DIY Crème de Violette

Spring is here and so is the first wave of fresh ingredients.

Homemade violet liqueur can be made right now and for the next week or two in Ontario. 

But don't do it!

This might look tempting but you should not make this recipe.

If you live in a part of the world where you can purchase violet liqueur or even a violet syrup, do that. 

Seriously, this is one for the folks in Ontario or other places in the world where it isn't available for purchase. It is insane to try to collect eleventy hundred pounds of flowers to make a cup of liqueur. But for people who love it and aren't able to buy it, this is one way to get the flavour at home. You can also buy candied or dry violets, the rest of the recipe will remain the same.

I've been waiting a year to post this after having missed the violets last year by a week. Then it almost happened again. A while a ago I wrote about having a friend that gifts me amazing things from her garden. This time it was a huge whack of fresh violets, that she spent a day picking and delivered right to my door. I then set about ruining them. I spent the rest of the week feeling terrible that I wasted my friend's time and effort and trying to figure out how to get more violets.

I was wavering between giving up and giving in to theft, my neighborhood is full of violets right now. Every garden and lawn seemed to have them but mine, until today. This morning a patch bloomed on the far side of the house and I set to work gathering the flowers and carefully removing them from their stems. (I also have my eye on the all of the fruit blossoms around and I'm not yet fully resolved to stay within my moral boundaries...)



The violet petals need to be preserved in vodka right away to protect the flavour and freshness. After they steep, an equal part of simple syrup is added and that's it. It is actually a very simple recipe, it's the timing and delicate care of the flowers that is somewhat tricky.

If you're unsure because you've never had it, ask yourself this; Do you like Thrills gum? If like me you are compelled to purchase it every time you see it because you can never get it enough, then this will be worth it. If you are among those to whom violet chicle tastes like soap, perhaps you'll want to try this week's cocktail without any Violette or substitute with a floral liqueur you prefer, something like the elderflower in St. Germain. I hold no judgement for the haters. If you asked me to make a liqueur with lavender, I might die. Just the thought of it makes my stomach churn and my head ache. Use ingredients and flavours you like, as you would when you're cooking, you'll have a much higher rate of success.

The Porter
1 1/2 oz gin
1/4 oz Creme de Violette*
1/4 oz Maraschino liqueur
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz egg white

Method
Add all ingredients to shaker, fill 3/4 with cracked ice. Shake vigorously for no less than 30 seconds. Stain into chilled Coupette. Garnish with fresh violets or a cherry.

This cocktail is only a slight variation on a classic gin cocktail the Aviation.
I've added some egg white for texture and switched out the cherry garnish in favour of fresh violets. 




DIY Creme de Violette
2 C violet petals, no stems
1/2 C vodka, 40% abv or above
1/2 C simple syrup

Method
Place petals in mason jar add vodka. Infuse for 8 hours. Add cool simple syrup, tighten lid, turn gently a few times. Let rest in fridge for 72 hours. Strain and return to jar, store in fridge.  






Do you love a product that you just can't get where you live? Leave it in the comments and I might just be able to help you DIY.

LINGONDRYCK ~ COCKTAIL HOUR AT IKEA

Does anyone else love the Lingonberry drink at Ikea?

Glass and cutting board are both Ikea

I sometimes make up excuses to go to Ikea just so that I can get one. And by one I mean I fill a cup when I get in the door, refill it after walking through the showroom, it's very dry in there, and then one more fill up for the ride home. (start the car! start the car!)

The fountain version you get at the Ikea stores isn't even juice. It's sugary, red crack-dryck, and I love it! Similar to cranberries, lingonberries don't have much natural sweetness and are usually processed with sugar. I was given some of the syrup as a gift. Then, I also received some wild lingonberry preserve. It's the real deal, sour and tangy, closer to the whole foods I prefer to work with. Both can be purchased at Ikea, although I've used a different brand of preserves today.

This is from their website.

There is no way I could resist pulling these together for a new recipe. I'm still in a produce dead zone here so I have to make the most of syrups and preserves until the fresh stuffs begin to arrive. Just the thought of this one is reviving my will to get through the last days of cold.

The natural match for this would be Akvavit but alas here in Ontario, that's not going to happen. So you can steep some vodka with caraway seeds, I found a large sachet of caraway at a Polish deli in my neighborhood for $1.89. It's somewhere in between fennel and cumin. If you've ever been to Buffalo, NY, these are the seeds on top of the bun used for Beef on Weck. If this seems like too much effort for a drink made with Ikea jam, just use Absolute vodka, the most popular brand in Sweden. You'll miss out on the earthy and anise flavours from the caraway but you still get an easy, refreshing berry drink.

