Food & Drink

I'm Chris - or Christopher - or Mr. Dean - or Master Christopher - or just plain Sir. I'm a self-professed foodie. I love to cook and I take great pleasure in all things edible. My husband and I are relatively new to Portland, Oregon and are enjoying our culinary explorations of the area!



Food is NOT just fuel!



Monday, September 12, 2011

Ginger-Orange Martini


I've been lacking the creativity to come up with fun names for newly invented cocktails this week. I'll work on that. However this one isn't quite there yet, so I'm not going to name it...although it was inspired by Madame DuMoore at The Rainbow Room, so maybe I'll just call is something like Spicy Drag - or The Ginger Queen.


I've tried a few versions of this and it still needs tweaking, but I still wanted to share it. I'm a huge fan of fresh ginger, especially in cocktails & martinis. And upon my discovery of Yazi Ginger Vodka, I was giddy as a school girl. I LOVE Canton Ginger Liqueur but often feel that it's too sweet. This is not sweet - in fact it's quite spicy and delicious! The addition of Campari is quite interesting - Madame DuMoore basically treated it like bitters, just adding a splash (my first version had WAY too much Campari). And truth be told Campari doesn't do it much for me. I mean, it's everywhere in Italy, as keith and I discovered. And when we finally sauntered up to a bar and ordered what everyone else was having (Campari and soda) I could barely choke it down. It's so bitter - YET as an enhancement to drinks (just like bitters) it seems to work.


Spicy Drag...or Ginger Queen
1/2 tsp. fresh grated ginger
1/2 tsp. orange zest
juice of 1/2 orange (for fresh orange flavor)
2 1/2 oz. Yazi Ginger Vodka
Splash Campari (mostly for color and flavor)
1 1/2 oz. orange juice (yes, in addition to the fresh squeezed)

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Pour into a martini glass, and garnish with a thin orange wheel. Suggestions: perhaps a splash of simple syrup will bring this monster to it's knees? And maybe even a splash of soda water will mellow it out? I'm not sure yet, but here's my beginning!

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