Damien mixes: Pine Nuts in Drinks
© Damien Guichard
With the new Community Drink, Damien Guichard proves that pine nuts can do much more than just pesto.
Pine nuts, known for their rich buttery flavour and delicate texture have been a staple in Mediterranean cuisine for centuries. But today we are not going to talk about pesto but rather how to make a tasty little drinkie poo using them.
Whether toasted or infused, pine nuts are absolutely delicious in drinks but this month I decided to go really lavish and make a traditional nut syrup also known as orgeat.
So, let’s roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty:
1. First of all, weigh your pine nuts and mix them with an equal amount of water. In my case 500g.
2. Process them in a blender with no heat and strain through a cheese cloth.
3. After squeezing the cheese cloth and get as much as can out of your blend - which I recommend given the price of pine nuts - gather your milk.
4. Gather the “pine nut milk” and add 1/5 of water ratio. The reason I add the water in this step and don’t factor it in at the beginning is because the yield always varies a little bit.
5. Add equal part sugar to nut milk: split the sugar with 1/3 Demerara sugar and 2/3 regular white sugar to nut milk content.
6. Heat up at low temperature in a pot or blender and stir until all sugar has been diluted.
7. Strain.
One major con of this cocktail is obviously its cost: my final syrup yield is 700ml for a cost of roughly 20€.
Now it's time to mix our cocktail
I settled for something a little different - while I usually enjoy making crisp and clear drinks, today I will be mixing something a little more traditional in the direction of a low ABV Tiki inspired cobbler: weird mix, isn’t it?
Ingredients “Nut Job”
- 35ml Sherry Amontillado
- 20ml Plantation Barbados 5y
- 20ml Pine Nut Orgeat
- 20ml Lime Juice
- 5ml Simple Syrup
- 5ml Amaro Montenegro
- 5 drops Black Walnut Bitters
Garnish it with an orange wheel and enjoy!
© Damien Guichard
