OMG, I’m so sorry! I just realized that I haven’t written anything about cocktails for over two months. I don’t really have a plan dictating what I write about. But I like to think that I cover recipes, restaurants and cocktails with some regularity.
How did cocktails fall off the radar? It’s not like I haven’t been drinking. Believe me, that’s not the problem. But maybe I’ve just been drinking cocktails that don’t really lend themselves to be blogged about. There’s got to be either a good story, a recipe and/or pretty pictures, right?
You see, I’ve been on a Vodka Martini binge lately. Maybe binge isn’t the word I’m looking for. Let’s just call it a phase. Anyway, I’m very particular about my Martinis. I like them a bit dirty, and probably with a little more vermouth than is kosher. Like I said, there is not much to write about.
But the other night, when I went for my jar of olives (and they have to be the skinny jar of green pimento-stuffed Sacla olives) there were none to be had. The horror!
I still wanted a Martini. And I wanted it dirty, so I started improvising. I did in fact have a jar of what counts as the Italian version of cocktail onions (again Sacla). I bought them before my dirty-martini-phase when I was deciding whether or not I liked Gibsons. I don’t. At least not the classic Gin version. But I did like those onions.
Dipping my finger into the brine, I realized that this could actually work.
Since I was making Thai food that night, the jar of hot pepper sauce was already on the counter and the next thing I knew a half teaspoon of that made it in as well.
So, now that the Boring Martini Phase has been broken, hopefully I’ll be blogging more regularly about cocktails in the future. Unless, of course, I’ve now entered the Spicy Onion Martini Binge.
I mean phase. 
Spicy Dirty Onion Martini
2 oz vodka
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
1 tsp brine from jar of cocktail onions
3 cocktail onions
1/2 tsp hot sauce (any hot sauce, but preferably not one made with oil)
Place all the ingredients, except for the onions in a cocktail shaker. Add ice, and stir vigorously for about 30 seconds. Strain into chilled martini glass.
Garnish with three onions on a toothpick.
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My husband and I are long time vodka Martini lovers. We also love the spice of chiles. Although I don’t have any cocktail onions in the house, I do have sriracha sauce, my husband’s favorite. This will be the perfect way to spice up our Friday night Martinis. I am relatively new to your blog and love it.
I change my vodka martini accompaniment according to season: olives when it’s cold; a lemon twist when it’s warm. Once, when I had no olives I used capers. It worked!
It sounds – and looks – delicious. Really. But to beat a long-dead horse, it’s no longer a martini. It’s something else. It’s like calling a quick-fried steak with rum “Steak Diane”. No, it’s no longer Steak Diane. It’s steak Lucy Ricardo.
snarkily yours from NYC,
-Ed Sikov
Oh Ed! I almost added a last line to this post: PS: Yes, I know, Ed, it’s not a real ‘martini.’
🙂
As Lucy Ricardo herself would say….
“Wellllll…..?”
I really don’t know why I’m so – uh – inflexible about this. I write a cocktails column for the GLBT press here in the US called “Cocktail Chatter,” and it has an ongoing storyline plus recipes, and I’m constantly having the “Ed” character go ballistic over the “‘tini” issue. It’s always good for a laugh. At least I think so.
Well, in that case I’m just going to start calling EVERYTHING a martini!
Did you see my post today? For a Radicchio Martini Salad?