Cocktail Recipes « Putney Farm

Weekly Cocktail #13: The Seelbach Cocktail

May 16, 2012

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The Seelbach Cocktail

One of the cool things about cocktails is how one drink can provoke many different reactions (and some fun conversations). And this week’s feature, the Seelbach Cocktail is a very good example. Created at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville Kentucky in 1917, the Seelbach cocktail combines bourbon, Cointreau, liberal doses of Angostura and Peychauds bitters all topped with dry champagne. The drink is sweet from the bourbon and Cointreau, with pronounced spice from the bitters but has a dry, light finish from the champagne. The Seelbach is a balanced, tasty, classic drink that is often seen on better cocktail menus. This is a cocktail we will continue to make, and enjoy, regularly.

But beyond simply tasting good, what makes the Seelbach so interesting is the varied reactions to the flavors. Both Carolyn and I lean towards lighter gin, rum and tequila cocktails. When we tasted the Seelbach’s sweet bourbon, orange and spice we immediately thought “great for winter holidays”. But our friends who enjoy Manhattans and Old Fashioneds like the Seelbach as a “lighter”, almost summery, drink. If you are a fan of whiskey-based cocktails, the Seelbach certainly succeeds in keeping the flavor profile of whiskey, but also adding new dimensions and a cleaner finish. Having such broad, but varied, appeal is pretty nice trick for such a simple drink.

Making the Seelbach is easy, but there are differences between recipes on the proportion of bitters. The original recipe calls for up to 7 dashes each of Angostura and Peychauds bitters, while other recipes (like Ted Haigh’s) call for 2-3 dashes each of the bitters. We went with the full seven dashes and like the pronounced spice flavor, but the bitters will show even with 2-3 dashes. These are fun experiments, so feel free to play around. Besides, you can use this as an excuse to make another round. Continue reading →
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Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Cocktail Recipes, Sparklers, Whiskey / Rye Tags: angostura bitters, cocktail recipe, peychauds bitters, putney farm cocktails, seelbach cocktail, seelbach cocktail recipe, seelbach hotel
Weekly Cocktail #12: The Cherry Fling

May 8, 2012

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Cherry Fling Cocktail

A few things came together recently to provide us with this week’s cocktail, the Cherry Fling. Firstly, our friend Roger came over for dinner and happened to see a bottle of genever on the bar and was curious. Secondly, cherries are in season (yes!). One thing leads to another and we get the Cherry Fling Cocktail.

As for the cherries, ours are green and on the tree, but the farmers market had some beautiful early-season Bing cherries. The cherries were a deep, dark red and very sweet but with some tart notes. The cherries will end up in pies and ice cream soon, but we wanted something now, so we went right for a cocktail. We did some research and found a few good cocktail recipes using fresh cherries, like the Ruby Tuesday (good drink, btw), that include whiskey as the base spirit. In fact, most fresh cherry cocktails have bourbon or rye as the base spirit and add lemon juice. But Carolyn didn’t want a “brown drink” and I was thinking limes rather than lemons with the cherries (I love cherry limeade, yum). Limes, however, don’t usually go with rye or bourbon. Luckily, this led us right to the genever.

So how did we come up with a cherry and genever cocktail? As we mentioned, our friend Roger came over for dinner the other night. We made Roger a genever Old Fashioned that was very tasty and reminded us that quality genever can easily replace rye or bourbon in many cocktails. For those of you unfamiliar with genever (also known as Hollands gin or jenever), it is an early form of gin made in the pot-style stills most often associated with making whiskey. Like dry gin, genever has juniper and botanical flavors, but also features malty notes and a heavier mouthfeel. Good stuff. We like Genevieve from Anchor Distilling but Bols also makes a well-regarded genever. Genever is often taken straight or on the rocks, but mixologists also use genever as a slightly lighter, more herbal substitute in “brown” drinks, or to add more body and depth to cocktails that use dry gin. Continue reading →
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Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Cocktail Recipes, From The Garden, Gin Tags: bing cherries, cherry cocktail recipe, cherry fling cocktail, cherry lime cocktail, cocktail recipe, cocktail recipes, genever gin, putney farm cocktails

