Category: Apricot Brandy

Malice In The Hollow

Hello, cocktail lovers and Agatha Christie readers. While this post might not be our usual “Dining With The Dame” feature for March, fret not! Instead, consider it a literary aperitif, a tasty prelude to the main course.  Today’s recipe is a cocktail called “Malice in The Hollow.” This concoction is a playful riff on Hedda Hopper’s recipe titled “Malice in Hollywood,” which I found in the fantastic book “Recipes for Rebels” by a friend of the blog,  Greg Swenson. Greg, being the good sport he is, I’m sure won’t mind a little tampering with Hedda’s, original recipe!  The Hollow, a 1946 novel by Agatha Christie is our current Dining With The Dame read.  

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Hedda Hopper and Agatha Christie

Hedda Hopper, an American gossip columnist and actress, was born in 1885. This makes her a contemporary of Agatha Christie, who was five years younger. Intrigued by a possible connection between the two, I began to research. Perhaps, I thought, Hedda had starred in a film adaptation of one of Christie’s acclaimed novels. Sadly, this was not the case.  

However, the Wikipedia article for the 1965 version of “Ten Little Indians” (also known as “And Then There Were None”) cites an article by Hedda Hopper. This tantalizing detail sparked my curiosity. Did their paths ever cross beyond this single reference?  Calling all Agatha Christie and Hedda Hopper superfans! If you have any information about a deeper connection between these two ladies, please share it!

Now, let’s shift gears. “Malice in Hollywood” is a fitting description for Hedda Hopper’s career. She wielded her pen with a vitriolic touch, becoming one of the most feared figures in Hollywood. Furthermore, her staunch conservative views fueled her column during the McCarthy era, where she relentlessly denounced those with leftist leanings.

Hedda Hopper

The Malice In Hollywood Cocktail

In Recipes for Rebels, Greg says that Hedda was said to have created the Malice in Hollywood Cocktail in the 1940’s.  The OG recipe is below.  

Hedda Hoppers Malice in Hollywood

 

The Malice In The Hollow Cocktail

I am not fond of Bourbon so I have changed the ratios and added some lemon juice to balance out the sweetness of the Apricot Brandy.  

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Malice In The Hollow

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A bourbon sour, based on Hedda Hopper’s Malice in Hollywood

Ingredients

Scale

2 parts Bourbon (ideally Jim Beam black)

2 parts Apricot Brandy

1 part lemon juice

Dried Apricot and Lemon peel to garnish

Instructions

Combine the bourbon, apricot brandy and lemon juice in a shaker

Shake over ice then strain into a cocktail glass.

Garnish with dried apricots and a twist of lemon

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Next week’s post will be our Dining with The Dame for The Hollow, so there is still plenty of time to read it if you so desire!  

Also, why not pop over to Amazon and buy a copy of Recipes For Rebels?  It is a beautifully curated book of celebrity recipes which I am sure you will love!

Have a great week!

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History Happy Hour – The Flamingo

So, I made this Flamingo cocktail today with the idea that I would post it in the usual time it takes me to post anything – a month, six weeks, some time in the yet to be disclosed future.  But then I opened my email and discovered that today, December 26 in the way back of 1946 was the day that Bugsy Siegel opened the Pink Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Nevada.

I’m not a big fan of posting too quickly because I like to procrastinate carefully curate what goes into these pages.

It’s why the quality is usually so high…😂

But some opportunities are too good to miss.

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And how pretty is this?  It’s a gorgeous, glorious, fabulous pink! Perfect for drinking at the most fabulous, magnificent , luxurious resort in the world….or just, you know, at home…

Flamingo Casino

Siegel, called “the mobster with the beautiful blue eyes” by Cesar Romero named the resort the Flamingo after his girlfriend Virginia Hill who was a leggy redhead.

The opening of the Pink Flamingo Casino was a total clusterf**k.  Bad weather kept many of the Hollywood celebrities who had been invited to the opening away.  The rooms weren’t finished so gamblers took their winnings elsewhere.  By the end of the first week, the Pink Flamingo had lost $300,000 in revenue.  By the end of its first year of operation it had earned nothing!

Siegel was shot to death in 1947.

A memorial to him still exists in the current Flamingo complex.

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Far from being a clusterf**k, the Flamingo cocktail is a total delight!

Gin, Apricot Brandy, lime juice and Grenadine make it delicious!

A maraschino cherry gives it some vintage glamour.  It’s not in the recipe but it does make it gorgeous!

Here’s the recipe – Enjoy!!!!

https://mixthatdrink.com/flamingo-cocktail/

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Birthday Cocktail – The Rum 007

Well, hello there,

So remiss of me, we’ve been celebrating a while now and I haven’t offered you a drink.  Well, my parched friends, this is worth the wait.  Meet the Rum 007!

Rum 007 2This may be my favourite cocktail EVER.

It’s sooooo good.

And to think, because of the apricot brandy,  I was a bit scared of making it.  A few years ago I needed to buy some cherry brandy for a cocktail and it was disgusting.  Like that revolting fake cherry cough syrup you had to drink when you were young.  I was a very sickly child and I must have drunk a ton and a half of that stuff and the thought of it still gives me the horrors.

Thankfully, Apricot Brandy is utterly delicious.  Almost too good if you know what  I mean.

Of course if anything is called 007, you automatically think of Bond.  I could find no links to this recipe and JB although a Rum Collins apparently features in Thunderball.

So, when in doubt, make it up…that’s totally a thing isn’t it?

Rum 007

My explanation for the story behind the name has nothing to do with a certain spy.  It’s simply that when you take you first sip, thinking the Apricot Brandy will be disgusting and cloying and sickly sweet, you say “Oh”…then the nutty sweet, tangy pineapply, rummy wonderfulness hits you and you say “OH”.  Then you want six more.  Because it’s THAT good.

I found this recipe in the Margaret Fulton Cookbook which happens to be the selection current selection over at The Cookbook Guru.  My edition of this book, which incidentally is STILL in print dates from 1977 which is the same year The Spy Who Loved Me was released.

For those of you not familiar with Margaret she is a complete cooking Australian legend. It says so right on the Margaret Fulton stamp.  And Australia Post does not lie. Or make stamps of just anyone.  This lady is the grande dame, the mec plus ultra of Australian cooking.

Margaret Fulton StampAnd, as a heads up, back in the day, she made the most amazing cake, which I will attempt to replicate for my own birthday later in the year. You’ll have to wait til August to see that but, if I can pull it off it will be worth the wait.

There are many reasons to love Margaret Fulton, but in terms of inventing an awesome cocktail, possibly based on James Bond?

Nobody does it better!

And because it’s my favorite Bond song, here it is

‘Kay, I’m done here, I have another six  five 007’s to drink….I like to call it quality control.  I couldn’t possibly give you a recipe that I hadn’t personally tested multiple times.

Here’s the recipe.

Rum 007 recipe Enjoy and have a fabulous week!

Eight days to Pieathalon 2….I can hardly wait!!!

Two weeks still to go in the win a vintage cookbook comp!  Sign up, tell your friends!

Rum 007

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