Simple, Thrilling One-Bottle Cocktail Recipes: The Phuket and My My My Tai

I love cocktails but mostly save them for the weekends, when I have time to gather all the spirits and prep ingredients and garnishes. Plus, the weekends are when I have time to recover from drinking the cocktails. As I get older, I don’t drink alcoholic beverages as often, or with as much gusto, as I used to. One bottle of wine lasts a good week.

But this past Wednesday, I had something wonderful to celebrate. Just as I thought that Pho was on a very low simmer (it survived the first round of the Piglet cookbook tournament), the book was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award! I was stunned when the tweets and emails came in. Never did I think my 160-page book on Vietnam’s national food would draw such attention.

Beard Foundation book nominations are hard to come by because there are very few categories and thus few books make the cut. The Pho Cookbook is in the single subject category with two other well-produced works on offal by Chris Cosentino and stocks and broths by Rachael Mamane. It’s a significant nod – a huge deal -- and more importantly, reflects how far Viet food has come in America.

By mid-afternoon, I felt like I deserved a drink or two. I opened Maggie Hoffman’s handsome new work, The One-Bottle Cocktail. Her approach is unfussy because the recipes only require one (1!) type of booze. Though the back of the book offers a listing of bartender-recommended spirits, the recipes do not specify specific booze brands to guarantee and lock-in the drink’s outcome.

That’s not Maggie’s style. She’s confident with how the flavors are brought together. She’s written about drinks but also covered food and cooking. She’s a veteran of SeriousEats.com so she’s methodical and thoughtful.

That’s why she understands how complex flavors may be built with fruit, vegetables, herbs, vinegars and the like. Chapters are organized by spirit – vodka, gin, agave (tequila and mezcal), rum, brandy, and whiskey. Her approach is not overly showy. It’s just damn smart and incredibly liberating.

Take Maggie's simple syrup, for which she says to combine a 1:1 ratio of sugar and hot water in a Mason-type of jar. Screw on a cap real tight and shake. Let it cool, uncovered, and you have simple syrup, a basic ingredient for cocktail making.

I’ve slowly cooked and stirred simple syrup and not quite understood why that was necessary when I was merely just tinkering at home! Within minutes, I was closer to my afternoon goal – nifty drinks!

Two recipes caught my eye – the Phuket and the My My My Tai which employed my idle bottle sof vodka and rum, respectively. Most of the recipes in The One-Bottle Cocktail come from professional bartenders but the Phuket is one that Maggie created.

The Phuket cocktail is named after a resort island in Thailand, and the flavors were inspired by Thai and Vietnamese salads, Maggie writes in the book. I was intrigued by her use of honeydew melon, mint, and cilantro.

After whirling things up in a blender and straining, I had a cheery green melon juice to shake up with lots of herbs and ice. The herbs were bruised in the shaker and released their oils. The result, despite the presence of vodka, was remarkably light and refreshing tasting, like the healthy-ish cocktail that I’ve ordered at fancy New York restaurants! I could taste the various ingredients and ponder how they came together to form the overall flavors. Maggie’s Phuket is brilliant – and I used a so-so honeydew from Central America. Imagine the outcome during summer’s melon season! My husband noted that the drink reminded him of Southeast Asian payapa and cucumber salads. We were transported.

Then I moved on to the My My My Tai, a drink that’s hard to replicate because it often requires orgeat almond syrup and curacao, which many insist are key to fabulous renditions. The recipe in The One Bottle Cocktail by Jason Saura, a Seattle-based bartender, cleverly uses almond milk and marmalade. I had to try it. I didn’t have aged rum to inject elegance. Whaler’s rum is what I’ve used in Mai Tais in the past and it called to me from the liquor cabinet.

No simple syrup was used for the My My My Tai. I juiced fully-ripened Bearss limes from our backyard; those mature limes, with their yellow rind, have a mellow acidity that’s not as aggressive as their un-ripened green kin sold at supermarkets. You’re fine to use the regular green limes because they’re the standard ones.

I just mixed up the ingredients and had my husband do the shaking and straining. In less than a few minutes, we had a delightful My My My Tai. As promised, the almond milk and marmalade worked to evoke the flavors and slightly thick texture of a classic Mai Tai. Son of a gun!

The thing that I really appreciate about Maggie’s cocktails was this: They’re knock-out drinks but they don’t knock you out. I asked her if using just one kind of booze produced that outcome. Maggie’s response via email:

I do think that if you find classic cocktails made with vermouth and liqueurs to be a bit heavy, these drinks will feel lighter. The recipes, in general, use seasonal ingredients and spices or teas, so the 'weight' of wine, liqueur, etc isn't there. Some of the bartenders in the book got really creative, making bitter elements with either citrus pith, tea, or even vegetables like radicchio, but many of the drinks in the book are shaken, rather than stirred, so that tends to mean they're refreshing.

This morning, I woke up without feeling tired or hungover. I don’t think that was because I started drinking cocktails in the late afternoon. It had to do with the recipes in Maggie’s book.

There are 83 drinks and many bonus ideas in the book. The One-Bottle Cocktail is definitely a keeper.

Related recipes:

• Raffles Original Singapore Sling (4 spirits + bitters are required but it’s fabulous for very special occasions)
• Crab Rangoon (because you may want a snack to go with the drinks)

Print

Phuket

Author Maggie Hoffman, from The One-Bottle Cocktail (Ten Speed Press, 2018)

Yield 2 drinks

Ingredients

• 2 cups cubed honeydew
• 3 ounces vodka
• 1 ounce 1:1 simple syrup (above in the post)
• 16 fresh mint leaves
• 6 fresh cilantro sprigs
• Pinch salt

Garnish: 2 cilantro sprigs and 2 mint sprigs (optional)

Instructions

Prepare 2 collins glasses by arranging a cilantro sprig vertically inside each. Combine cubed honeydew, vodka, simple syrup, and lime juice in a blender and blend until uniform. Strain through a chinois or fine-mesh strainer into a cocktail shaker. Add mint leaves, 6 cilantro sprigs, and salt and fill the shaker with ice. Shake until well chilled, about 12 seconds. Add ice to prepared glasses and strain cocktail into them, garnishing with cilantro and mint sprigs if desired.

Notes

Source: The One-Bottle Cocktail, copyright 2018 by Maggie Hoffman. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. 

Print

My My My Tai

Author Maggie Hoffman, from The One-Bottle Cocktail (Ten Speed Press, 2018)

Yield 1 drink

If you don't have rum, try this recipe with bourbon, which is not traditional as Maggie points out, but it's delicious! The original recipe was conceived by bartender Jason Saura.

Ingredients

• 2 ounces aged rum 
• 1 ounce unsweetened almond milk 
• 1 ounce fresh lime juice 
• 2 tablespoons orange marmalade 

GARNISH: mint sprig and lime wedge

Instructions

Combine rum, almond milk, lime juice, and marmalade in a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake until very well chilled, about 15 seconds. Double-strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Garnish with mint and lime wedge.

Notes

Source: The One-Bottle Cocktail, copyright 2018 by Maggie Hoffman. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.