Fried Dace Martini
There’s a Chinese phrase - 邪惡 - that means something totally evil, and even downright nefarious. In Cantonese slang though, the same phrase means something that’s offensively good. A very, very guilty pleasure if you like. That’s where I’d put dirty martinis.
Dirty martinis feel like the Marmite of the cocktail world - you either love them, or you hate them. If you hate them (and all olive brine-y things), please skip along and don’t make this cocktail. Even if it actually is mindblowingly, almost offensively, good - which I think it is. Tinned fried dace with salted black beans is one of the most nostalgic Cantonese dishes - they go with rice, veg and all kinds of things, but put them in a cocktail and it’s.. possibly 邪惡 in the best way. Bet?
Ingredients:
1 tin of canned fried dace with black beans
200ml gin or vodka*
20ml vermouth
30ml water
4g salt
First, wash the gin with dace oil. Combine the the oils from the tin of dace, 1 dace fillet with the vodka, and shake vigorously. Let this sit in the fridge for a day or two, before removing the dace fillet. Separate the oil from the vodka by freezing the gin just until the oil has solidified, and remove with a spoon. Once the gin has defrosted, strain it with a coffee filter to catch any stray oil droplets, and then strain again using a fine metal sieve - you’ll get a clear, yellow liquid.
Remove all the black beans from the can (reserving a few for garnishing) - you should get roughly 26g of beans. Blend the beans with the water and salt, until a fine puree forms. Refrigerate this and let this sit for a day or two, then sieve with coffee filters to obtain black bean juice. You may need to change coffee filters mid-way as this will be a thick sauce.
To assemble, add 40ml of the dace-washed gin, vermouth and 10-20ml of black bean juice to a shaker with ice, and shake vigorously for 15-20 seconds (or until well chilled). Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a piece of dace and black beans.
*Note: For a stronger dace flavour, use vodka. If you’re playing it safe, use gin - this will get you a more rounded, savoury cocktail.