Synaesthesia: The Dragon Stumbles

I'm not going to say that my submission this week was "coherent." But if you say that it wasn't tasty, well, you're asking for a jigger in the eye. Anyway, here were the stray thoughts that I tried to pull together.

1. Maraschino Cherries. Of course, I wasn't able to buy decent Maraschino cherries, and in fact wasn't able to buy any Maraschino liqueur period. I was able to buy cherries, and other cherry-related paraphernalia (yes, it really has that "r"). I started from this recipe, and improvised a bit. Recipe below.
2. Egg cocktails. I was going to go with this for purely thematic reasons, then ran into this delightful treatise on egg cocktails.
3. I was in Chicago the week before, and made a trip to Binny's. So I had new toys. Of course, I lacked the foresight to get Maraschino liqueur.

Let's start with the cherries, since they turned out really nicely.

Maraschin-faux Cherries

Put these in a pan, boil, reduce heat

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1.5 oz lemon juice
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 nutmeg (seed? knuckle?), grated (my addition)

Then add 2lbs of cherries (pitted), and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, then immediately add

• 1 oz Orgeat
• 1/2 oz Vanilla extract (my addition)
• 6 oz Walnut infusion (substitute for Maraschino)
• 1 oz Kirschwasser (also subbing for Maraschino)

Oh, did I not mention the walnut infusion? Crush walnuts, steep in vodka for several days, the result is nutty. Isn't Maraschino liqueur supposed to be nutty? There you go. Anyway, once everything cools, put it in a jar and leave it for a couple days.

Is it a couple of days later? Then you're ready to make a...

Bun in the Oven (Original)

• 1/2 egg white
• Juice from two slices of lemon (helps the egg foam)
• 1 oz Rittenhouse 100 proof Rye (new toy!)
• 1 dash blood orange bitters (new toy!)

It's an egg cocktail, so it's time to shake. A lot. If that 1/2 egg white sounds awkward... make two. But you're not done! Add...

• 4 dashes Angostura bitters
• 1/2 oz Becherovka (still delicious!)
• 1/4 oz Creme de Violette (new toy!)
• 3 tsp Stuff from the cherry jar
• 1 Marashin-faux Cherry

Then give 'er a stir. Why the two-step run around? Well, when I mixed everything together before shaking, it seemed like all of the delicate flavors got lost. I assume there's some magic involving the proteins in the eggs that binds and dulls. Or something. Stirring them in seemed to have tastier results, while maintaining the foamy texture.

Admittedly, there are more ingredients here than the resulting flavor profile would suggest. If your cocktail sense tells you which ingredient could be removed, feel free to let me know!

Anyway, it's an egg cocktail! And basically flesh-tone! With a surprise at the bottom! Thus the name. And it's appropriate because, yes, there's a Little Dragon on the way.