Ginger Mojitos for a Crowd

These days the cooking posts seem to be few and far between on this old blog... as I said before, our situation in Bangkok (awesome and cheap food abounds... plus our kitchen is a bit small and stuffy) is not conducive to lots of cooking.  But refreshing cocktails? Yes, please.  Happy Friday!

We had some folks over last night as part of a mini progressive cocktail party in our apartment building. We were stop #2 for the roaming party, so I needed a make-ahead cocktail for a crowd so I wouldn't have people tapping their feet while we mixed individual drinks.  After some Googling (good resources on big batch cocktails here and here) I landed on this ginger mojito recipe because it sounded tasty and easy, but also because I knew I could find all of the ingredients here in Bangkok.

Tasty and easy it is!  You basically make a ginger mint simple syrup and then mix it with lime juice and rum and top it off with soda water.  For the party I put the simple syrup/rum/lime juice mixture in my punch bowl (love any opportunity to use the punch bowl!) and instructed people to pour a ladleful of mix into their glass, then add as much or as little soda water as they wanted and garnish with a sprig of mint and a lime slice.

Everybody seemed to like the mojitos! The flavor is a little bit more subtle than a traditional mojito, probably because the muddled mint leaves are not hanging around in the bottom of your glass.  And the drink is not overly ginger-y, but has just a nice hint of ginger.  Really refreshing and perfect for a small party!

Ginger Lime Fizz

Erin (you may remember her as Mr. Ben's lovely wife) was in town for work last week, so I had her over for dinner.  I whipped up a couple old favorites, Moroccan spiced chickpea soup and salty sesame chocolate chip cookies.  I wanted to make a fun drink, but since Erin is pregnant, it had to be an alcohol-free mocktail.

A riff on my favorite, the gin rickey, this ginger lime fizz drink replaces the herby gin with a spicy and sweet ginger simple syrup and pairs it with lime juice.  It's pretty awesome...  a little bit like ginger beer with a hint of lime.  The way I mixed it was by the glass rather than in a large pitcher... I found the ratio of 3 tablespoons ginger simple syrup to 2 tablespoons lime juice to 3/4 cup soda water to glass full of ice tasted just right.

This drink would be perfectly refreshing for a summertime baby shower, next to some apple green tea mint punch.  Bonus: cooking the ginger simple syrup infuses the air in your house with an amazing ginger scented air freshener.

Mango Cocktail

Tim was musing the other day that we should make a pineapple and vodka cocktail of some sort since the pineapple is so sweet and easy to get here (you can pick one out and have them peel it for you at the store...so easy).  My mouth started watering at the thought, but we didn't have a pineapple at that exact moment.  We did have a ripe mango, though, not yet earmarked for another purpose, so I looked up some mango cocktail recipes and immediately had at it, with delicious (albeit not very photogenic) results:

I ended up using this recipe from The Kitchn... mango puree, lemon juice, vodka, a little simple syrup and soda water.  So good.  Not too sweet, not too thick, extremely refreshing.  An exciting break from our usual, the gin rickey.

For a party I think you could make a big pitcher of the mango/lemon/vodka mix and then have people pour it in the glass and top off with soda water.  Also, I think a flavored simple syrup would do well here- ginger, lemongrass or vanilla, or maybe chili for some spice.  I guess you could do flavored vodka, too, if you wanted. 

Pineapple vodka cocktail recipe coming soon...

Apple Mint Green Tea Punch

I love a chance to use my three-in-one cake stand/chip-n-dip/punch bowl in its punch bowl form. Punch is good.
We hosted Barbara's baby shower today, and in anticipation I set out on a search for a refreshing and fun non-alcoholic punch to put in my punch bowl. I was hoping for a recipe that didn't involve corn-syrup laden soda or sherbet, as those things didn't appeal to me and didn't seem right for a baby shower. This one from Giada De Laurentis caught my eye, calling for apple juice, a mint simple syrup and green tea.

I am glad I went with it- it was a hit! I skipped the sparkling water, figuring it would go flat quickly in the punch bowl, instead encouraging those able to imbibe in spirits to top off their individual glasses with prosecco for bubbles. So good- a unique combination of flavors that really worked well together.

Apple Cider, Ginger and Cranberry Punch

Since Martha loves ginger and cranberries, I thought she might be interested in this punch recipe that mixes both with apple cider. I emailed it to her a couple weeks ago, and when I arrived in MA, she'd bought all of the ingredients and we gave it a try. Pretty good! Not something you could drink all night, but a nice way to get the party started.

Christmas Punch with Lemon/Lime Ice Wreath!

We had a cookie decorating party/ugly holiday sweater party to kick off December, and I decided that would be a good opportunity to bust out some punch and this fancy ice-ring. The Other Martha provided the recipe for Christmas punch, a tasty blend of pomegranate, cranberry, vodka and citrus. Bon Appetit gave me the idea for the wreath-like lemon and lime ice ring, made in a bundt pan. The real Martha provided the cool 3-in-1 punch bowl/dip tray/cake dome.

Rhubarb Syrup for Cocktails and Other Tasty Beverages

I had a couple extra stalks of rhubarbs left over from my coffee cake... not enough to make anything particularly substantial, but just enough to try out this rhubarb simple syrup.
The syrup is super easy, can be used for both boozy (rhubarb cosmopolitans, see below, but be warned that the lemon/lime in this recipe overwhelms the rhubarb flavor a bit) and non-boozy (rhubarb soda) drinks, and is a fun pink color.
Also, the leftover rhubarb bits form a kind of jelly/jam substance that's pretty tasty in and of itself. It's definitely not a pretty or fun pink color, though... it's more of a sad army green once the pink has been sucked out and applied to the simple syrup.