Food Hero

Posted by: Katy K

I like cocktails. I like drinking them and I like making them. They’re fun and they always make 5 o’clock seem festive. I like to make a cocktail or pour a glass of wine when I’m about to start cooking.

Being Canadian, I prefer a cocktail called the Bloody Caesar to the more usual Bloody Mary. According to the cookbook, A Matter of Taste, by Lucy Waverman and James Chatto (one of the many cookbooks I have received as gifts from my best friend), the Bloody Caesar cocktail was invented by a bartender in Calgary in 1969. A Bloody Caesar is made with Clamato instead of tomato juice. I like it because it isn’t as thick as a Bloody Mary so it is much more refreshing to drink. Yum!

Shopping List
Ketel One Vodka
Limes
Clamato juice
Worchestershire Sauce
Tabasco

I put ice cubes in a glass, squeeze a lime quarter over the ice, drop it in, and pour 1.5 ounces vodka over the ice and lime. Then I add approximately 2.75 ounces (half a 5.5 ounce can of Clamato), 1/2 or more Tblsp Worchestershire Sauce, and 5 drops to 3 good shakes of Tabasco. I stir it a little and garnish with a float of freshly ground black pepper.

An old housemate of mine from Norway said “It tastes like gazpacho with vodka in it”. It’s a bit of a cheat because the Clamato already has sweetener and spices in it, so you don’t have to work hard to spice the Caesar

Back home we used to serve them with a celery salt rim, a stalk of celery, and a slice of lime. If a customer ordered one we were supposed to get their food order quickly because they were obviously hungry. I was at my friend’s house for the Solstice Parade in Fremont and she was serving Bloody Marys with the rims “salted” with Old Bay spices. I tried that with a few Caesars and it was yummy. I just need to buy some for my own kitchen.

A few weeks ago I was at the Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor WA and one of my dining companions, who was from Brooklyn NY, tried to order a Caesar for breakfast but was unable to do so. I guess the Caesar has crossed the border on the Eastern Seaboard and it may be just a matter of time before I can order one in Seattle.