Bloody Mary-Caviar is a take on probably the world’s most well-known classic cocktail, the Bloody Mary. The original drink’s greatness and versatility lie in its simplicity: vodka, spices, and tomato juice. These three ingredients allow for a myriad of substitutions. The original recipe is now being viewed as a base upon which different drinks can be built. I’ve been to a couple of bartending competitions dedicated explicitly to creating variations of Bloody Mary, and the bartenders were coming up with such unusual flavour combinations that they barely resembled the original one. Nevertheless, these new variations tasted delicious and showed how a straightforward drink could inspire creativity and arguments. “Who makes the best Bloody Mary”?
I like the classics, though, so in my take on Bloody Mary, I’m keeping all the ingredients unchanged, and what I will change, though, is the way it looks. The first time you see it, I bet you will be confused, especially if you never came across caviar or pearls. The drink’s appearance is a big part of the flavour profile. Changing the way the cocktail looks results in confusion, pleasant surprise, hopefully, and is a part of the experience we as hosts create for our guests.
The cocktail is served as a Vodka Martini with Tomato caviar, spiced with Worchsestire sauce, Tabasco sauce, salt, Tellicherry pepper, and fresh lime juice.
Bloody mary - Caviar
Ingredients
- 2 oz Vodka
- Splash of water
- Olive
- lemon peel
- Â Caviar
- 10 oz tomato juice
- 6 dashes of Worchestershire sauce
- few dashes of Tabasco
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- 1 oz fresh lemon juice
Instructions
To make the drink, I used the naked Martini method.
Put the vodka in the freezer overnight. Chill the glass well or put it in the freezer and ensure the olive is cold. Add a tiny splash of water into the glass, pour the vodka, add the olive, squeeze the lemon peel on top, and discard it.
Place the caviar onto a small plate with a spoon, grate some lemon zest on top, and spray some celery bitters. The bitters can be substituted by rimming the glass with celery salt.
Caviar:
Mix tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and Sodium Alginate. Use an immersion blender to dissolve the SA. Fine strain and put in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to eliminate any remaining air bubbles.
Dissolve 5 g of calcium chloride into 1L of cold water in another vessel. Use a catheter syringe with a broader tip opening or a squeegee bottle. Drop by drop, squeeze the liquid gently over the bath from about 11/2″ distance.
If you want to make Ravioli, use a small cooking measuring spoon, dip the spoon with the SA mix into the CC bath, flip it over, and wipe the spoon before making a new Ravioli. It takes about 2-3 min for the outer gel membrane to form.
Use a slotted spoon to remove the caviar from the Calcium Chloride bath and rinse it into another vessel filled with cold, clean water—strain and store in the fridge. The liquid inside the spheres starts to jellify slowly in about 20-30 minutes.
Reverse Spherification can be used if making Ravioli, as they will jellify much slower.
