Lottie Muir - Wild Cocktails from the Midnight Apothecary : Over 100 recipes using home-grown and foraged fruits, herbs, and edible flowers

wild
COCKTAILS

wild
COCKTAILS

FROM THE MIDNIGHT APOTHECARY

OVER 100 RECIPES USING
HOME-GROWN AND FORAGED FRUITS,
HERBS, AND EDIBLE FLOWERS

LOTTIE MUIR

FOR MY MOTHER, ANN MUIR, WHO I HOPE WOULD HAVE LOVED MIDNIGHT APOTHECARY.

Published in 2015 by CICO Books

An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

2021 Jockeys Fields 341 E 116th St

London WC1R 4BW New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text Lottie Muir 2015

Design and photography CICO Books 2015

(Photography on pages Kim Lightbody)

The authors moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

eISBN: 978-1-78249-628-1
ISBN: 978-1-78249-200-9

Printed in China

Editor: Helen Ridge

Designer: Geoff Borin

Photography: Kim Lightbody, plus see : Stephen Dew

Editor: Carmel Edmonds

In-house designer: Fahema Khanam

Art director: Sally Powell

Production manager: Gordana Simakovic

Publishing manager: Penny Craig

Publisher: Cindy Richards

Foraging wild ingredients requires expert knowledge and identification. The photographs and text in this book should not be used alone for identification purposes. The author and publisher cannot be held responsible for, nor shall be liable for, the erroneous consumption of wild plants that have caused severe or allergic reactions resulting from misidentification, nor the overconsumption of wild plants that have been shown to be toxic when consumed in large doses.

CONTENTS

Wild conjures images of something uncultivated, uninhibited, and without boundaries. It appeals to me as I hope it does to you. So does the sense of extravagance and enthusiasm. In proportion, wildness creates a feeling of happiness and wellbeing. Overdose on it, though, and it can leave you and those around you feeling nauseous and out of sorts. The analogy applies perfectly to cocktails, wild or otherwise.

The concept of wild cocktails is about extending your cocktail cabinet outdoors, using garden and foraged botanical ingredients to infuse and garnish your cocktails. Whether you have a windowsill, a small outdoor patch, a huge garden, or a desire to forage for free, local wild ingredients, this book will hopefully inspire you to make your own delectable cocktail creations. And if you just want to make some great cocktails using ingredients from your local farmers market or store, this book is packed with recipes.

For a long time, the cocktail scene was the opposite of wild. OK, it was wild in the sense of extravagant and debauched, but for decades, there was very little of note in terms of new ingredients or presentation. The explosion of creativity over the last decade has created a new Golden Age, which is making the cocktail hour rather longer and more exciting. The return to home-grown, local, and organic ingredients is part of its success. Pioneers from the world of gastronomy, mixology, and, in particular, the slow food movement, have learnt techniques and processes from each other. New rituals and traditions are emerging to create incredible cocktails. And the irony is that it is the use of fresh ingredients and techniques from many generations ago that are reinvigorating the cocktail houralongside some pretty clever new techniques and processes.

If you factor in the desire to be thrifty as well as decadent, the theme of balance returns. Beauty and thrift, art and science, wholesomeness and revelryall of them are being used to complement each other. The same is true with the cocktails themselves. Get the strong, weak, bitter, sweet, and sour elements right, and youre pretty much where you need to be.

Those readers needing to justify the indulgence and expense of a cocktail can turn to history for comfort. Alcohol has been used for over 1,000 years as the most efficient medium for delivering the healing properties of plants into our bloodstream. Records show that distillation has been practiced for medical purposes since the 12th century. By the mid-16th century, apothecaries were the community pharmacists of their day, renowned for their ability to prescribe restorative and healing remedies to their patients. More of usand many in the pharmaceutical industryare returning to plants for the answer to our health needs. So you will find in this book some very old recipes for which I can take no credit. They served our ancestors well and have been handed down through the generations.

Ive come to cocktails via gardening and foraging. I am the daughter of an avid gardener who turned our inner London Cricklewood vicarage garden in the 1970s into a beautifully designed, almost self-sufficient plot, complete with an orchard and chickens. I was lucky enough to be given my own little patch of ground in it and was encouraged to forage for wild food under her guidance. From that magical beginning, I had a deep appreciation of urban farming, the wonder of wild food foraging, and the importance of good design. It was only a matter of time before I turned my attention to drink!

My understanding of cocktails comes from a certain knowledge of plants and a desire to show them off to greatest effect. I have a love of experimenting with alcohol and a desire to enjoy drinking it in as natural a setting as possible.

But the idea of wild cocktails is only partly about using foraged ingredients to infuse and garnish your drinks. Hopefully, it also conveys the sense of wildness about the setting in which we, at Midnight Apothecary, serve our cocktails. Instead of a formal cocktail lounge, we sit around a firepit surrounded by a selection of wild and cultivated plants that are used to infuse and garnish the cocktails. It is as informal and natural as we can make it. The urge to get close to nature is a common cry in any city. The more complicated and sophisticated life becomes, the more we crave simplicity and authenticity. Its a primitive impulse to put our hands in the soil or sit in a circle around a fire. Its simple, ancient, and just feels right. That is all we are doing. And its the essence of something that is happening all over cities.