Category: Drinks

(makes two)

This is the delightfully simple cocktail you’ll want to sip as you dance through a rain shower, your pink sari plastered to your body, while your eyes flirt demurely with your stunningly attractive admirer.

1 c. watermelon chunks
1 oz. vodka
1 t. rosewater
1 t. kithul treacle (or honey)
rose petals to garnish

1. Combine in blender, garnish with rose petals, enjoy!

(makes 2)

This is one of my more complex cocktails, and requires a few notes:

a) It’s getting easier to find fresh jackfruit in American grocery stores; if you can’t find fresh, look for frozen. You can also buy canned ripe jackfruit, but that usually comes in a sweet syrup, so the end result will be noticeably sweeter.

b) For the ingredients here, I looked to some of what I’d typically use in a jackfruit curry — tamarind, cinnamon, and lemongrass. Lemongrass found in American groceries is often quite woody and tough; if you’re not growing your own fresh sprigs, you may want to either skip the lemongrass, or simmer and steep it in the vermouth, removing the stalks before using.

c) Tonic water (a favorite in colonial South Asian cocktails for its inclusion of quinine, which treated malaria) lends this concoction a bitter edge; if you don’t enjoy bitter, use seltzer water instead.

1 c. ripe jackfruit (fresh or frozen)
2 oz. mango puree
2 oz. coconut milk
2 oz. gin
1 oz. vermouth
1 oz. tonic water or seltzer water
1 t. tamarind puree
1 t. chopped lemongrass, optional
2-3 ice cubes
lemongrass, cinnamon stick, and jackfruit to garnish

1. Combine all ingredients except garnish in blender; blend to combine.

2. Garnish and enjoy!

I’ve started working on recipes for the little cocktail cookbook; I promised it as part of the Vegan Serendib Kickstarter. My goal is to do a mocktail version to pair with each cocktail; we’ll see if I can do that in an interesting way, rather than just taking out the alcohol.

For example, for this one, I can do a ginger simple syrup instead of ginger liqueur, and you can get non-alcoholic bitters (Dram Apothecary makes some, for example), so that by itself should be pretty good. But if you have suggestions for something else to add instead of the vodka, feel free to chime in!

But tonight, here’s the one with alcohol.

*****

Ginger & Blood Orange Vodka Press

This would be a nice brunch cocktail, and if you want a less alcoholic version, just leaving out the vodka works nicely.

3 oz. orange juice
2 oz. blood orange soda
1 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur
dash of orange bitters
slice of clementine
1 tsp chopped crystallized ginger

1. Combine orange juice, blood orange soda, vodka, ginger liqueur, dash of orange bitters.

2. Garnish with clementine and crystallized ginger. Enjoy!

NOTE: I enjoy locally-produced Koval ginger liqueur in this drink, along with Ketel One’s Grapefruit Rose vodka, and Strongwater’s orange bitters.