Indian Summer
From the Aviary Cocktail book from the Alinea Group
Roasted Red Pepper Vertical Ice
2 red bell peppers
530g water
154g Ancho Reyes Ancho Chili Liqueur
65g sugar
18g ascorbic acid (we’ve made this several times now omitting the ascorbic acid, and it doesn’t seem to change anything too drastically)
17g Fresno chilis, seeds and stems removed
Preheat oven to 450. Halve peppers lengthwise and remove seeds and ribs. Place halves, skin side up, on a sheet pan. Roast 15-20 minutes or until skins are blistered and charred. Place pepper halves in a bowl, cover tightly in plastic wrap, and let steam for 5 minutes to loosen skin. Unwrap and peel away skins. In blender, combine 200g roasted red peppers with remaining ingredients. Blend on high speed for 3 minutes, or until completely smooth. Strain through fine mesh strainer.
Fold a kitchen towel in half and place it only a sheet pan slightly offset from the center. Make a stack of two more kitchen towels and roll lengthwise into a cylinder. Place cylinder onto sheet pan along length of other towel. Line 6 volcano glasses (or something akin – we’ve used wine glasses successfully before) sideways onto prepared tray, resting rim of glasses on the rolled towels. Fill each glass with 100g ice stock. Transfer to freezer and freeze overnight. Reserve in freezer until ready to serve.
To Assemble and Serve
1 ¼ oz Reposado Tequila
¾ oz Dolin Vermouth de Chambéry Dry
¾ oz Orange bitters
1/8 oz Mango Vinegar
¾ oz Mango syrup
¾ oz lime juice
¾ oz egg white
Combine all ingredients in cocktail shaker. Dry shake until frothy. Add ice and shake again vigorously until chilled. Strain into prepared volcano glass.
