Tag Archives: vodka

Hazelnut Liqueur

by Katie | Leave a comment

Nuts are our ingredient of the season.  Dips, cookies, and snack bars, are just a sampling of our many nutty posts. Today, we’re finally combining them with alcohol!

liveseasoned_spring2015_hazelnutliqueur9

It’s been a long time since I’ve had Frangelico or any other hazelnut liqueur, but with nuts as our featured ingredient, it was high time that I tried making my own! While doing some research for this project, I came across a Serious Eats article that encourages anyone interested to make their own rather than buy, and I couldn’t agree more. The pure hazelnut flavor really shines through, and I really appreciate being able to taylor the sweetness to my liking, which is often less than store-bought liqueurs.

After liking what Serious Eats’ encouragement to make the liqueur, I clicked through to their recipe and also liked the simplicity of that, so I used it and that’s what you see reprinted below. Making this liqueur couldn’t be easier, it’s the waiting that’s hard. While I want to say it “only” involves three to four weeks of wait-time, that’s three (or four) too many, and I think you’ll agree once you see my new favorite treat below. I say four weeks, because I was supposed to go on to steps 2 and 3 while our family was in town, and I completely forgot! As a result, I had about an extra week of the hazelnuts steeping in the alcohol, but the flavor is that delicious and strong that I have no regrets… although I’m not sure if I’ll be able to wait that long the second time I make this.

Continue reading …

Rosemary Vodka & Herb Bloody Marys

by Katie | 6 Comments

As you would expect, we love to eat seasonally, varying our ingredients and menus to take advantage of whatever is fresh at the moment. We thought it would be fun to place extra emphasis on one flavor or ingredient each season, highlighting the variety of ways you can use it in your food and home. To kick things off, this season’s ingredient is rosemary!

Today we wanted to share an amazingly simple way to turn your average bloody mary into something extraordinary: rosemary vodka!

Making the vodka is so easy, and when paired with our bloody mary recipe below, you’ll be the star of your next brunch (honestly, the bloody mary will be the star, you’ll be drunk).  We’ve dressed up the bloody mary with some fresh herbs and cheese stuffed olives, nothing too crazy, but just fun enough to make these bloody marys memorable.

liveseasoned_spring2014_bloodymary_top_wm

 

First the vodka  ~ I’m going to provide basic instructions, but fom my experience, the process is flexible and can be adjusted based upon how strongly flavored you want your vodka to be.

 

Vodka Ingredients

  • 4 cups vodka
  • 4-5 sprigs fresh rosemary (more or less to adjust flavor)

Place the rosemary and vodka in a clean jar to steep. After a few days, give your vodka a taste. You should be able to taste a hint (or more) of the rosemary flavor. I wanted an intense flavor (and I may have forgotten about this project for a moment), so I let my rosemary steep for over a week. After that amount of time, the rosemary flavor was perfectly present in my bloody mary, but not overwhelming.

Whenever you are happy with the rosemary flavor of your vodka, remove the rosemary sprigs. Be prepared for your vodka to turn a greenish-brown color as the rosemary’s tannins are released ~ while slightly unnerving, the color change really makes it seem like you’ve made a potion!

Now, you could take your vodka and make a basic bloody mary, but why not dress it up a bit? The recipe below simplifies things by using bloody mary mix, but then we splurge on the goat cheese-stuffed olives and the fragrance from the additional fresh herbs.

liveseasoned_spring2014_bloodymary_ingredients_wm

Bloody Mary Ingredients

(makes 1)
  • 2 oz vodka
  • 4-5 oz bloody mary mix
  • 1 tsp horseradish
  • 2 dashes worchestershire sauce
  • lime wedge
  • celery stalk
  • goat cheese
  • green olives (I purchased olives without the pimentos)
  • fresh herbs, particularly dill and cilantro

Stuff your olives with the goat cheese. I used a knife to push the goat cheese into the open end of the olive. It wasn’t pretty, but it was relatively easy.

In a glass filled with ice, add the vodka, bloody mary mix, worchestershire, and horseradish. Stir it well. Arrange the celery stalk and herb sprigs in the glass. Add the lime wedge and skewered olives to the glass’s edge.

Enjoy!

liveseasoned_spring2014_bloodymary_side_wm

 

Have you tried your hand at infused vodkas? Have any favorite flavors?

What about your bloody mary, what are your favorite garnishes?