Strawberry Basil Martini

Since this delicious cocktail has made an appearance in 2 out of 3 of my posts this week, I felt it was my blogger duty to share the recipe with you all.

Last week my mother-in-law ordered a round of Seasons 52's signature cocktail, the Strawberry Basil Martini, for the table during our girls lunch.  Ever since that day I could not stop thinking about that refreshing and uniquely delicious cocktail.  Fortunately, we thought to quiz our waitress on it's creation before leaving the restaurant, so I was armed with all of the tools I needed to make my own S.B.M. 

A few days later I bought a new bottle of Absolut vodka, a pint of strawberries, and got to work.  I took an empty liquor decanter, filled it 2/3 of the way full with strawberry quarters,

and then filled the whole thing with vodka.

I then set the decanter in our buffet (a dark, cool place is ideal) and let it do it's thing for 4 days.    Each of those days I inverted the decanter to ensure that the strawberry goodness was mixing throughout the vodka.

On the fourth day the strawberries were as white as could be and rather creepy looking.  But that was the sign that the vodka was done and completely infused with the strawberry juice.

I strained the vodka through a mesh strainer and voila, had strawberry infused vodka to use however I chose!

For my current drink of choice, simply fill a cocktail shaker with ice then add the strawberry infused vodka to the shaker.  Shake well.  Strain into a chilled martini glass and top with a fresh basil leaf.

  I promise that this will become your new favorite Summer cocktail!