Cocktails at Martin’s West

May 6, 2012

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Kumquat Crofter cocktail at Martin’s West

Note: This is the first of (hopefully) many posts introducing our readers to cocktail spots in the San Francisco Bay Peninsula and South Bay. Good cocktails have reached us here in the ~~sticks~~ suburbs and country and we encourage locals to try these places. If you are out of the bay area, you can still read about some great drinks and get some inspiration.

For many bay area residents, downtown Redwood City is probably not the first place they would look for a gastropub. And if you are curious, “gastropub” is a recent term to define a British-inspired pub that features high-end food and spirits. Gastropubs are not “bangers and mash” joints, but truly high-end restaurants and bars that feature local, artisinal foods and quality spirits. Gastropubs led Britain’s unlikely charge to the heights of international cuisine, so it is a treat to have a good gastropub in the heart of the peninsula.

And this brings us to Martin’s West in Redwood City. Established in 2009, Martin’s West is a true gastropub located in the historic Alhambra building, a refurbished old-time saloon and theater, first opened in 1896. The current space features tall ceilings, and exposed bricks and beams, giving it an eclectic, pub-inspired interior. The main room features a long wooden bar with plenty of stools, multiple tables, cozy booths and even an alcove by the front windows. Martin’s West is a welcoming spot that feels comfortable like a pub, but also polished, refined, and slightly metropolitan.

In addition to the comfortable, welcoming atmosphere, Martin’s West features Scottish-inspired food from local ingredients, a great beer selection and a deep menu of single-malt scotch. We are big fans of chef Michael Dotson’s food at Martin’s West (the house-made pickles and charcuterie are favorites), but we are frequent visitors for the cocktails. Led by GM/partner Moira Beveridge, Martin’s West regularly features 10-20 cocktails with a good mix of old-time and creative, modern drinks using fresh, seasonal ingredients. We posted on the popularity of the Moscow Mule, and Martin’s is known for their interpretations of the Manhattan, and these drinks are worth a visit. But we were lucky enough to visit Martin’s West just as they added a few new cocktails to the menu.

Sunny Brae Cocktail at Martin’s West

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Posted By: putneyfarm Category: Cocktail Recipes, Musings, Reviews and Notes Tags: cocktail review, martin's west, martin's west cocktails, peninsula cocktails, silicon valley cocktails, south bay cocktails
Two Drinks for Cinco de Cocktail: The Chica Facil and the Eastside

May 2, 2012

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Chica Facil Cocktail and Eastside Cocktail

2012 is a potentially troublesome year. The Mayan calendar suggests that the world will end on the 21st of December. Somehow, we aren’t so worried. But in the world of cocktails, the real Armageddon comes this Saturday May 5th, Cinco de Cocktail. We call it “Cinco de Cocktail” because the dates have aligned and Cinco de Mayo and The Kentucky Derby are on the same day. Margaritas and Mint Juleps for all! This means we may see more crummy cocktails made this Saturday than any day this year.

This is not to say we aren’t fans of the drinks, we love a good Margarita and like the occasional Mint Julep. But as these are both simple cocktails that require care to make well, we doubt many good ones will be served this Saturday. Nothing makes us sad like a bad cocktail, and we suspect a lot of sour-mix Margs and creme-de-menthe Juleps will be sloshed about this weekend. We also have no doubt that many cocktail writers, well aware of the pending catastrophe, are working to provide the drinking public with good recipes for Margs and Mint Juleps for the weekend. Since that angle is covered, how about trying something new, perhaps better, instead?

