Or: Hot Garnish Dropped Into a Cold Cocktail Is Stupid
We've got a little surf-and-turf going this Sunday morning, and highly recommend you join us.
But first, some cocktail controversy: hot garnish dropped into a cold cocktail is stupid. Nobody's favorite way to eat bacon is "submerged." You either need to rest a hot garnish on the side of the glass, without dropping it in; or serve it separate from the drink, and enjoy it while ALSO sipping a Bloody Mary. Otherwise, it's gross.
Hot garnish with a cold cocktail is literally a balancing act. There. I said it. Now we can move on.
Here's what you need to mix up two cocktails with two awesome garnishes. However, if you wanted to make a plate of bacon-wrapped shrimp to nom on and keep the cocktail garnish simple, we'd be excited about that, too. Just don't... you know.
Ingredients:
- 2 slices of bacon (we're using hickory bacon from Belmont Butchery)
- 4 shrimp, peeled and deveined (the 21/25 count from Yellow Umbrella Provisions were perfect)
- Juice of 1 lime, plus 2 wheels reserved for garnish
- 3oz vodka (we're drinking Cirrus Vodka right now)
- 12oz Bloody Bangkok, give or take
- 2 green onions, roots and tips trimmed, for garnish
Method:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Slice the bacon in half short-ways. Wrap half a piece of bacon around each shrimp and secure it with a toothpick (see Note, below). Roast in the oven for 10 minutes, then flip the shrimp to the other side and continue roasting for 10-15 minutes more until the bacon is crispy. Set aside on a paper towel to drain.
While the shrimp are in the oven, fill two glasses halfway with ice. Add lime juice, vodka, and Bloody Bangkok. Don’t fill it all the way to the brim, though – leave yourself about an inch of airspace at the top of the glass for the shrimp. Stir until very cold. Hang a lime wheel on the side of each glass and add the green onion.
Once the bacon-wrapped shrimp are cool enough to handle, remove the toothpick and replace it with a cocktail pick (it's a little wider, and more substantial). I like to align them with the tails facing up, so that they rise out of the glass rather than diving down into it.
Sit the cocktail pick on the edge of the glass and serve immediately. Don't sleep on the green onion; munching on the white root brings a delicious vegetal counterpoint to the meatiness of the shrimp. Cheers!
Note: There's a whole brush-with-butter-and-brown-sugar tradition that we're eschewing here. If you're feeling something sweeter, combine 1 Tbl melted butter with a three-finger pinch of brown sugar. Using a pastry brush, paint each bacon-wrapped shrimp with the mixture before putting them in the oven, and paint them again with any leftover mixture at the 10-minute mark.
Comments