There is something deeply tantalising about the way a spicy martini whets your appetite.

I think it goes especially well if the martini is to be followed by seafood, especially shellfish.

You can make a spicy martini with all sorts of hot sauces, including Tabasco or Sriracha, but I cannot think of a more perfect hot sauce to use for a pre-seafood aperitif than this beautiful Seaweed Hot Sauce made on the Isle of Mull.

Mull is very much a seafood destination in its own right.

Tonnes of locally caught shellfish are hurriedly packaged and dispatched, mostly to Europe for avid consumption year round.

Island bars and restaurants serve it up during the tourist season.

Local families also get together to enjoy a big shared bowl of freshly landed goodies, sometimes dropped off by a friend or neighbour in the fishing industry.

Seafood = community, and it’s a core element of Hebridean society.

It therefore comes as no surprise that I, a Hebridean, love the Isle of Mull Seaweed Company and their tasty produce. Their chutneys, which are made with locally-sourced and hand-harvested seaweeds, go with a range of foods.

Use it as a marinade, or as a topping for crackers, blini or croustades. It goes deliciously with curry and it’s perfect with cheeses – the Isle of Mull has a range of those as well by the way.

They are eminently suitable for martini accompaniments.

The hot sauce, however, is a different beast. Vibrant red, deliciously acidious, beautifully mineral and warmingly spicy but not overly fiery, it’s a real outlier in the condiment world. It’s not an imitation and its flavour profile is distinct from all the other hot sauces you’ve ever tried.

I obviously felt compelled to try it in martini form, so as to recognise its place in the Spicy Martini category – and I was not disappointed. So here’s how to do it.

How to make a spicy martini with Isle of Mull Seaweed Hot Sauce

You will need:

• Gin or vodka
• Vermouth
• A garnish (optional – see below for suggestions)
• V-shaped glasses
• Seaweed Hot Sauce

Personally I think this goes better with vodka than gin, but it’s down to preference. More neutral gins, or ones that lead with citrus rather than juniper also work well.

As for the garnish, this isn’t strictly necessary but can always be nice. You can stick with a traditional lemon peel but I like to pair it with a small, piquant but sweet preserved pepper or two.

You could also use roasted pepper, a small pickle, a nasturtium flower or even a piece of seafood like a prawn/shrimp (see the Langoustini as an example).

Make sure you’ve kept the bottle of spirits in the freezer for at least six hours before serving. Put your glasses in there for a few hours as well.

When it’s time to serve, add a small amount of the hot sauce to the glass. The amount you add will depend on taste but I like at least a teaspoon, if not two, of this particular brand of hot sauce, so you can really get a taste of the mineral sharpness.

Add the vermouth to taste, usually around 2-15ml or 0.5-3 teaspoons. Stir it so the hot sauce is mixed and the drink is invigorated.

Top it up with gin or vodka (usually around 80-120ml or 3-4 US fluid ounces). Give it another brief stir and watch the mesmerising flecks swirl around the beautifully hued glass.

Garnish (or not) and serve.

Enjoy this delightfully interesting and appetite-whetting aperitif straight away so you can really enjoy the dynamic pairing of ice cold drink with rich, spicy flavours.

Note that it also works well if you halve the measurements and serve it in a shot glass – not to down, but to savour. This might be a more civilised volume of alcohol to accompany oysters for example, or for anyone who wants the briny kick without the full blast of a complete martini.

Martini Food with Seaweed Hot Sauce

There are lots of ways you can use the Seaweed Hot Sauce to make food, and many of the items are things that would accompany a martini perfectly, or make a great addition to a post-martini meal. Here are a few ideas:

Spicy Seaweed Mayo

This is a very easy, quick win.

Add some hot sauce to a bowl.

For each teaspoon of hot sauce, add a tablespoon of mayonnaise and mix. You can adjust the hotness to your preference by adding more of one or the other.

Use this mayonnaise mixture for chips, salads or poké bowls as I’ve done here.

I also added the spicy mayo to some homemade imitation crab maki rolls which was a hit with friends and family (and definitely one of the easier types of maki roll to put together).

Other ‘oysters’

This might not be to everyone’s taste, but the Seaweed Hot Sauce makes a fantastic addition to a prairie oyster.

Just take a very fresh egg, grind in some black pepper, add a splash of Worcestershire sauce and a healthy dash of the hot sauce – and down the concoction!

Like oysters, you can swallow it whole, or you can give it a little light chew first, depending on your taste – and constitution for the textures.

FYI, in the James Bond novel Thunderball, the well-established martini drinker and central character said “there wasn’t a week went by that on at least one day I couldn’t eat anything for breakfast but a couple of aspirins and a prairie oyster.” As such, the above recipe might be a welcome source of relief to some readers currently in a state of fragility – you are not alone, and indeed can count excellent company and forebears in your hangover journey.

Ceviche

The seaweed hot sauce makes a delicious addition to a ceviche marinade. Just stir it in to taste to your existing marinade mixture and let it flavour the fresh fish with with complimentary oceanic flavours.

This in turn will make a mineral zesty Leche de Tigre, which you can of course use for a Tiger Milk Martini.

If I haven’t made it clear already, I thoroughly recommend pairing the Seaweed Hot Sauce Martini with seafood.

Furthermore, if you’re a fan of seafood, why not visit to the Isle of Mull at the same time? Come and enjoy the views, traditional culture and our bountiful fruits du mer – as well as our drinking culture.

If you can’t make it, you can have local seafood delivered by the Tobermory Fish Company (recently featured in the BBC programme “Designing the Hebrides“), or source fresh produce from your local fishmonger.

Otherwise, be sure to buy some of the Seaweed Hot Sauce and other delights from Isle of Mull Seaweed and enjoy them at home. I cannot recommend it enough. Delicious!