Cocktail Hour: Dirty martini

There's something lovely looking about a dirty martini. It's a bit more sophisticated than a mojito isn't it? Well, until your best mate is carrying your home after two. Or is that just me? Here's a recipe from my chief cocktail maker.

Here's what you need:

4 measures gin (or vodka) - must be premium quality stuff or it will taste horrible (I recommend Bombay Sapphire or the best vodka you can get hold of)
1 measure dry vermouth
ice
olives

And here's what you need to do:

1. (Optional) get all the ingredients as cold as possible.
   
2. (Optional, but ideally) rinse glass with water and put in freezer for 15+ mins to get it cold.
3. Fill cocktail shaker half way with ice cubes.
4. Pour vermouth over ice.
5. Add gin (or vodka).
6. (Optional) add a very small (less than 1tsp) amount of olive brine - don't bother unless you want it quite dirty.
7. Shake 5-10 times (the more times you shake, the more ice-water will end up in the drink, and the wetter the martini will be).
8. Pour through a strainer into a cold martini glass - it will come out cloudy but will clear quickly.
   
9. add 1 or 3 olives (on a cocktail stick, ideally) - it's bad form to use 2 olives, apparently.

Now all you need is your very own Daniel Craig.

Flickr image from Ken30684's photostream.