This Sunday, many will take to their couches to tune in to the 2017 Academy Awards. While you could settle in with a glass of wine, why not take the opportunity to mix up a drink that corresponds to one of this year’s Best Picture nominees? Teyana and André Darlington, authors of “Movie Night Menus: Dinner and Drink Recipes Inspired by Films We Love” and “The New Cocktail Hour: The Essential Guide to Hand-Crafted Drinks,” shared the following recipes to level up your at-home Oscars-watching experience.
Stunningly beautiful and delicate, serve this with cucumber slices topped with herbed goat cheese to impress or to lighten a dark heart. It’s a lovely going-away party cocktail.
The bartender’s choice for converting vodka drinkers to gin, the Aviation appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century (1916) during America’s intense fascination with early aviators Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh. It was rediscovered by cocktail writer Paul Harrington in the late 1990s, and has become wildly famous again throughout the craft cocktail scene. Crème de Violette lends a beautiful sky-blue tinge to this enduring classic that was reimagined with the reappearance of this once popular liqueur on U.S. shores in 2007. We like to serve this with a lemon twist, although some prefer a cherry.
13/4 ounces (52 ml) gin (Plymouth)
1/4 ounce (7 ml) maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)
1 to 2 teaspoons Rothman Crème de Violette, to taste
3/4 ounce (22 ml) fresh lemon juice
1/4 ounce (7 ml) simple syrup (recipe below)
Lemon twist, for garnish
Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe glass. To garnish, twist the peel over the surface of the cocktail to express the oil. Then, rest the peel on the side of the glass.
Simple Syrup
Makes 1 1?2 cups
1 cup (200 g) Demerara sugar
1 cup (240 ml) water
Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Do not boil. Stir until sugar dissolves, about 3 to 5 minutes, then remove the pan from the stove. Cool. Transfer the syrup to a clean bottle or jar. Cover and refrigerate.
Note: If you use plain white granulated sugar, you do not need to heat the mixture on the stove. Simply combine sugar and warm water in a jar, then cover it tightly with a lid, and give it a good shake.
Reprinted with permission from THE NEW COCKTAIL HOUR © 2016 by André Darlington & Tenaya Darlington, Running Press
Supremely elegant, the Clover Club needs no accoutrements, except for maybe a bowtie and a bowler hat. But if you must nosh: tea sandwiches and sugar cookies.
From the Philadelphia men’s club of the same name, this drink appeared in the wood-paneled rooms of the wealthy and powerful before it declined into relative obscurity. Hailing from as early as 1910, the Clover Club has a luxurious mouthfeel and a bracing acidity that makes it an ideal afternoon croquet game accompaniment or poolside sipper. We make this cocktail with dry vermouth, just like the Clover Club bar in New York. Add a spanked mint leaf, and it’s called a Clover Leaf.
11/2 ounces (45 ml) gin (Plymouth)
1/2 ounce (15 ml) dry vermouth (Dolin)
1/2 ounce (15 ml) fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce (15 ml) raspberry syrup (recipe follows)
3/4 ounce (22 ml) egg white
Raspberry, for garnish
Dry shake the ingredients to emulsify the egg. Then, shake with ice and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a skewered raspberry resting on the glass.
Raspberry Syrup
Make a Rich Demerara Syrup with 1?2 cup (120 ml) of water and 1 cup (200 g) of Demerara sugar. Add 11?2 cups (190 g) of fresh raspberries. Stir. Cover the mixture, and let it rest on the counter for 8 to 12 hours, or overnight. Strain the mixture through a sieve using the back of a large wooden spoon to press down on the berries and extract all the juices. Discard the solids. Transfer the syrup to a clean jar and refrigerate for up to a week.
Note: This syrup is best within a few days when the aroma of fresh raspberries is most intense.
Reprinted with permission from THE NEW COCKTAIL HOUR © 2016 by André Darlington & Tenaya Darlington, Running Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group
This drink hails from Harry’s New York bar in Paris around 1915 and gets its name from a French cannon that helped win World War I; returning pilots popularized it stateside. Elegant and zesty, this can be served either straight up in a coupe or on the rocks in a highball glass with a lemon wheel.
1 ounce gin
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup (1:1 sugar and water)
4 ounces Champagne (or Cremant)
Lemon peel, for garnish
Shake the gin, lemon juice, and syrup together on ice. Strain over ice into a chilled highball glass. Top off with Champagne. To garnish, run the lemon peel around the rim of the glass, then drop it into the drink.
Reprinted with permission from TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES: MOVIE NIGHT MENUS: Dinner and Drink Recipes Inspired by Films We Love © 2016 by Tenaya Darlington and André Darlington, Running Press
Created by famed Safirbet bartender Dale Degroff in 1985, as a throwback to the glorious days of yore, this elegant drink pairs beautifully with any special occasion. The drink’s backbone is Cognac, or brandy, making for a bubbly libation with class and a bit of heft.
¾ ounce brandy
½ ounce Cointreau
¼ ounce fresh lemon juice
¼ ounce Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
2 ounces chilled Champagne (or Crémant)
Orange twist, for garnish
Stir the ingredients, except Champagne, with ice and strain into a martini glass. Top with Champagne and garnish with an orange twist on the rim of the glass.
Reprinted with permission from TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES: MOVIE NIGHT MENUS: Dinner and Drink Recipes Inspired by Films We Love © 2016 by Tenaya Darlington and André Darlington, Running Press
Think of this as a brambly Manhattan that pairs well with slightly funky cheese. Tart and woodsy, it’s a perfect blend of American spirit (bourbon) and French taste (currant liqueur, or cassis). If you want to mix things up, offer Champagne Cocktails, which appear early in the film, along with Martinis and sherry. Use a good dry vermouth here, like Noilly Prat.
1½ ounces bourbon
½ ounce crème de cassis
½ ounce dry vermouth
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
Half a lemon slice, for garnish
Combine ingredients in a shaker over ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with half a lemon slice floating on the surface.
Reprinted with permission from MOVIE NIGHT MENUS: Dinner and Drink Recipes Inspired by Films We Love © 2016 by Tenaya Darlington and André Darlington, Running Press
The turning point of the romance between Masterson and Brown happens over — what else? — a few drinks. Brando orders a cocktail called Dulce de Leche, which arrives in a hollowed-out coconut shell. Brown gets drunk, the couple has dinner, dances, brawls with the locals, and falls in love. A good first date! The problem is, there’s no such drink as the Dulce de Leche. The closest thing in 1950s Havana would have been the Doncellita, a concoction of coffee liqueur and evaporated milk. But, there is a kind of Caribbean Coconut Milk Punch, also made with evaporated milk, which employs the “preservative” Bacardi, as Masterson slyly calls it.
2 cups coconut water
1 cup evaporated milk (a 12-ounce can contains 1½ cups)
1 cup light or gold rum
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Combine ingredients in a jar or pitcher. Stir. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Pour into chilled rocks glasses over cubes or crushed ice. Serve with a straw.
Tip: This drink can be made using four fresh coconuts. Hollow out the eyes, drain the coconut water (should be about the necessary 2 cups), and hack open for serving.
Reprinted with permission from MOVIE NIGHT MENUS: Dinner and Drink Recipes Inspired by Films We Love © 2016 by Tenaya Darlington and André Darlington, Running Press
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