Our afternoon in Pike Place Market was easily a highlight of our day in Seattle. We wandered through, admiring flowers, produce, and bug eyed fresh fish. (A joy for the girl who’s afraid of fish…) One stand that really appealed to me enticed us with fresh peach slices to sample, and alongside those, figs! Now, living in Saskatchewan, I can’t say I’ve seen many figs. They seem to be quite season specific, and a bit of a treat. We decided to seize this opportunity, and pick up both green and purple figs. Leaving the market that day, I didn’t have a specific plan for the figs. I was much more enamored with my massive $5 bouquet of flowers to be honest. However, on a long drive home, I began to think about all the fun things we could use them for. I came across so many tarts and desserts, but why eat dessert when you can drink it?
Bob suggested we do a variation of a classic bourbon sour, a favorite of ours. What a great idea! We were so enamored with our figs, that we deliberated for quite some time over what would be the best way to showcase them.
- 2 ounces bourbon
- ½ ounce honey simple syrup
- 1 ounce lemon juice
- 1 large fig (halved)
- 1 egg white
- 2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
- Ice
- In a cocktail shaker, combine bourbon, honey syrup, lemon juice, fig halves, egg white, and bitters.
- Shake 5-10 seconds to emulsify the egg, and build froth.
- Fill shaker with ice, shaking another 5-10 seconds, until the cocktail is chilled.
- Pour & strain into cocktail glass.
- *to make honey simple syrup, combine equal parts honey and boiling water, stirring until dissolved. Chill before using.
Recipe adapted from SFGirlByBay.
Fig sours did the job perfectly. I really enjoy making cocktails. It’s therapeutic. Or maybe the smooth warmth and bite that bourbon brings is the real therapy. Either way, I love it. Watching the bartenders at my workplace, Ayden Kitchen & Bar, has made me a sell-out for a well balanced drink. In addition to that, I picked up some techniques on how to best handle cocktail components. Muddled fig essentially turns to jam, and you can see remnants of the texture in Bob’s gorgeous photos. My hope was to get a nice consistency and foam from our egg whites. It turned out well, and I double strained the cocktail to ensure we didn’t have floating ice particles, or too much fig pulp.
The result was a beautifully colored, refreshing drink, perfectly filling our vintage glasses. (And later, satisfying our fig fetish.)
Enjoy!
Shan
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