cocktail playlist: P3 lemonade

one lone plum in my fruit bowl.  it is so ripe. i made a huge mess trying to eat its twin the day before.

Plum Syrup

Huge Juicy Plum

Lemon Zest

Sugar

Water

i let the water and fruit  simmer on really low for about 50 min. added the sugar. brought it up to a boil and reduced.  strain. so much flavour.

ohhh look at that plum. jam. bread, butter. nope, keep going.

Plum and Onion “Relish”

Yellow Onion

Huge Juicy Boiled in Sugar for an Hour Plum

Ground Chipolte Pepper

Port

Olive Oil

chop onion. not too coarse, not too fine. touch of olive oil in pan. add some pepper. carmelize over low. i keep partially covered so they do not dry out. deglaze pan with port. chop plum. added a bit of water water so it would meld. quickly boiled back down.  deglaze the pan again with port. yes, you heard it right. its the double-deglaze.  this will be great with some bbq’d pork chops or hmm with soon cheese.

As this went on, the syrup had cooled and a friend stopped by for cocktails.  this is what we did.   were all tasty, but the progression of the experiment led to a new favourite. i am addicted to the third track on this plum-tastic playlist and must make a bigger batch of plum syrup asap.

#1. Cruzan 9 Spiced Rum, Soda Water, Splash of Orange Juice, Plum Syrup. served tall with ice.

tasty. plum goes great with a bit of spice.  but personally, i rarely love a drink with OJ.

#2. Port, Soda Water, Plum Syrup served tall with ice.  – nice. like a light sangria-ish type mix. could drink these like water.

for cocktails like this with a high mix to alcohol ratio I wasn’t using the top port in my bar.  In this case, Warre’s Late Bottled Vintage was the lucky port to get mixed with my plum syrup.

port and soda is really a good jumping off point. cocktail #2 got kicked up a notch. found this recipe for port lemonade on portcocktails.com. the P3 Lemonade was born. a perfect mix of Plum, Port and Puckered-Up.

#3. P3 Lemonade

Port

Soda Water

Lemon Juice

Plum Syrup

pack tacky plastic patio glass full of ice. add few ounces of port. top with juice from half a lemon, soda water and a good ounce or more of plum syrup (depending on how sweet your sweet tooth is.)

this drink was beautiful.  it poured into 4 gorgeous layers from deep red to an ethereal frost.  so inviting on a hot day.  after admiring, they got a vigorous stir and ended up being the best cocktail i have tasted in ages. i poured one for the date the other night.  didn’t say a word that i thought this was the best drink since sliced bread. he loved it.

the plum onion relish had a showing that day as well. we decided to put it on our giant burgers.

cheers!