Thanksgiving Vanilla Martini. Art of the Drink 49#

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Anthony: Welcome to the Art of the Drink my name is Anthony Caporale and we are working again with Carolyn.

Carolyn: Hi everyone.

Anthony: And we are here at the green room at the John W. Engeman theatre in North Port New York.

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One of our bartenders is a classically trained pastry chef, studied in France and she brought over some fresh vanilla beans and that is what this got this whole thing started when we went to town. I am going to go ahead and make you the green room vanilla martini.

First thing, set our glassware as always and in our tin a big scoop of ice and we are going to do one ounce of vanilla vodka and this next ingredient is liquor and it is called liquor forty-three in English. Cuarenta y Tres or some such as pronunciation but better than that is the true name of the liqueur. The predominant flavor is vanilla but the reason it is called liquor forty-three is there is actually forty-three herbs and spices in this and it is the number one selling liquor in Spain. The other reason that I am doing this drink is this is the favorite liquor of my cameraman and editor Dave who is sitting over there. Dave how old are you the first time you had this?

Dave: No comment.

Anthony: In Spain right?

Dave: Yes.

Anthony: So this is his favorite liqueur so this one is to Dave. I am going ahead and put a half ounce of liquor forty-three in there and now the ingredient that got us started is the fresh vanilla beans and if you have not seen a vanilla bean before. Most of us have but this is actually a dried seedpod from the vanilla plant, which is a member of the orchid family and it is full of seeds and if you split it in half you can actually that there is all little seeds in there. So what you want to do is go ahead and just slice it in half, which we have already done and then take the back of your knife and scrape those seeds off and you are going to get little black flakes all. Over the back of your knife and you are also going to get some resin and all kinds of good flavor and this is where the vanilla flavor lives. It is in this part of the vanilla bean so I will just scrape that down really good and then when I have that we are just going to put this in my drink. That is were all the fresh vanilla flavor is going to come from. Now before I go ahead and set the seedpod aside I am going to turn it over so that the outside of is facing up and I am going to split it and make a nice thin strip all the way down. I am going to set that aside as well. Now I am going to shake this drink, one more ingredient is going in here and it is half-and-half. Viewers know that when I use half-and-half in a drink I always add after I shake the drink because if you add it before you shake the drink it foams up and I like this drinks to be nice and dense. So I am going to shake it now until it frosts. Good and about an ounce and a half of half-and-half goes in here. Now again if you want to lighten it up a little you can use milk you can use 2% 1% use half-and-half trust me. Little swirl to mix it and chill it down a bit and then this whole thing gets strained into my martini glass. What you are looking for is you can actually see the specks of vanilla floating in that glass and it looks like, I do not know if any of the viewers remember but Briars Ice Cream used to have specks of vanilla bean all through. And that is what it made it Briars Ice Cream and that is what I want this drink to end up looking like. So you got flakes of vanilla all in there and now we go, back to my split piece of vanilla bean that I made and I go ahead and put that in as a garnish and there you have the Engeman vanilla martini from Green Room Lounge. Do you want to try?

Carolyn: Absolutely.

Anthony: All right. Each week our art of the drink video podcast price package will consist of a Makers Mark apron, a copy of my Art of the Drink volume one bar essential DVD and a limited edition version of That Special Touch a Makers Mark cookbook not available in stores.

Anthony: Okay, first thing.

Carolyn: Set the glass.

Anthony: You got it,