Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
~ Terry Pratchett

We’re fighting fire with fire with this Bloody Mary, combining a homemade gunpowder spice mix with a rather potent hot sauce.

We made a batch of this dangerously spicy potion using nine day fermented chillies last Summer and it has been menacingly maturing all this time at the back of the pantry.

The result is a cocktail with vim, vigour and tangy fruitiness along with a dry heat which builds to inferno levels by the time you reach the bottom of the glass.

INGREDIENTS:

60 ml Broken Clock Vodka
15 ml Lime Juice
2 heaped tsp Gunpowder Spice Mix
1 heaped tsp Fermented Hot Sauce*
2 drops Naga Chilli Bitters
120 ml Pressed Tomato Juice
4 dashes Worcestershire Sauce

Garnish:

Scotch Bonnet Chilli Pepper
Maldon Smoked Sea Salt Rim

Method:

Rim your glass by dipping the lip into lime juice and then into the smoked sea salt.

Combine the ingredients in a Boston Tin by thoroughly stirring with a bar spoon. Now add a few cubes of ice, add the lid to the tin and roll the mixture to chill it down.

Now roughly strain the cocktail mix into your glass and add a few large ice cubes.

Add the garnish to the rim but if you’re serving the Bloody Mary for brunch guests or bedfellows we suggest against them nibbling it as a snack.

Gunpowder Spice Mix:

200 g Urad Dal
100 g Idli Rice
2 tbsp Chana Dal
2 tsp Asafoetida
2 tsp Black Peppercorns
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
15 Dried Curry Leaves
7 Dried Kashmiri Chillies
1 Cinnamon Stick
Seeds from 3 Cardamom Pods
1/2 tsp Salt

Method:

Toast the dal and rice in a frying pan or skillet for 3 minutes. Add the chillies for 30 second then pour out onto a baking tray to cool.

Combine with the other ingredients and turn to a coarse powder by bashing in a pestle and mortar or blasting in a spice or coffee grinder.

*To make the hot sauce peruse our recipe from July.