The Weekly Cocktail Recipe – Oskar’s Bar’s ‘Basil Fawlty’

Tying in with London Cocktail Week, Oskar Kinberg – the man behind the brilliant Oskar’s Bar beneath Michelin-starred Dabbous in Fitzrovia – is set to launch his first recipe book next month.

The simply titled ‘Cocktail Cookbook’ features a compendium of 75 cocktails, many of which are seasonally available at the bar, and most are relatively simple to follow at home. As expected, like the kitchen at upstairs Dabbous, there’s also a massive focus on unique ingredients, encouraging readers to set out foraging, with the likes of sorrel leaf, nettle cordial, and meadowsweet syrup featured heavily. The latter is surprisingly easy to make at home and forms part of the base of this week’s cocktail recipe; the ‘Basil Fawlty’ (just one of the bar’s playfully-named drinks), teamed with gin, lemon juice, green apple juice, and of course – fresh basil leaves.

Ingredients

50ml Gin

15ml Fresh Lemon Juice

20ml Meadowsweet Syrup (recipe below)

35ml Fresh Green Apple Juice

8-10 Basil Leaves

For the Meadowsweet Syrup

200ml Sugar syrup

20g Meadowsweet

To Garnish

Basil Sprig

To Make The Syrup

Meadowsweet is a small white wild flower that grows in damp conditions and benefits from being dried and made into a tea, or in this case a sugar syrup. If you’re not the ‘go pick it yourself and dry it’ kind of person you can also find it online. Meadowsweet has a similar comforting flavour to camomile: it has a long, gentle herbal finish that cosies up with creamy flavours but also softens sharper additions such as green apples.

Bring the sugar syrup to a boil in a saucepan then turn the heat off. Add the meadowsweet before the syrup cools and let it infuse under cover for 24 hours. Pass through a chinois or fine sieve. Pour into sterilised bottles and keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Method

Add all ingredients to a highball glass and add crushed ice all the way to the top.

Whisk everything together until the basil is bruised and the liquid is cold.

Fill with more crushed ice.

‘Cocktail Cookbook’ is published by Frances Lincoln, part of the Quarto Publishing Group UK, and will be available from 6^th October with the RRP of £18.