lime it is extremely pretty and would work equally well with rum, gin, vodka or even (whisper it) as a non-alcoholic drink.

You can here me talking about this cocktail on the Flavour, Cambridge 105 podcast here.