Drink Recipes, from Dad Dooley

Everyone in the family has been challenged to submit the recipe of a signature dish. These are my dad’s entries, though I believe he’s never made the Gin Fizz.

My parents’ house and my own have spearmint in the gardens, so we all drink mojitos eagerly, but rarely with careful measurements.

The next part of the challenge is for other family members to attempt to cook/prepare each other’s dishes, so stay tuned for updates.

If you make the Gin Fizz, please, please, please – send me pictures and a review!

Ramos Gin Fizz – like “drinking a flower”

From Havana: A Subtropical Delirium by Mark Kurlansky:

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

3 drops orange blossom water

juice of half a lime

juice of half a lemon

1.5 oz. dry gin

1 egg white

1.5 oz. milk or cream

squirt of soda

2 drops vanilla extract (optional)

1. Pour into a shaker with ice in the order given
2. Shake “long and steady”
3. Strain into a Collins glass to serve

Update: we made this drink. Combining citrus and milk really should have been a bigger red flag than it was.

Dear Husband described the taste as “cheesecake that had gone bad.”

That said, at least the texture was fun. It was because of the raw egg, but it was a pleasant foamy goodness.

I don’t plan to make this drink again.

Mojito – the proper Cuban drink

From French Quarter Fiction, edited by Joshua Clark:

1/2 tablespoon sugar

juice of half a lime

spearmint leaves

ice

1.5 oz. Havana Club Light Dry (rum)

soda water to fill glass

splash of angostura bitters (optional)

1. Add first three ingredients to a highball glass, and crush leaves to release juices
2. Add two ice cubes and rum
3. Fill to top with soda water and splash of angostura bitters (optional) and stir