(Yes, my work table is dirty. How good of you to notice.)

I lost the morning to running errands (Halloween candy–a must: we live on the town common, and they quite literally bus kids in to trick-or-treat. Last year, the town provided socialized candy, but none has shown up yet this year!–dinner necessities, hurricane necessities–gas the car!–and a bottle of rye.)

And some ginger liqueur, which made me have a nerdy romantic I-miss-my-boyfriend moment and brought me to the realization that really, I could have two cocktails on this particular Friday. If I were good.

Later on, I’m planning a Scofflaw (for serious after-work alcohol content. Here’s David Lebovitz’s post on them.) But for right now, because I am a nerd and found a new ginger liqueur today, I have made my own attempt at a recipe from my boyfriend’s fictional city of Camorr, the Ginger Scald. (Food Through The Pages has an awesome version here.)

As FTTP quotes Scott’s book:

Conte moved adroitly to fill this request, first selecting a tall crystal wine flute, into which he poured two fingers of purest Camorri ginger oil, the color of scorched cinnamon. To this he added a sizable splash of milky pear brandy, followed by a transparent heavy liquor called ajento, which was actually a cooking wine flavored with radishes. When this cocktail was mixed, Conte wrapped a wet towel around the fingers of his left hand and reached for a covered brazier smoldering to the side of the liquor cabinet. He withdrew a slender metal rod, glowing orange-red at the tip, and plunged it into the cocktail; there was an audible hiss and a small puff of spicy steam. Once the rod was stanched, Conte stirred the drink briskly and precisely three times, then presented it to Locke on a thin silver tray.”

-The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

As you can see, this presents some issues. Ginger oil and radish-based cooking wine are not thick on the ground in our world… so, as others before me and in the grand tradition of recreating Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters… I made a few substitutions.

Mine is:

1 part sweet vermouth

2 parts King’s Ginger liqueur (you could use Canton de Ginger, but it’s not as gingery and is sweeter. Or ginger brandy, if you can find one that does not taste like toes.)

2 parts pear liqueur. (You could also use pear brandy, and add simple syrup–or ginger syrup, as FTTP does.)

And then, because I’m not as awesome as FTTP, I dumped it all in a teacup, shaved a little fresh ginger over it, and popped it in the microwave for thirty seconds. While it was warming, I cut a fancy fan slice off a radish, put THAT in a wine glass, and poured the eventual cocktail over it.

It’s quite tasty.

Might need a drop or two of lemon juice to round it out, though. The vermouth gives it a lovely cinnamony color, however, as promised in the text. (ETA: I added a few drops of lime juice, having a cut lime lying around–as one does–and that perked it right up.)

In other news, tea today: jasmine green

Teacup today: ridiculously awesome phoenix cup

And now, if I can write 2700 words, I (a) get another cocktail and (b) will have my 10K for the week, meaning I can either take the weekend off or try to get ahead of the storm, since we might lose power.

Work when you don’t have to work is almost no work at all.

Posted: Friday, October 26th, 2012 @ 6:16 pm
Categories: Blog, Cooking and Food, Daily Commute, Personal, Tea.
Tags: friday night cocktail, ginger scald, hurricane sandy, scott lynch.
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