New Year's Cure: Bloody Mary

 

Ingredients: organic tomato juice, celery stalks + leaves, shallot, Worcestershire sauce, vodka, kosher salt, black pepper

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There are so many variations and types of Bloody Marys so I thought I'd throw together a recipe that combines all the Bloody Marys I've tried and really liked. The key to a really great version is to puree one celery stalk, some celery leaves, and 1/2 of a shallot in a food processor first (if you're a horseradish fan, you can throw some fresh cuts of it at this stage). Starting with a pureed paste really kicks up the flavor of regular old tomato juice and adds a thicker consistency to the drink so it's not too watered down when you add the ice. Using V8 or a bloody mary mix should be illegal (so much salt!!!).

Combine the juice, the puree, and the vodka in a pitcher and add a few dashes of the Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper to taste. If you're a Tabasco fan, you can add some at this point, too (I omitted it from mine because of the threat of heartburn - the thought of drinking Tabasco is too intense for me).

I also added the juice of half a lemon and rubbed the spent lemon around the rim of the glass, dipping it in kosher salt. Add ice to the glasses to serve (leaving out the ice from the pitcher, or else it'll water it down). The garnishes are of course the fun part - I like to keep it simple by just adding a celery frond, but there is this great bar in the Mission in San Francisco that piles on the pickled green beans, caper berries, olives, lemon wedges, and fresh celery.

Happy 2012!