Yep, this plate is also from Ikea.
No, I'm not working for them.
I just really like lingonberry.

Please don't skip the bitters. If you're new to home bar tending I must encourage you to start purchasing bitters. Having bitters is essential to making great drinks. If you tried to cook without any spices in your cupboard you wouldn't get very far. Consider bitters to be your drink spices. Try one that's easy to find (Angostura) or test a few to find one that you really like.

If you're not yet a believer, here's the moment to try. This drink is an easy one, so try making the drink without the bitters, then add them in, one drop at a time and see how it changes the entire experience. A somewhat ordinary berry drink will take on extra dimensions and be elevated to a new level.

I used a light and citrusy variety because I thought it would be complimentary to the berries. But, go ahead and try one that is dark and spicy, or one that happens to have your favourite flavour in it. (vanilla bitters would work really well in this one too)




Lingondryck 

1.5 oz Akvavit or Caraway Vodka
1 oz lingonberry syrup
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 tsp lingonberry preserve
2-3 drops orange bitters

3 oz soda

Method 
Add all ingredients excepting soda, to a shaker, fill 3/4 with cracked ice. Shake vigorously for no less than 30 seconds to incorporate preserves. Double strain into a double old fashioned glass (or any glass from Ikea!) filled with cracked ice. Top with soda. Garnish with dollop of preserve and fresh lime zest.













If anyone in Sweden is reading this, I'm sorry. Try to imagine making a Canadian drink for the first time without thinking about whiskey or maple syrup...

5 Easy to Make Cocktail Ingredients Using Blood Orange

At first glance, a cocktail recipe calling for an infused vodka or seasonal shrub might appear too far out of reach. But, if you're a budding home bartender, you will not believe how easy these cocktail ingredients are to prepare, they will launch your cocktails to the next level and each one only takes a few minutes to prepare!



We keep it simple by using one star ingredient for all five of our recipes. It's almost the end of Blood Orange season but it's by far the most popular time to use them in recipes. If you're unfamiliar with these beauties, they have the tang of a navel orange with the floral notes of a tangerine. The thing that makes them truly special is the exquisite colour inside. They can be somewhat acidic and so they're not quite as popular for eating out of hand, but it's for this reason that they have the perfect profile for our cocktail ingredients.

Every home bartender can make these!

1. Bitters

2. Vodka

3. Syrup

4. Shrub

5. Cordial

1.Blood Orange Bitters

These bitters are just a combination of blood orange vodka (see recipe #2) and wild cherry bark bittering agent, the bark is found at the herbalist, the same place you found the cinchona bark for your tonic syrup.

1/4 C Blood Orange Vodka
1/8 C Wild Cherry Bark bitterant

Shelf stable, keep in a small glass jar, a recycled jam jar will work 

Bitterant
1/4 C wild cherry bark
3/4 C vodka

Combine in 500 ml jar, (the extra space in the jar is needed for the bark to expand), set in a cool dark place for one week to one month, [you can keep adding more vodka over time (longer = more bitterness)], strain and store, it's shelf stable.

I keep all of my bittering agents  and components separate, only ever blending the final product. 

2. Blood Orange Vodka

You might want to make a few jars of this one. The vodka is used in two of the other recipes. I particularly love the colour it lends to a drink.

1 blood orange, sliced
1 C vodka

Combine in 500 ml jar, set in a cool dark place for one week, discard orange slices, strain vodka, store in the same jar

3. Blood Orange Syrup

Flavoured syrups offer an opportunity to build extra flavour into any cocktail that calls for simple syrup.  

3 blood oranges, juiced, reserve juice and shells
2 C sugar
1 C water
1/4 tsp salt

Optional, additional awesomeness: 1/4 tsp citric acid to brighten flavour and increase shelf life.

In a heavy bottom sauce pot, over medium heat bring sugar and water to the boil. Add shells and reduce heat to low, simmer for 20 mins. Remove from heat, cool and fine strain. Add juice and salt, stir and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

4. Blood Orange Shrub

Shrubs are a great way of adding acidity to a cocktail, they're delicious, unusual (friends will be very impressed) and so simple.

1/3 C fresh blood orange juice

1/3 C sugar

1/3 C red wine vinegar

Combine juice and sugar stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves, add vinegar. Store in a glass jar, this one is shelf stable and will even get better with time.

5. Blood Orange Cordial

This isn't my usual method for making cordials but in the interest of saving time and since you just made these two recipes, you might as well...

1/2 C Blood Orange Vodka

1/4 C Blood Orange Syrup

Combine and store, it will last on the shelf but will do even better in the fridge.


Did you try any or all of these? Did you use them in an existing recipe? Let me know how it turned out!