Recipe - Gilda Martini (for one, obvs)
A dirty martini served with a classic Spanish pintxo...
A toast! To the end of the year!
Finally, December has arrived. And with it, so too has the prospect of excess — eating, drinking and just generally overdoing it, all in the name of Christmas. For this reason, I’ve had boozing on the brain and have been plotting how to ‘do’ the festive season in a less indulgent way, in a quieter way, one that honours my slightly-shorter-than-usual social battery after a long 12 months.
Perhaps I’ll just stay home more this winter and enjoy a tipple indoors — after all, I can’t deny the fact that I have become both accustomed to and enjoy a drink by myself.
I think admitting that you like a little drink alone these days, is deeply uncool. Drinking alone is arguably even more stigmatised than eating alone (understandably so, as we discover more and more downsides to drinking). Plus, forgoing Christmas cheer makes me sound like a bit of a Scroodge.
But, whilst recording Episode 18 of the podcast (out next week), with serious bar-goer, Mrinal Mohanka and pub manager, Jake Sears, I wondered whether I might be able to have a conversation about drinking by yourself which didn’t just focus on problematic, antisocial behaviours. Can we booze by ourselves in a fun AND mindful way? Is it ok that, for many, a pint on the way home from work is just a normal, neutral part of their day? Mrinal, Jake and I cover the daily rituals of drinking alone and the joy of discovering how to do it well and in a way that you enjoy.
To me, drinking by myself is a thing to be done not too often but certainly with intention. For this reason, to sit alongside this episode, I'd like to offer a recipe for a dirty martini which I think of as, not a drink at all, but a snack. It is the cocktail equivalent of fixing yourself a sandwich.
Martinis get a mention from both Jake and Mrinal in this episode, in both cases the dry kind, not the dirty kind — but of course they do! They are the perfect drink for sipping by yourself in a dimly lit bar. Possibly you’ve been stood up and you’re feeling salty about it. Possibly you’re hoping that someone delicious notices you drinking alone and offers to keep you company. Either way, it’s such a classic choice for the lone drinker. You can’t chug a martini. You have to sip it slowly. Slow drinking, just like slow eating, is far better for you, whether you are alone or not. I’m also a big believer in lining your stomach when drinking, so I thought I would pair this martini with the most quintessential Spanish pintxo, a gilda. Gildas are an assembly job of a guindilla (spicy pickled pepper), an olive and an anchiove and the pickliness of a gilda works really well with the brine in the martini. I hope you enjoy it!
Here you go:
Time: 15 minutes
Makes: 1 cocktail and 1 gilda
Plant based options: Lose the anchovy, add something else pickled. What about a pickled mushroom?
Faff Level: Nothing is that complicated, but it does feel particularly extra to make yourself a cocktail. 2/5
Ingredients:
For the cocktail:
60 ml good Gin (I’d honestly steer clear from a brand like Gordon’s, which is a bit bitter for this recipe)
15 ml dry, white vermouth
15 ml olive oil brine (Be extra and use Perello, for the extra dose of MSG)
A handful of ice
For the gilda:
A skewer
1 anchovy
Half a guindilla (if you can’t find guindillas, use any other type of pickled chilli or spicy pickle)
1 green olive, pitted
Directions:
Put your glass of choice in the freezer for 10 minutes.
While you are waiting for the glass, wrap the anchovy around the olive and skewer.
Arrange half your guindilla (or pickle of choice) next to the wrapped olive.
Add ice, vermouth, brine and gin to a cocktail shaker, or if you don’t have one, to a jam jar.
Stir for 45 seconds.
Take glass oust of the freezer - it should cloud over on meeting room temperature.
Using either a cocktail strainer or sieve so that you don’t get the ice in the cocktail, pour into the glass
Arrange the skewer on top of the glass. Cheers!