This recipe comes from a new game I’ll be playing on this site, called Random Number Generator (RNG, Results Not Guaranteed, get it?!). As you know from my previous posts, I have a book called the flavor bible that I’ve been using a lot in my recipe creation to figure out what flavors go together. This book lists ingredients in alphabetical order, and has 374 pages. When I play the RNG game, I will use google to randomly pick one of those pages, and I will have to make up a recipe using at least one main ingredient from that page. This week, the page was 366, and the ingredients were Vinegar and Vodka. Being an overachiever, I decided to do both, using the shrub method that I have recently been experimenting with (Vinegar) to make a Vodka-based cocktail.

The details:

Jump to recipe

Thought process:

I decided to riff on a dirty martini, replacing the standard olive juice with a beet shrub, which I figured would compliment the Russian vodka. So this recipe relies heavily on ADAPTING a standard cocktail recipe, using the same RATIOS with different ingredients. I further decided to use a roasted beet peel shrub after watching a TV show about ways to use food scraps. Never fear, those beets will show up in a future recipe on this site.

Below, the recipe:

The Beetnik
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Makes 1 drink

Roasted beet peel shrub:

• 1 pound red beets, trimmed and scrubbed
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp white vinegar
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 star anise
• 1/4 tsp caraway seeds

1. Place the beets on a piece of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil , wrap and roast at 425°F for 1h 15 min or until fork tender
2. Allow the beets to cool completely, then peel and put the peels in a mason jar – should have ~ 1/4 cup. Reserve the beets for another use.
3. To the mason jar, add vinegars, sugar, and salt and puree a bit with an immersion blender
4. Add peppercorns, star anise, and caraway
5. Let sit in fridge for 24 hours then strain out spices before using in a cocktail

The drink:

• 2 oz vodka
• 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 1 tsp beet shrub
• lemon twist

1. Combine vodka, vermouth, and shrub in a mixing glass and stir with ice
2. Strain into a chilled martini glass and rub lemon twist around the rim

Rating:

1/5 stars.
I may not be able to accurately judge the quality of this recipe, but the truth is that it pretty much made me gag. I do not like vodka, and it certainly was not disguised in this recipe (it is a martini after all). If you already know you like dirty martinis, you might still try it?