Lunch: Garden Variety Recipe | Myrecipes

Recipe by Daniel Shoemaker Move over, simple syrups: Your more sophisticated French cousin, the gastrique, has arrived. This acid and sugar reduction cranks up cocktails' flavors (and keeps for up to a month in the fridge). Here, it complements the heady

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 to 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sugarcane rum, like Mount Gay
8 fresh figs, quartered

Instructions

Make gastrique: Bring sugar and 1/4 cup water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook until syrup starts to brown. Remove from heat. Slowly whisk vinegar into syrup. Add rum and figs; simmer 15 minutes and chill.
Make cocktail: Muddle 8 basil leaves, 2 strawberries, gastrique, and ice in a cocktail shaker, until fruit is in small chunks. Add rum, Cointreau, and bitters and shake. Strain into 2 ice-filled glasses and top with a splash of soda. Garnish each glass with 2 strawberry quarters and a basil leaf.

Add a review for Garden Variety Recipe | Myrecipes