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copyright ©1999-2003
DigsMagazine.com.
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get
swanky
how to throw a swingin'
cocktail party: part II, planning food and drink
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continued from page 3
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The fact of the matter is, most people don’t have
a good idea of the sort of fancy cocktails they like to drink. Ask them
a simple “Can I mix up a cocktail for you?” and you’ll probably
get something like “Uhhhhh … yeah. What can you make?” in reply.
Make the mistake of responding with a vague but well-intentioned
“Anything!” and the conversation may very well end right there, as
there’s a pretty good chance that your guest will be too embarrassed
to admit that they haven’t enough of a clue about cocktails to think
up a specific drink to request. Make life easier for both your
non-cocktail-savvy guests and yourself. Choose one or two drinks that
you’re going to mix for the evening, and if anyone wants something
else, let them go wild at the self-serve bar.
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with drinks whose recipes you
know like the back of your hand – or at the very least, make yourself
a cheat sheet with just the recipe or recipes that you’re using that
night. It’s just too much of a nuisance to have to hunt down your
recipes in a cocktail book as you need them – and plus, you’ll look
so much cooler if you look like you already know what you’re doing. Martinis
are the quintessential cocktail of choice, but I find that they
don't suit everyone's taste. Fun, trendier cocktails like chocolate
martinis, apple
martinis, cosmopolitans
and (my current fave) lemon drops tend to go over well with
everyone.
Added tip: when memorizing recipes, I find it’s much easier to
remember ingredients in ratios rather than relying on specific
quantities.
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Lemon-licious Lemon Drop
4 parts citrus vodka
2 parts fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 part simple syrup
lemon wedge and sugar to rim glasses
super-long lemon twist
Combine vodka,
lemon juice and syrup in a cocktail shaker with cracked ice.
Shake it up good. Pour into sugar-rimmed cocktail glasses
and garnish with a twist.
To sugar the rims:
Pour a good amount of sugar into a plate. Moisten the rim
with lemon wedge. Dip into sugar.
To make twists:
After squeezing out the juice from the lemons (large ones
make longer twists), use a paring knife to gently work the
bitter white pith from the yellow skin, tugging and
discarding the pith as it loosens. When you're left with a
thin shell of mostly skin, slice off the end and make a
vertical cut from former fruit end to former fruit middle to
splay it open. Make careful, long horizontal cuts to form
strips that are about 1/8" wide. |
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Once you’ve decided which
cocktails you’re going to offer to your lucky guests, prepare as much
as you possibly can ahead of time. If you’re making a drink that needs
fresh lemon juice, squeeze a huge pile of lemons and pour the juice in a
bottle. If your drink needs simple syrup (equal parts sugar dissolved in
boiling water), make up a big
vat of that in advance. Cut your lime wedges, make your lemon twists,
toast some croutons for your flaming garnishes. Have everything
ready-to-go and come party time, you can whip up those cocktails and
still have plenty of time to mingle -- and have fun --
with all your guests.
back to part
I of the article
o
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