lesliec

Yesterday I finally signed up with Kindred Cocktails (hi, guys) and found this splendid thing: The Man Comes Around is Cynar, Mezcal, Spanish brandy (I used Garvey's Esplendido), Fernet Branca and Xocolatl bitters, and is a creation of our very own Rafa (who goes by DrunkLab on KC). Just my style, with lots of bitterness. The Cynar is quite dominant, to the extent where I'm not sure I could detect the FB - that's quite an achievement! Highly recommended if you like bitter.

Originally made by sitting the dough beside the fire? Looks good, Anna.

A year or so down the track; time to bump this one to see what people have found. I'm looking for a 'grown up' cocktail app for Android; one that doesn't assume its recipe list is all I need to know (I'd even be happy if it didn't come with any recipes of its own). I want to be able to enter my own ingredient list, not be forced to work with whatever peculiar list the app comes with. And I want to be able to put my own recipes in, preferably with a photo. I don't mind a bit of manual work to get the name/ingredients/instructions/photo in there. I've used Mixology/Mixologist - probably the best of a bad lot, but I'm hoping somebody out there in eGullet land will surprise me. Trello is a recent find; it's not intended as a recipe app but does at least let me enter anything at all that I want to. Where it falls down is now I have a reasonable number of recipes in there it's a bit cumbersome to navigate, particularly when I'm using it on the phone. What's new and good out there?

If you can find it (that's possibly a very big 'if'), this stuff is an interesting alternative: Amante is made in Belarus. What's it doing in a booze shop in New Zealand? I have no idea! It's in a 500ml bottle and is 25% alcohol by volume, the same strength as the bottle of Vedrenne crème de cacao I have. It smells a little more chocolatey but is quite pleasant even on its own (which is something I've never done with crème de cacao). Oh yes - not the least of its charms is it's really cheap! Wifey has recently invented a tasty as-yet-unnamed cocktail using it. Proportions haven't been formalised, but something like 45ml tequila (blanco/silver), 20ml mescal, 20ml Amante with a few drops of Xocolatl mole bitters. Mix 'em up, serve with a huge block of ice in an Old Fashioned glass. Salut.

My favourites are from Joanne Harris and Fran Warde's The French Market. So many seem too sweet and/or insubstantial, but these are teriffic. Got some in the freezer; I know what's for breakfast tomorrow.

A non-technical question for you, Jeff - how do those of us who don't live in North America get our hands on one? Thanks for your responses to all the other questions above. It gives a good feeling about your company.

Adam, I think you can; you just need a license. Details here. That's probably similar to what I'd need to do if I wanted to sell the product. But these UK rules are intended for 'proper' distilleries, not home operations: We may refuse to issue a licence, or revoke an existing licence, where: - the largest still to be used has a capacity below 18 hectolitres 18 hectolitres = 1800 litres, by my calculation (= 475.5 US gallons). That's rather a lot - my still can handle just 25 litres at a time!

Last night, at Wellington's wonderful (and tricky to find if you're not in the know) Hawthorn Lounge, Tres Sangres: Ooo, that's good. Starts sweet, finishes huge and dark and bitter. I like that in a woman ... Back story of this is that our barman Gian is about to enter a cocktail competition and a condition for one of the drinks is it has to have at least five dashes of Angostura. I remembered seeing eGullet's thread on Bitters as the Base and sent him to it for (possible) inspiration. After a Tres Sangres I was certainly inspired.

Yep, entirely legal. If I wanted to sell it I'd have to jump through some excise tax hoops, but I can certainly make it for myself, or to give away to friends/acquaintances/total strangers. New Zealand is one of very few countries where home distillation is legal. There's a movement in the US (see here if you're interested) to put it on the same footing as making one's own beer, which seems reasonable - home distillers don't make any more alcohol than home brewers, we just make a much lower volume of higher-strength alcohol, which is then watered down to make it drinkable. My amaro has been my number one triumph so far, followed by the gin. The vermouth is a separate project, really; I didn't make the wine it's based on. And yes, I'm having a heap of fun. The next ferment is bubbling away happily. I shall report further. Oh look - my 500th post to eG!

And an update to the above: on the basis that the sun must be over the yardarm somewhere in the world, we enjoyed a pre-lunch gin and tonic. Rather good. As Wifey described it, it's as though the bitters were already in there. I know what she means. It's quite a floral taste; I could maybe dial it back for a future run but it's really nice, particularly for a first attempt. I've kept scrupulous records, so it should be reproducible. Started a new ferment this morning ...

This isn't strictly speaking an infusion, but I don't think we have a 'distilling your own stuff' topic - possibly because it's illegal for most of the world. But not my part of it. So ... look what I made this afternoon: I've had a still for a couple of months now, but this was my first gin run. For those who know about the technicalities, it's a StillSpirits T500 reflux still, which purists will tell you shouldn't be used for gin (reflux stills make extremely high-purity vodkas, which are then commonly flavoured and watered down to something sensibly below the 95% alcohol they can produce. Yes, that does say 95%. 190 proof!). However, I was determined to at least try, so I replaced some of the ceramic saddles in the column with a bag of botanicals and let it rip. By 'de-tuning' the still like this I ended up with a mere 89% alcohol(!), which at the end of the process I took down to 40% with distilled water. The botanicals I used were juniper berries (if it ain't got them, it ain't gin), coriander seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, orris root, chamomile, liquorice root, angelica root, orange and lemon zest and dried kawakawa leaf, a New Zealand native. The result - highly successful. It's clear, it smells good, it tastes good. I can't compare it to a commercial gin - I clearly haven't tried enough of them - but it's quite a strong, oily taste (not in a bad way). I have yet to give it the ultimate test of using it in a G&T, but I'll report when I have (it will probably be tomorrow). Oh yeah - who's this Colonel Hawthorne? C'est moi - he's my steampunk alter ego. Colonel Sir Julius Hawthorne, Her Majesty's Air Privateers (retired), since you ask ...

