Tipple | Rosemary Rum Spritz

Rosemary and red wine syrup makes this cocktail aromatic and complex rather than sticky and sweet

Makes 1 7.5ml red wine syrup

2 rosemary sprigs, plus one to garnish
45ml three-year-old rum
60ml pink grapefruit juice
Ice cubes
Soda water, to top up

For the red wine syrup:

100ml red wine
100g caster sugar

You will need:

Pan, funnel, cocktail shaker, muddler and strainer

1 To make the red wine syrup, place the wine and sugar in a pan, stir well and heat gently to a simmer (do not boil). Keep stirring until the sugar has fully dissolved then remove from the heat. Leave to cool before using a funnel to pour the mixture into a clean glass bottle (you can store this in the fridge for up to 1 month).

2 Meanwhile, to make the spritz, muddle the rosemary in a cocktail shaker.

3 Add ice, along with the red wine syrup,rum and pink grapefruit juice, then shake vigorously to chill.

4 Strain into a glass with fresh ice and top with soda. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.

Bartender’s note: The structure of red wine is what really adds to the depth of flavour. It goes well with darker spirits, too. Avoid anything too aged and stick to good-value, mellow wines such as rioja joven from Spain, shiraz from Australia or merlot from Chile.

Taken from Home Cocktail Bible by Olly Smith (Quadrille). Photography: Matt Russell. We feature a tipple each month in The Simple Things. Buy our May issue to find more seasonal ways to celebrate late spring.

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More things to do with rosemary…

More from our blog…

Food matching | Rosemary

A list of things to put with rosemary that aren’t lamb

If you have a rosemary bush going wild right now you won’t want to miss our Herbery feature in our May issue, by Lia Leendertz, in which she shares three very different recipes with rosemary and gives advice on which herbs to plant in your garden. 

We were pleased to see lots of ideas we hadn’t thought of for rosemary recipes - it’s too good a herb to wait in the wings to be shown the occasional leg of lamb, after all. So here’s a list of a few more foods that love rosemary. Mix and match them as you wish:

• Almonds

• Anchovy

• Apricot

• Aubergines

• Bacon

• Brussels sprouts

• Butter

• Butternut squash

• Chestnuts

• Chicken

• Chocolate

• Citrus fruits

• Courgettes

• Gin

• Goat’s cheese

• Honey

• Mushrooms

• Oily fish

• Olives

• Onions

• Parmesan

• Parsnips

• Peas

• Potatoes

• Prawns

• Rhubarb

• Strawberries

• Sweet potato

• Watermelon

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More from our May issue…

More from our Herbery features…

Recipe | Olive oil, rosemary & apricot cake

If you’re not keen on an oversweet cake, this one’s for you. The Mediterranean mix of olive oil, rosemary and lemon is sensational

Olive oil, rosemary & apricot cake

5 eggs, separated
165g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp to sprinkle
1⁄4 tsp salt
185ml olive oil
Juice & finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
150g plain flour, sifted
10 apricots, halved & stones removed (or tinned apricot halves, drained)

to serve (optional)
300ml soured cream or crème fraîche
30g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence or vanilla bean paste

1 Preheat oven to 170C/Fan 150C/Gas 3. Grease the ring of a 20–22cm springform tin, then turn the base upside down, so it no longer has a lip. Place a piece of baking paper over it, then clamp the ring around it to secure.
2 In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until just foamy. Add 55g of the caster sugar in two batches, whisking well between each addition, until soft peaks form. Set aside.
3 Combine the egg yolks, remaining (110g) caster sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl, and whisk with an electric mixer on high speed until pale and thick. Gradually drizzle in the olive oil, whisking on high speed until all of it has been used. Add the lemon juice and zest, rosemary and flour, and stir with a whisk until just combined.
4 Whisk in one-third of the egg whites to loosen the mixture, then add the remainder and stir very gently with the whisk until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, and arrange the apricot halves in concentric circles on top, working from the outside in.
5 Sprinkle the extra tbsp of caster sugar evenly over the surface, and bake for about 50 mins, or until an skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6 To make a vanilla cream, if using, combine the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl and whisk by hand or with an electric mixer until floppy peaks form.
7 Once the cake is cooked, rest it in the tin for 5 mins before releasing the ring and sliding the cake onto a wire rack to cool. Leave to rest for about 30 mins before slicing and serving – warm works for this cake – with your choice of dolloping cream!

Recipe from Poh Bakes 100 Greats by Poh Ling Yeow (Murdoch Books).
 

Cake in the House is our monthly recipe feature - get a cake recipe every month in The Simple Things!

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Recipe: Rosemary orangeade

This is a fruity and herbal drink, and beautifully refreshing. Make the syrup ahead of time and store it in the fridge, and then you can make the orangeade up as you need it.

Serves 6–8

500ml water
400g granulated sugar
About 4 good sprigs of rosemary
Fresh orange juice
Sparkling water

1 Put the water, sugar and rosemary into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Once all of the graininess has vanished, bring to the boil and then simmer for a few minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool, leaving the pieces of rosemary in the syrup to infuse. Pour into a jar and refrigerate until needed.

2 To make up the orangeade, combine one part cooled syrup with one part orange juice and one part fizzy water. Pour over ice cubes and garnish with a sprig of rosemary. 

More from the April issue:

More drink ideas:

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