Chica Facil means something like “easy gal”…

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Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Cocktail Recipes, Gin, Musings, Tequila Tags: chica facil cocktail, chica facil cocktail recipe, cinco de mayo cocktail, eastside cocktail, eastside cocktail recipe, kentucky derby cocktail, margarita alternative, mint cocktails

Weekly Cocktail #11: The Maiden’s Prayer

April 26, 2012

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The Maiden's Prayer Cocktail

Yes the name is….”interesting”, perhaps suggestive, but also a curse. We will get to that. Meanwhile our goal this week was to post a great, but perhaps lesser-known, drink made from very common ingredients. It’s fun to buy things like Maraschino, Chartreuse and Cocchi Americano and learn about obscure cocktails, but sometimes it is good to have a few recipes that you can make anytime, anywhere. We think the Maiden’s Prayer fits the bill.

And you can probably make the Maiden’s Prayer now, or after a quick trip to the market. The ingredients are dry gin, Cointreau, lemon juice and orange juice. That’s all. (You might want to add some orange or lemon bitters, if you have them…but there we go, getting all “cocktailian”). But the Maiden’s Prayer is a very, very tasty drink. Light, balanced and refreshing, with some depth from the gin. After trying it, Carolyn and I were both surprised the Maiden’s Prayer isn’t a more popular cocktail. The Maiden’s Prayer is certainly a cocktail you could serve to a group and leave everyone happy. And if you have a friend who says “I don’t like gin”, this cocktail might change their mind, the gin blends in quite smoothly. So why don’t we see this drink more?

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Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Cocktail Recipes, Gin Tags: Cocktail, cointreau, david wondrich, gin, maiden's prayer, maiden's prayer cocktail, maiden's prayer cocktail recipe, paul clarke, Savoy Cocktail Book
Bonus Cocktail: The Gauguin

April 20, 2012

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Gauguin Coocktail

One of the big differences between wine and cocktails is that cocktails allow you to improvise, adapt and expand your repertoire quickly, based on the ingredients and tools you have on hand. With wine, you can be stuck with what you have, and only time or a new bottle will give you something new. With cocktails, a simple change of ingredient or technique and you have a different drink, preferably (hopefully) a good one. Also unlike wine, if you don’t like the cocktail, you can pour it out and try again (and it is not likely to have cost you a fortune).

This week’s bonus cocktail, The Gauguin, is an example of how buying a new ingredient for one drink suddenly gets you another good recipe. In this case we’ve used passion fruit syrup as an ingredient in last week’s exploration of tiki drinks. Passion fruit syrup has a pronounced sweet/tart flavor, and is a key ingredient in famous tropical drinks like the Zombie and the Hurricane (some versions). We have played with making Zombies, which is a challenge to do well (we suffer for our cocktails, really), so while we are working on the Zombie we started to look for other cocktails using passion fruit syrup.

Now we would like to tell you a story of how we discovered the Gauguin from an antique cocktail book, or how it was inspired by his works, or that this drink has been rescued from time by a master mixologist. But we can’t. Truth is, we went to cocktailDB (a great resource) and searched on drinks with passion fruit syrup. We found the Gauguin and made it because we had all the ingredients. But it turned out to be a great drink- nothing like a little good cocktail karma as we go into the weekend.

As for ingredients, the Gauguin is a simple drink of white rum, lime juice, lemon juice and passion fruit syrup. As you may have noticed, the Gauguin is basically a daiquiri variant, but the passion fruit and lemon add new dimensions to the drink. Even with a small amount of passion fruit syrup the Gauguin is a sweet drink, but it is well-balanced by the lemon and lime. The white rum adds a bit of heat, but the citrus and passion fruit are the major players. Even with the sweetness, the Gauguin ends up being a very refreshing drink, it would be an excellent choice in warm weather. Try one this weekend and share in our good cocktail karma.

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Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Cocktail Recipes, Rum / Cachaca Tags: gauguin cocktail, gauguin cocktail recipe, passion fruit, passion fruit cocktail, passion fruit syrup