Inspiration can be found in the strangest of places, and in this case I found it at the bottom of a large pitcher of Bloody Mary on a rooftop in Melbourne. Looking out at the skyline from our perch at Madame Brussels - self proclaimed “rather fancy terrace and public house”- our group of three had been working on this savory concoction for quite some time. As it was way past my dinner time (this was the first week of a 5-week food-fueled trip through Australia and Asia and consumption was foremost on my mind), I had already eaten the celery, olives, parsley and cucumber slices that had adorned the top of our shared beverage. So it was with revived enthusiasm that I fished out the remaining cucumber slice from the bottom. This one was different from the others – it had soaked up the spicy, tomatoey booze and resulted in a light, crunchy pickle that left me wanting more. As we finally set off to Gills Diner for some real sustenance, the flavor and texture of that cucumber danced in my head - I had to recreate it, to see if this little morsel could be turned into a dish that I could eat by the plateful. So upon our return to New York, my first task was to do just that.
Now, although I’ve had many a Bloody Mary in the past, I was surprised to realize that I’d never actually made one myself. So the recipe that follows is one I adapted from what I found online and sourced from friends (thanks Andy!). I must admit it turned our pretty well. This works well as both a Bloody Mary mix and marinade, though if you plan on having several of these as a bevy, you might want to add a little more tomato juice as it’s pretty intense.
Mix/Marinade/Dressing:
• 4 cups of tomato juice
• Juice of 2.5 lemons
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup freshly grated horseradish (you can use a prepared horseradish as well, but it doesn’t really have that zing of fresh horseradish. When grating, make sure to use the finest grater and to go with the grain – it’s a bit of struggle otherwise)
• 2 teaspoons celery salt
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 2 tablespoons coarsely ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon tobasco or other hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons mirin (Mirin is a Japanese sweet cooking wine - if you don’t have mirin, substitute sugar)
• 1 tablespoons capers
• ½ cup of vodka (in all honestly, I found the vodka doesn’t make a massive difference to the actual salad in terms of flavor, so you can just save it to drink with the leftover mix if you like)
Mix all the ingredients in a pitcher and let it sit in the fridge for at least a few hours to let the ingredients marry. Trust me, it really makes a difference.
The Salad:
• 2 English cucumbers sliced on the diagonal
• 2-3 celery stalks sliced on the diagonal
• ½ a red onion, thinly sliced.
• Bloody Mary mix – strained.
Mix these together in a bowl or ziplock bag and add enough marinade to cover. Let it marinate at least overnight.
To compose the salad:
• 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and sliced into strips
• Handful of celery leaves
• Handful of Italian parsley leaves
• ¼ cup of large green olives, pitted and sliced lengthways
• 1 tablespoon of capers
Toss ingredients together and drizzle with some extra marinade. I served this with a pan seared cod (any white fleshed fish would work really well) which I also drizzled with a bit of the marinade - it was perfectly light and the acid in the salad complimented the fish really well.
So there you go. From a rooftop in Melbourne to a table in Brooklyn - it’s amazing where you can find a little feast for thought. Throughout our trip I encountered many such inspirations, which I will write about in upcoming entries. But for now, we are just happy to be home, back in the kitchen, and kicking back with a Bloody Mary.
See you all soon!
xx Annah
