This is a nice, fresh tasting martini that goes well with seafood.
What is Dill?
Native to North Africa and the Middle East, dill is a green annual herb, with seeds used additionally as a spice. It has become widely used in more northern climes, from the US to Russia and extensively through Europe.
It is used in soups, salads, on potatoes and in pickles such as the globally popular style of Polish gherkins (ogórki). It is also used to flavour seafood in Britain, Scandinavia and around wider Europe.
Dill weed (as opposed to dill seeds) has a fresh, intense, almost grassy flavour. I use it to garnish Danish smørrebrød in particular.
However, the flavour of this delicate plant fades quickly and it quickly looks sad as a garnish as it starts to wilt. If you have any leftovers after serving it with food, you might be inclined, as I was, to infuse the herb in vodka to prolong that soft flavour of the countryside garden that little bit longer – and especially so in alcoholic form.
How to infuse your dill
Roughly chop the herbs. I had a clump that equated approximately to a handful (sorry not to be more scientific).
I then added the herbs to 200ml of moderately good quality vodka (better quality vodkas should be enjoyed neat in my opinion).
I kept it in the fridge for a week, shaking it once a day.
I then put it in the freezer to chill to the appropriate temperature for a martini. You could do this in the morning and it will be ready by evening.
How to Martini your Dill
It’s very easy to pour this in martini form. Simply remove a nicely chilled martini glass from the freezer (as per the classic instructions) and add the similarly chilled vodka infusion.
My first version was Churchill-style (i.e. no vermouth) so I could really savour the chilled, infused drink.
It was intense, fresh and delicious, but also quite savoury so you might prefer to try it with just a little vermouth to lighten the palette slightly.
It also goes really nicely with certain snacks and appetisers, especially those from the Greater Baltic region.
Think pickles, seafood, blini or smørrebrød, which add really nice colour to the rich green image of fresh dill delight in your martini glass.
These flavours beautifully complement the herb infusion and work really well if the martini is served dry (Churchill-style as above, or Bone Dry).
Otherwise, the one final step I recommend is straining the vodka and discarding the dill weed once it’s properly infused. This makes the drink even smoother and much more civilised to drink with company. If there are still one or two flecks left in the drink, that’s fine.
Skål!
The Martini Socialist 