The best Bloody Mary

The best Bloody Mary

I made this an absolute age ago, and was thinking well you can’t have a cooking site without a drink of some sort I suppose. So this is now officially added. The best Bloody Mary. The amazing thing re this recipe is that you’ll make it, you’ll serve it, and I guarantee everyone will be asking what on earth it is. Don’t tell them. That’s the mystery value of this recipe.

Then watch as they taste it, watch the amazement when they realise it is in fact a Bloody Mary. Now you may be wondering what the hell I am talking about right? Surely a Bloody Mary is bright red so a bit of a give away what the drink consists of. Let’s get on with and and you’ll understand what I mean – here is The best Bloody Mary.

This will make a good punch bowl;

• 2 Kilos of various tomatoes, get vine and Roma as they are more flavourful, and chop in to quarters;
• 2-3 large glugs of good quality vodka (not mandatory, but of course a must for me!);
• 2 garlic cloves crushed;
• A bunch of chopped basil;
• A good pinch of Salt and cracked black Pepper;
• 2 tablespoons of Horseradish (it cannot be creamed Horseradish);
• 1-2 slices of beetroot for colouring once finished (if you so wish); and
• 4-5 young celery stalks including the leaves – best are the inner bright green bits.

Take all ingredients and place in a large bowl (excluding beetroot at this stage) and bash them until softened with a potato masher or rolling pin – anything really. You are basically bashing the juice out. Leave this to stand. Prep your fridge by taking a large bowl and placing it on a low shelf, leaving a shelf free above it. It needs to be a rack shelf, not solid shelf as you need to drip in to a bowl from above.

Take a muslin sheet, and put all the mashed ingredients in to that. Tie the muslin at one end to make a ‘pouch’ and place on the shelf above the bowl. Give it a squeeze to get the juices flowing, and then leave overnight to allow the juices to flow and drip in to the bowl.

Next day give the bag one final squeeze to get the last of the juices out. And this is the now the very surprising part. When you look in the bowl you’ll see crystal clear liquid. Yes tomato juice with no pulp is crystal clear like water. It’s just amazing. To make it really special (and this is completely your choice), take one or two slices of beetroot and place in the bowl and again leave to stand in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. This will turn the liquid to the most beautiful shade of pink.

And that is it, serve in glass with some ice, a twig of basil and some finely chopped young celery leaves and a thin stalk of celery too for stirring. Ta Dah!!! The best Bloody Mary!!!

Delicious and so so surprising. It is a tad laborious to make though, bearing in mind it is just a drink after all – but it’s a head turner… Its delicious, it’s a winner. Have a go friends. The best Bloody Mary – ENJOY!!!

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Brian Kennett

Father of 3. All my kids are mixed, with English-Japanese, and English-Filipino - a recipe in the making there. I have been cooking since a small lad, as guided by my Nan and my Mum - gradually that morphed through exposure to Thai cooking from a lovely lady called Da in Margate. I used to hang out in her restaurant and watch the techniques. So the 1+1= greater than 2 occurred - Mum/Nan/Da - off I went in to the world of Asian cuisine. Moving to Asia in early 2000's clearly has brought that on somewhat - we travel continually, and eat locally and therefore have exposure to more and more new things. I have lived my dream and written a cook book whilst here, an amazing experience and all for a good cause too as I raised a lot of money for charity. My blog is now hopefully turning in to book number 2. Watch this space. I hope you enjoy my passion.