Raspberry Martini
How is that for a glowing red to kick off the month?
Drinks & Cocktails
Drink Pink!
Hold the tonic!
“CAN YOU FIND ANY EDIBLE PINKS?” asks Jude. No, but I found some drinkable pinks!
Pink Palace of the Pacific
Opened in 1927, and very proudly pink!
This is the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, which is indeed known as the Pink Palace of the Pacific. When Jude asked, “Can you find any pink architecture?”, I had no trouble.
A pink seating area.
Pink umbrellas, pink-striped towels, pink paper napkins under the mai-tais.
Bubbly, but not as we know it
This is what happens when you forget that all bottle shops in Australia are closed on Good Friday.
Bottle reflections
#WordlessWednesday
Whisky tasting
Q: What could be better than one tasting flight? A: Two tasting flights!
On a recent visit to Hobart (day stop on a cruise on Queen Elizabeth) my friend and I popped into the Lark Distillery ‘cellar door’ and had a very enjoyable whisky tasting.
Posted as part of CFFC Sense of Tasting.
Rosemary is not only for remembrance
Giant rosemary (and geranium!) on the balcony above me.
Whoever lives above me has large rosemary and geranium plants on their balcony. I often find that red geranium petals or small white rosemary flower petals have drifted onto my balcony, but this morning I found a sizable branch of rosemary, obviously torn from the plant. The mystery, though, is how it ended up on my balcony! Perhaps a flying fox or a cockatoo was too enthusiastic?
Broken branch of rosemary on my balcony this morning. You can see the torn branch end on the left.
What to do with this unlooked-for bounty? I’m a vegetarian, so although I believe rosemary is often paired with meat, that’s not what I would do. However … many months ago I had a marvellous rosemary-flavoured gin cocktail in a bar, which sent me straight to Google for more information. The secret is to make a ‘simple syrup’ using the leaves.
Strip off the leaves (wash thoroughly first!).
The recipe I found called for 1 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of leaves; bring to boil, simmer one minute, steep for 30 minutes, and strain. I found that far too sweet and far too faintly flavoured, so this time I used 3/4 cup of sugar and I steeped the syrup for an hour before straining.
1 cup water, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup rosemary leaves.
Here’s what you get.
The result: rosemary syrup.
The recipe said the syrup can be used to in sorbets, cake glazing, lemonade — or a cocktail. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how I use it. 🙂
Rosemary Gin Gimlet
Rosemary Gin Gimlet
2 oz gin
0.5 oz rosemary syrup
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
Shake with lots of ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Feel free to experiment with the proportions (in making both the syrup and the gimlet) until you get what you like. The drink works well with lemon juice, too, and the syrup recipe also recommends using a mix of basil and lemon verbana rather than rosemary.
