Fourth recap

Talking to my landlord (he lives in the house next-door) about cocktails for a little while yesterday, he offered to let me experiment with some of the produce he has growing in his backyard. Came back with fresh mulberries, peaches, and plums.  

Mulberries, prepare to meet my muddler.

Mulberry cocktail #2 (up)

You Will Require:

Shaker

Strainer

Muddler

It Includes:

Juice of half-a-lemon

2 oz rye

handfull of washed and stemmed mulberries

1 barspoon of simple syrup

soda water or branch water

ice

In Detail:

Wash and stem the berries, place them in the shaker. Add simple syrup and muddle. Add just a spray of soda water to the drink while cleaning off the muddler, you don't need more than a half-ounce. Add rye (or bourbon, more on this in an upcoming post), lemon juice, and plenty of ice (not cracked). Shake violently to incorporate the fruit. Strain and serve up. Garnish with a smashed mulberry, or a slice of fruit in season, or lemon zest, or whatever.

Notes:

I took a slice of peach, removed the skin, rubbed it around the rim of the glass and then squeezed the mulberry over it. Did it make the drink look cooler? Yes. Did this change the flavor? Not a lot. Does it drastically change the overall beverage? No. The point here is that garnishing was nice, but don't feel it's necessary to do the peach thing. Save your money if you can't get the peaches for free.

Mulberries, you probably won't find in a store as they explode a little in your hand as you pick them; partially-exploded berries don't have a lot of shelf-appeal. Don't have these? Use raspberry or blueberry, but make sure you muddle well. 

Detail about variations on this theme after the jump.

Mark 1 of this drink was made more like a cobbler, served down with finely crushed ice. This was okay, except for the matter of the seeds. The best way to go about this, if you're serving it down, is to shake with whole ice, strain into the glass (to remove any seeds), then top with lots of cracked ice (think mint julep), fruit and berries in season, and a straw.

Mark 3 was built with the same ingredients as mark 2, but with the ratio of peach and berries inverted. It was OK, not great. Added Angostura to brighten it up. Double the lemon. This is an option if you have more peaches than berries.

Mostly drank-up.

Final Note:

In keeping with my Fourth of July tradition, I fried a whole chicken. This is always a big song and dance because I never really cook meat. Normally I use an Alton Brown recipe that involves a buttermilk brine, but this time I tried the Achewood Method.

Sadly, no pictures of the finished product. It got et up before any of us thought to take a picture. Thanks to Peter and Allegra for coming over, and for the mac and cheese!