When Craig and I were at The Campbell Apartment after Josephine and Vincent's wedding I ordered a Kentucky Ginger. This was no ordinary bourbon and ginger ale drink though, it was made with homemade ginger ale and it was garnished with fresh rosemary and a piece of candied ginger. It basically tasted awesome. I have been wanting to have another one ever since Memorial Day weekend. Even though I have found a handful of pretty good cocktails here in Raleigh (like the time I had a really nice martini, at Zely & Ritz, that was made with pickles instead of olives) I know I'm not going to find anything like the Kentucky Ginger I had in NYC here on the home front.
Just when I thought I was going to have to accept that things were different here in Raleigh everything changed. This weekend Craig helped me to re-create the drink at home! First, he made a simple sugar syrup that he infused with fresh ginger. We mixed the simple syrup with some Makers Mark bourbon and club soda. We picked up some fresh rosemary to use as a garnish and . . . wait for it . . . one of the nice things about having a chef for a husband is that we just happend to have candied ginger laying around! I couldn't believe how easy it was and now it will be even easier since we have a pretty large stock pile of the simple syrup left over!
Craig styled and photographed our homemade Kentucky Ginger (above).
