Warm Your Winter Guests with Freshness and Style (and Booze)

From my assistant, Blaise:

Recently, I invited a few friends over for dinner on what turned out to be one of the most frigid nights of the month thus far. They bundled up and braved the cold, trudging to my place knowing that a free home cooked meal was waiting for them. To help everyone feel nice and toasty I decided to make a special after-dinner apéritif. It’s called a Hot Killer, and it is so easy to make and so delicious. Here’s how:

All you need. Plus a juicer. And some booze.

All you need is a juicer, lemon, fresh ginger, and a bunch of green apples. About 4-5 green apples will fill an 8-10 ounce glass or mug, but don’t hold me to this because I’m really bad at measurements. There were 4 of us and I bought 16 organic green apples and that was enough for one Hot Killer per person.

1. Peel a big hunk of ginger (bigger than what’s shown here, especially if you like a bit more of a warm kick) and cut up all of the apples, leaving them unpeeled.

Slice it all up.

2. Shove the apples and the ginger in the juicer. After everything is juiced, squeeze one whole lemon into the mix.

3. Heat it up on low to medium, stirring occasionally. When it’s boiled it’s basically done…

This looks weird, I know, but trust me.

4.  …Now add a shot of whiskey. (Or two, depending on what you’re going for.) You can also add a drop of natural sweetener like Agave syrup orhoney, or top it off with a few cloves. (In my household, as you can tell from the photo below, we tend to use up the whiskey faster than the honeyor the Agave.) Also, if you want to get fancy and go for a nice presentation, add an apple slice to the side of the glass.

Three optional ingredients. But you'll want something sweet like the agave or the honey. Clearly, we enjoy the bourbon.

With a warm, rich spice and the perfect blend of sweet and tart, Hot Killers are so rejuvenating and perfect for winter, your guests won’t care how they look (did I mention they’re green?) …especially when they’ve had a few rounds.

PS. Clean up’s no fun, but it’s worth it. Maybe in gratitude for your generous hospitality, your guests will do the dishes.