The Blue Jalapeno

As "brown" as most of my blog postings look, I love color! When recently asked to mix a drink to bring along to a BYO party some friends threw, I went to my bar and discovered it needed serious help. I had plenty of red and white wine, but the only liquor on the bar was a bottle of 1800 100% Agave Reposado tequila, some blue Curacao, Vermouth, and Angostura Bitters. What to do? When I tweeted asking for suggestions, http://www.achefsdaughter.com suggested that I do something with jalapeno and @achenglovesfood (Ashley Cheng) sugggestedI mimic a drink from Toro Restaurant in Boston. I did my best to mingle the two suggestions. The result is the "Blue Jalapeno."

Serves 4

This is what I needed:



...and


...and

4 Chilled Martini Glasses

The ingredients::

1 Jalapeno Pepper, quartered and seeded
Two Lemons, removed peel for garnish avoiding the pith
One Lime, remove peel for garnish, avoiding the pith
8 oz 100% Agave Reposado Tequila
2 oz Blue Cracao
3 T. Superfine Sugar*
1 t. of Angostura Bitters
Red Sanding Sugar
Coarse Kosher Salt

*A lot of mixologists would use a simple syrup, I opted not to because I wanted to keep as much "kick" in this "tequini" as possible since I knew I would shake it over ice before servicing and it would get slightly diluted then. You certainly can adapt it to use simple syrup and I am sure it would work. To make the superfine sugar I simple put the granulated sugar in a mini food processor to break it down.

Here is what I did:

I juiced the lemons and lime, combined them with all the other ingredients, including the jalapeno pepper and let it macerate overnight to get some kick from the jalapeno and to thoroughly chill the mix.

To chill the martini glasses, rinse them under hot tap water and place them in the freezer for at least 20 minutes.

To serve:

Remove martini glasses from freezer, run a cut lemon or lime around the rim and roll in a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of kosher salt and sanding sugar. Place cocktail mix into a shaker with ice and shake vigorously until the shaker is chilled, strain into glasses and float lemon & lime peel and a slice of jalapeno.