flavour.ie

Cherry Amour

Part of a collection of recipes I’m calling My Purple Passion

Thanks to our never ending summer there is still loads of rhubarb knocking about, and this is probably one of the nicest ways to partake in it. This cocktail recipe was inspired by the Rhubarb Martini that my friend and all-round awesome chef, Caitlin Ruth, makes as Deasy's Restaurant in the tiny village of Ring just outside of Clonakilty.

Part of a collection of recipes I’m calling My Purple Passion

**My Purple Passion: Cherry Brandy Brownie, Goat-Goat-Beet, Cherry Amour**

I had been knocking around in my head the idea for this cocktail ever since I made the Cherry Brandy Brownie. There was something so heady about the combination of cherry and chocolate that sent me off in search of a cocktail that would make the most of those flavours in a truly adult way.

If you’ve ever read my Tea with Granny series of blog posts, you’ll know that Black Forest Gateaux holds a very dear and special place in my heart. I also created for you one of the best cake recipes I’ve ever concocted as a ridiculously sumptuous version of an old classic. Check out those posts HERE and HERE. So, in a way, this cocktail is like a Black Forest Gateaux but in a drinkable form and oh so adulty!

What took me so long in getting round to making it was trying to figure out how, in the middle of a pandemic, could I get my hands on a Chocolate Bitter. In the end I decided to make my own using just three ingredients and one patient week of waiting. The good news though is that, like with all bitters, you only need a little to go a long way, so you’ll have enough for 6 cocktails with what you make here.

Equipment wise, you’ll need a cocktail shaker – my current one is plastic and broken so you know, whatever works…even a clean jam jar with a tight fitting lid would work. Something to accurately measure your measures with, lots and lot of ice and a fancy pants glass to drink from. Simples.

Ingredients: Makes 1 Cocktail

For the Homemade Chocolate Bitters

1 tbsp of roasted cocoa nibs
1 tbsp of cocoa husks (also known as Cocoa Husk Tea)
Enough Irish whiskey to cover fully – about 150 ml
Both the Nibs and Husks can be purchased from Exploding Tree

For the Cocktail

50 ml Irish Whiskey (I used West Cork Distillers 10 year old)
75 ml Kinsale Mead ‘Wild Red Mead’ (flavoured with cherries and blackcurrants)
125 ml tart organic cherry juice (e.g. Biona)
1 tsp of Homemade Chocolate Bitters
1 egg white
Ice

Method:

For the Homemade Chocolate Bitters

Place all into a sterilised glass jar with a tight fitting lid, shake and store in a cool, dark place for a week.
Strain the liquid from the solids using a tea strainer or a piece of muslin cloth.
Store in a sterilised jar or bottle.

For the Cocktail

Add all the ingredients into a cocktail shaker, fill with ice and shake vigorously for 30 seconds or until a thin sheen of ice appears on the outside of your cocktail shaker.
Pour into a martini glass and garnish with some more roasted cocoa nibs.

Cheers!

Thanks to our never ending summer there is still loads of rhubarb knocking about, and this is probably one of the nicest ways to partake in it. This cocktail recipe was inspired by the Rhubarb Martini that my friend and all-round awesome chef, Caitlin Ruth, makes as Deasy’s Restaurant in the tiny village of Ring just outside of Clonakilty.

I would never profess to be as much a master at the art of cocktail making as she is, but I think that this is pretty damn good go! I’m using Gin as my martini base, but of course you could just as well swap this out for the classic vodka and vermouth combo. The other twist here is that I am using juice from raw rhubarb here so no cooking involved!

Ingredients (makes min 4 cocktails):

Liquid from 1 bunch of rhubarb, trimmed, chopped, pulped and strained
Per person: 50ml of Beara Ocean Gin
Juice of 4 sweet oranges (Jaffa/Blood)
1 tbsp Sugar syrup / Agave syrup
Vanilla Dusting Sugar

Method:

Into a blitzer of some kind (smoothie maker, processor etc), add the chopped rhubarb and process until the rhubarb is completely pulped. You may need to add a dash of water to help this process along.
Arrange some muslin/clean tea towel over a bowl or jug and spoon out the rhubarb pulp into the cloth.
Gather up the ends of the cloth and pull tightly into a ball. Begin squeezing the juice out from the pulp into the bowl/jug. Get all the juice out, this might take a few minutes to do properly.
Once all the juice has been gathered, decant into a large mason jar or a cocktail shaker. Add in the gin, orange juice and sugar syrup or agave and add plenty of ice.
Prepare your cocktail glasses by running the empty orange segments around the top of the glass and then dusting with the icing sugar. Do this by placing some of the sugar onto a plate and dipping the glass rim into it. The orange juice will help it to stick to the rim.
Shake the cocktail mix vigorously and then strain into the prepared glasses.
Garnish with a small slice of orange and ENJOY!

Cherry Amour

Cherry Amour

Rhubarb Ocean Gin Martini

Kate Ryan