Praying Mantis

Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Emmet Kelty

Serves 1

½ ounces strained Celery-Infused Gin*
½ ounce lemon juice
½ ounce simple syrup
½ ounce Thai Basil Simple Syrup**

Dry shake without ice and strain into a rocks glass packed with crushed ice. Garnish with lemon zest and a sprig of basil.

*Celery-Infused Gin
Chop up a head of celery and combine with 1 tablespoon fennel seed in a quart-sized wide-mouth lidded glass jar and fill with locally-made gin. Keep for a week, stirring each day. Makes way more than you need for one cocktail; refrigerate extra and use within a month.

**Thai Basil Simple Syrup
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
1 cup Thai basil

Boil sugar and water until sugar dissolves completely. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Combine basil leaves with half of the syrup and blend until smooth. Strain through a mesh sieve and add to remaining syrup.

This story appeared in the Summer 2017 issue.