BLOODY MIKEY

A Bloody Mary once saved my life and I’m not even lying

My friends and I rented a big ass mansion in the Valleys one cold weekend (there was a hot tub, we got very pissed) and I woke up feeling like I wanted the ground to swallow me up.

I don’t do well with hangovers and never have.

Luckily my good friend Andrew had the strength and seeming sobriety to put together a few jugs of Bloody Mary. He plonked one in front of me and told me it would make me better. I was dubious as to how this strange smelling cold soup was going to save me from spiralling into the pit of despair in which I belonged.

Reader, it saved me.

I then made a promise to myself that I would turn to Mary whenever I was hungover cos it was only she that knew how to save me from curling around the toilet and sleeping on the bathroom floor in agony.

Until I went to Cuba and tasted a Michelada.

A Michelada follows a similar structure to a Bloody Mary but introduces some tangy, fizzy lager into the fold. And cut to me, on the streets of Cuba absolutely DYING and looking for Mary. She wasn’t on any of the menus and so, in the name of vanity, I ordered a Michelada because it sounded like a fancy version of my name.

Again, I was saved.

Since then I’ve read a few different Bloody Mary and Michelada recipes that all differ in additions but one thing is consistent: tomato juice and alcohol. And who am I tamper with something so sacred?

I AM A TAMPERER AND TAMPER I SHALL.

So my Bloody Mikey starts boldly with a Bloody Mary but takes a left turn somewhere near Mexico. This cocktail is a lethal cross between a Bloody Mary and Michelada, as I like to introduce a small splash of lager into mix. Yup, lager.

It brings a welcome tang and fizz to the drink without being fully carbonated which adds a lot of guts to an already gutsy drink.

I know a lot of people throw in Tobasco and I’m all for this addition because I’m a Tobasco girl myself… however I have a fierce allegiance to Frank’s Hot Sauce, so mine includes this. Use whatever hot sauce of your choice, but I do recommend Franks… Frank is my baby…

Makes 800ml

100ml vodka

200ml lager

500ml tomato juice

1 teaspoon celery salt (or sea salt)

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

A few shakes of Worcestershire sauce

A few shakes of your favourite hot sauce

1 lime

1 stick of celery

Generous handfuls of ice

1. In a big jug – this is so much easier to make in a jug than in individual glasses – add the vodka.
2. To this, add the lager and the tomato juice. This will feel very strange, and you will feel like you’ve made an off-kilter cold soup but stick with it because it gets so good I promise.
3. Now add the celery salt (or sea salt), the black pepper, a few shakes of the Worcestershire sauce (pronounced Wusster-shuster-shire or not pronounced at all), the hot sauce and the juice of the lime.
4. Stir everything together and of course, it would be sacrilegious of me not to encourage you to do so with a stick of celery.
5. Fill up some tumblers with ice cubes, slice a celery stick and add to the glass before pouring over the Bloody Mikey.
6. When my hangover has a small amount of mercy, I do like to bake a few thin strips of pepper laced streaky bacon in a 200°C oven for about 15 minutes and let them rest so they get hard and crispy, sliding them into the glasses for an extra dose of sweet saltiness. I recommend this recipe for bacon if you feel so inclined.