Beyond the Bloody Caesar
In Behind the Stick, we challenge Ottawa bartenders to create a wholly original cocktail using an oddball ingredient. We’ll be highlighting one bartender, their spot, and an ingredient per column, at the end of which they’ll challenge another of the city’s drink-makers for the next edition.
For the inaugural column, I challenged former coworker and mentor Jamie Martyniuk of Town’s sister restaurant, Citizen, with tomato sauce.
Not just any sauce, mind you. Only the pomodoro used to envelop Town’s staple meatballs would do. Meatballs that take all day to prepare, stuffed with ricotta and slathered in a sauce made of San Marzano tomatoes, their acidity playing foil to the richness of the pork and beef. To keep things vegetarian, we opted to hold off on the meatballs and focus solely on the sauce.
His jump-off point was clarifying Town’s pomodoro. As you might do with a consommé, he began by thinning out the sauce with water. To this he added whipped egg whites, fresh tomato, sugar and basil, then brought the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly. As the whites rose to the surface, Martyniuk skimmed that off, and added it to a cloth-lined strainer. “That acted as my filter,” he noted. “Then I slowly ladled the ‘sauce’ over that and eventually got a nice clear consommé.”
Wanting to keep with savoury characteristics, he focused on cumin, a spice he likes and figured would amplify the pomodoro consommé. “Everyone usually thinks Caesar or Bloody Mary when they think of tomato, so I wanted to steer clear of that,” he says, adding that he opted for something beyond the basic. Martyniuk went with Brokers Gin, which he infused with cumin and bay leaves, their woody herbaceousness complementing the juniper-heavy gin as well as the savoury characteristics of the consommé.
Aiming for a savoury martini, he looked to balance the subtle umami coming from the consommé, the light fresh note from the use of lemon juice, and the herbal-savoury components from the infused gin. Tying it all together was the garnish — droplets of olive oil across the surface for mouthfeel, and freshly cracked pepper plus a tomato basil chip that is topped with Maldon salt. Lastly, an expressed peel of lemon added a lightness to counter the savoury notes on the nose before being discarded.
Until he can figure out a quicker method of clarification, Martyniuk doubts it’ll make the menu’s cut. He also wonders if aquafaba, the liquid found in cans of legumes, would work as an egg white substitute, a common replacement in vegan cuisine (and stand-in for vegan meringue), as well as cocktails like whiskey sours with their cloud-like foam.
Martyniuk, no stranger to oddball ingredients, understands the importance of a deft hand when using abnormal adjuncts. As he notes, “savoury drinks can get especially tricky when you try to start introducing sweet elements.” Nevertheless, he plays around with the nontraditional often — arugula in “You don’t Make Friends with Salad,” or a za'atar spice blend for his “Za’atar Hero.”
When asked for a name for this cocktail, Martyniuk rattled off a handful in short time — “More Cumin than Cuman,” “#POMO,” “Get Sauced” and “Nice ToMateYa.”
The main brain behind Citizen’s cocktail menu (and its whimsical drink names), Martyniuk changes drinks as he deems fit or when inspiration strikes, something that pairs with the kitchen’s regular turning out of specials and new dishes.
Keeping foodstuffs in mind, Martyniuk has challenged Made with Love Canada winner Julian Bernard of Fauna with chives. Bernard’s thoughts? “That’s honestly one of Fauna’s focuses behind the bar. We love weird.”
Citizen
207 Gilmour St, Ottawa, Ont.
613.422.6505 townlovesyou.com/citizen/ @citizenotown
More Cumin than Cuman
2 ounces pomodoro consommé
1 ounce infused gin
¼ ounce fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
3 drops extra-virgin olive oil
Shake all, double strain into a coupe. Garnish with dehydrated tomato and basil leaf.
Town’s Pomodoro Sauce
1 28-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt (kosher salt)
¾ teaspoon white sugar
Combine the ingredients above. Cook for 1 hour on low heat. Let cool. Once it’s cooled, add a 1/4 bunch of basil (just the leaves) then pureé.
Consommé
Take 1 cup of the sauce and thin it with 1 1/3 cups of water. In a small food processor, make a purée of sugar, basil, fresh tomato and egg whites (4 leaves, 3 grams tomato, 1 egg white, 1/3 teaspoon sugar). Add that to the thinned sauce, as a way of re-fortifying its flavour to counteract the addition of water. Bring to boil while whisking constantly. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Eventually, all the whites will rise to the top. Skim those off and add it to a cloth-lined strainer. Slowly ladled the “sauce” through the same strainer and you'll get a nice clear consommé.
