I made this cocktail for an event we did with Pantone and Airbnb. They’d turned a house in London into a beautiful inside-out garden house and wanted a green Bloody Mary for the event. This one’s also just as good without the booze.
Serves 1
Ingredients:
- 25 ml (3/4 fl oz) white rum
- 25 ml (3/4 fl oz) green chilli liqueur
- 125 ml (4 fl oz) Maria Mix (see below)
- ice cubes, to serve
- lime wedge, avocado slice,
- cornichon and rosemary sprig, to garnish
Maria Mix
- 1 cucumber, peeled and deseeded
- 6 coriander (cilantro) sprigs
- 50 ml (2 fl oz) Pickle Juice (see below)
- 1 green pepper (bell pepper)
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 1 celery stalk
- pinch of ground cumin
- pinch of celery salt
- pinch of ground coriander
- pinch of coarsely ground black pepper
- 100 ml (3-1/2 fl oz) water
- 10 dashes green Tabasco
Instructions:
- To make the Maria mix, combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend to a purée. Pass the mixture through a piece of muslin (cheesecloth) into a bowl.
- Build the ingredients over ice in a rocks glass, starting with the rum, then the green chilli liqueur and finally the Maria mix.
- Stir thoroughly, then garnish with a lime wedge, a slice of avocado, cornichon and a sprig of rosemary.
Pickle Juice
This is a really good basic pickle juice, a great place to start if you’re new to the pickling game. Once you’ve mastered this recipe, you can play around with different herbs and spices.
Makes 1 litre (34 fl oz)
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon white mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon celery seeds
- 1 cucumber, sliced lengthways into 2.5 cm (1 in) sticks or 2 cm (3/4 in) thick circles
- few dashes of Tabasco
Pickling Juice
- 500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) water
- 500 ml (17 fl oz/2 cups) apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 5 tablespoons unrefined caster (superfine) sugar
Instructions:
- Place the mustard seeds, coriander seeds and celery seeds in a sterilised Kilner jar, or divide between 2 jars, depending on their size. Pack the jars as tightly as you can with the cucumbers.
- Combine all the ingredients in a large saucepan for the pickling juice and heat slowly until everything has dissolved.
- Using a funnel, pour the hot pickling juice into the jar. Make sure the juice covers the cucumbers, but leave about 1 cm (1/2 in) of room between the lid and the vinegar. Seal the jar, then leave them to cool for a couple of hours. Once cooled, refrigerate.
- The pickles will be ready to eat the next day, but they’re best left for 2 weeks before eating to mellow out the acidity of the vinegar, making the pickle juice smoother to drink. If you want something really special, don’t touch them for up to 6 months. When making our Original Pickle Juice, we now leave the jars to sit for 1 year so the juices in the cucumber mellow out the acidity in the vinegar.
More from Pickle Juice:
Recipes excerpted with permission fromPickle Juice by Florence Cherruault, published by Hardie Grant Books November 2018, RRP $19.99 hardcover.