Challenge #40: Gluten Free - have a couple of cocktail recipes

[miss_s_b]

One of the things about gluten-free that worries some people, IME, is that they don't realise how much of what they already make is gluten free. This is my excuse for posting a couple of cocktail recipes, anyway. It's not that cocktailing is where most of my culinary creativity has been going this last couple of months or anything AT ALL... ;)

My variation on a Basil Smash

40ml gin (I favour Opihr for this, because the big cardamom flavours in Opihr go really well with basil)
20ml lime juice
10ml sugar syrup
13 basil leaves
whisky tumbler/old fashioned glass
ice cubes
Garnish: basil sprig

Muddle the basil leaves and gin in the bottom of a whisky tumbler/old-fashioned glass
Leave to infuse for as long as you can bear it, but a minimum of ten minutes
Add the ice, lime juice and sugar syrup
Stir, garnish and serve.

Summer Pudding - named after the traditional English dessert.

20ml kirsch
10ml Chambord
10ml Strawberry syrup
15ml Lemon juice
8 blackberries
ice cubes
margarita glass
crushed ice
1 more blackberry for garnish

Muddle blackberries with kirsch in cocktail shaker.
Add the other liquid ingredients and shake with ice cubes till the shaker frosts over
Put crushed ice in glass then fine strain cocktail into it
Top with final blackberry.

Kensington Gore - so named because it's a very stage blood red.

1 measure of kirsch
1 measure of sweet vermouth
1 measure of cherry brandy
1 blood orange
dash of cherry bitters
ice cubes
wine glass

Cut a wheel out of the middle of a blood orange, make a cut from the edge to the centre, and set aside for garnish.
Juice the rest of the orange and measure how much juice you have; this is your measure for the other ingredients.
Add the juice, kirsch, cherry brandy, bitters and sweet vermouth to a shaker with the ice, shake till the shaker frosts over.
Fine strain into a wine glass and perch the blood orange wheel on the edge.

See how easy gluten-free cookery can be? ;)

Comments

[missdiane]

Unless you're getting certain brands, gin isn't gluten free?

[miss_s_b]

Some gins are made using wheat, but the distilling process removes gluten because it's a protein and the molecules are too large to be carried through the distillation chamber (see https://www.coeliac.org.uk/gluten-free-diet-and-lifestyle/keeping-healthy/alcohol/ )

There's a bunch of places online listing brands that don't use wheat in the manufacture if you want to be ultra safe, though :) A lot of American sites talk about Cold River gin, and there's a UK list here: https://www.ginfestival.com/news/glutenfreegin

[missdiane]

If I had celiac I might still avoid it just because of the facility it's made in and the risk of contamination or if I were a huge gin fan (which I'm not LOL), find one of the safer brands.

[miss_s_b]

* nod nod *

It's a fair point.