Blue Cheese Martini

Dive into this elegant martini served at elmo in Manhattan. It's fraught with reserved blue cheese-stuffed olives. A few of these cocktails could also serve as dinner. Now, this cocktail recipe is designed for your own personal taste, so assemble the ingredients as you will, and then—away we go!

Blue Cheese Martini
Ingredients
Dry vermouth

Vodka

Olive brine

Fresh cucumber (in thinly sliced rounds)

Queen pitted olives

Maytag blue cheese 

Wooden skewers

Directions

Stuff two pitted olives with blue cheese by hand and set aside. Pour a small amount of dry vermouth in a chilled martini glass, swirl to coat glass and toss out excess. Break up a piece of cucumber and place in a shaker full of ice. Add vodka and olive brine to taste (lightly perhaps) and shake vigorously. Strain into chilled vermouth-coated glass. Spike several blue cheese olives on a wooden skewer and lay across the rim of the glass. Crown with a round of cucumber if you wish. Note: The amount of vodka used will depend on the size of the martini glass—but as we always say, the bigger the better!

elmo is located at 156 Seventh Ave (btwn 19th/20th Sts). Visit elmoRestaurant.com for more info.

First published in part in Next magazine.