Chinese dumpling sauce martini

Happy year of the horse. When my family makes dumplings, we prepare a simple dipping sauce of soy sauce, black vinegar, and toasted sesame oil. This cocktail is meant to remind you of that. It’s slightly sweetened to balance out the umami from the soy sauce and acid from the vinegar. It was inspired by the Benihana House Salad, a cocktail from Little Pearl in DC, and a recent visit to Double Chicken Please in NYC.

• 2 oz toasted sesame oil washed gin
• ½ oz shochu
• ½ oz dry vermouth
• ½ oz ginger peppercorn syrup
• ½ oz Zhenjiang vinegar (Chinese black vinegar)
• 1 scant barspoon (about 4g) pickled red onion brine
• 2 drops soy sauce
• To garnish: toasted sesame oil

Stir with ice until chilled, or add ¾ oz water if pre-chilling/batching. Serve in a stemmed glass or a small bowl. Garnish with a couple drops of toasted sesame oil.

Details

• Sesame washed gin: I did 1:10 sesame oil to gin, shook it, then froze it after letting it sit for about 30 minutes. You can likely use way less sesame oil if you let it sit for longer before freezing but I was in a hurry.
• Ginger peppercorn syrup: I followed this recipe for peppercorn syrup (it uses both black and Sichuan peppercorns), and added about two tablespoons of fresh grated ginger before boiling. To get a stronger flavor, I let the peppercorns sit in the syrup for much longer than the recipe asked for.
• Pickled red onion brine: Any liquid from pickling red onions should do. What I had on hand was a batch following J. Kenji López-Alt’s recipe¹ with the sugar reduced (½ cup) and the jalapeño omitted.

What I used

• Hendrick’s Gin
• Nankai Shochu
• Dolin Dry Vermouth
• LKK Premium Soy Sauce