Did you know you can batch dirty martinis? Because I didn’t…and last year I shook 15 of them by hand. Not this year! We’re working smarter, not harder by making a batch in advance to serve perfectly chilled come party time.

Ingredients
Method
- In a large pitcher (about 30 oz) add 8 oz gin, 8 oz olive brine, 6 oz vermouth and 8 oz water, stir well then place in the freezer for 30 minutes to 6 hours. See note for further explanation on chilling time!
- Rinse 8 of your favourite martini glasses in water, then place in the freezer to chill while you make your blue cheese stuffed olives.
- Add 50g blue cheese and 1 tbsp cream to a food processor or blender. Blitz until smooth, then transfer to a piping bag (or ZIploc!). Cut a small tip off the bag, something that's small enough to fit into the whole of each olive, then pipe until fully stuffed. See note for more on what to do with extra olives!
- Serve the batch martini in the chilled glasses with a few blue cheese-stuffed olives. It's good luck to serve the olives in odd numbers — my favourite is 3 but 5 is also nice.
Notes
Note about chilling time: This cocktail is more than 25% water so it will freeze, or become slushy, if left in the freezer for more than 6 hours. If you want to make the cocktail a day in advance, leave it in the fridge overnight to ensure it’s ready to pour at party time.
Extra olives: This recipe serves 8, but uses almost an entire 398mL jar of olive brine. Even if you serve 3-5 olives with each drink, you’ll likely be left with a few extra.
For that reason, I like to fry my leftover blue cheese-stuffed olives, by first coating them in a simple 3-step dredge of flour, egg and breadcrumbs — I like to season my breadcrumbs with 1 tbsp cayenne for an extra kick! Then, shallow-frying in an inch of neutral oil until golden and crispy. Serve these as a little appetizer to go along with the dirty martinis and everyone will love you!
If you want to make the stuffed olives in advance, place the finished olives in a small container and top with enough olive oil to cover. Throw in a garlic clove and some red pepper flakes for even more added flavour. The olives will keep like this for several days.