Afraid not, Furzzy - they came from the wonderful Moore Wilson's here in Welly. But I'll try to remember to look on the box when I get home to find a brand for you.

Chop it roughly, mix in some chopped garlic and parsley and use to stuff poussins (or a full-sized chicken, I suppose). Roast as you normally would.

That sounds lovage-ly. (Sorry ...)

Last night's indulgence: a 1934 Zombie (thanks, Hassouni): Not that you can see it much; the goblet thing is as close as I've got to a tiki mug (they're not common over here). But the umbrella is always a classy touch, I think. And that's mint floating on top. This with Gosling Black Seal, Appleton VX and Wray & Nephew. I have a problem with sourness (could just be our lemons and limes don't get as ripe as in warmer regions), so I cut the specified amount of lime juice down considerably and spiked a slice of lime on the umbrella - token gesture. My home-made falernum provided quite a bit of lime kick anyway. This thing was freakin' delicious. And feel free to admire the splendid bamboo-look straws we found last weekend!

Don't discard the fronds. Put them in the bottom of a casserole, place a couple of pork chops/steaks on top and pour some cream over the lot. Sprinkle with salt and a few green peppercorns and cook at (I'm guessing - haven't done it for a while) 160°C until the meat is cooked through and gently browned on top. If all goes well, the cream will have thickened slightly (pour it off and encourage it in a pan if not) and it and the meat will have picked up fragrance from the fennel. It's actually optional after all this whether you eat the fennel fronds, but we do.

Do tell. Who knows when I'll get a chance to try them out? Two recommendations (not the proper thread, but you did ask ...): The Laneway, 181 Mary Street, is above Euro and Urbane restaurants (Urbane was noted when I asked a few months ago in the Brisbane dining thread for current recommendations). You get to the bar by walking through Euro, then heading upstairs. The two nights (both Thursdays) we went, it was pretty quiet - we had it to ourselves the second time - but apparently Brisbanians emerge from their holes on Fridays, when it should be a bit busier. Good list of house and 'special' cocktails - I greatly enjoyed their barrel-aged Martinez - and very knowledgeable barmen who can talk about their products and find interesting variations. And I nearly forgot to mention the burgers, which are really, really good (go for the wagyu). You can have pretty much anything from Euro's menu served upstairs, it seems. Lovely dessert. The Walrus Club is under the Regatta Hotel in Toowong and takes a bit of finding - go round the back and peer at doors until you see a small chalk drawing of a walrus! Inside, it's set up as a speakeasy - dark, lots of hidden alcoves, jazz playing and the most enormous rum list you're ever likely to see. I wasn't stunned by my particular Tiki, but if we'd had more time we'd have stayed and experimented some more. Makes going to Brizzy well worthwhile. Edited to add burger bit.

We visted Arzak in San Sebastian a couple of years ago. The bacalao ice cream was memorable - in a good way!

If Heston can SV a whole pig, a mere turkey sounds like child's play! But having said that, I agree that legs/breasts perform better if treated differently. My second-best-ever turkey used brined breast and confit legs, but didn't specify sous vide cooking (I don't remember now - it was a couple of Christmases ago - but I suspect I may have used SV anyway, but don't ask me for time/temp). My best-ever was last Christmas, when I used meat glue to creat a turducken using only breasts. Fantastic.

I'm with you, Judiu. I just don't 'get' curry. My wife says it's because I've never had a good one, to which I reply I don't believe there are any good ones. To me, curries are very confused, muddy-tasting and -smelling things (I think it's the cumin, but I can't be certain). Give me a nice fried pork chop any time.

Hi Kerry. A mix of sources, but homedistiller.org is very useful.

I wish to advise ... I am no longer a virgin: Although we've been very happy exploring gins, rums, Scotches and various bitter delights like Génépy, Cynar and various other obscurities that look interesting at our local alcohol emporium, tequila was one spirit Wifey and I had never brought ourselves to play with. The only reason, probably, was an extremely vile Margarita in a bar in Auckland several years ago. Realising the foolishness of allowing that one experience to deter us for life, and noting that many of you eGulleters seem pretty keen on your cactus juice, we have of late been getting our favourite cocktail bar, the wonderful Hawthorn Lounge (about which I must write at some length sometime) to ease us in. They began with a tequila Old Fashioned, similar to the one mentioned over here by FrogPrincesse. And it really didn't take much more than that. It was delicious. We've subsequently had another one (on another visit), plus a couple of more 'grown up' somethings which escape me for the moment, but here's the thing - they've all tasted great! So on today's visit to the aforementioned booze emporium, we finally did it. Virgins no more. Salut!

This is not the thread for a proper discussion, but I give you due warning I am now the proud owner of a still (entirely legal where I live) and will probably bombard you elsewhere with the fruits of my experiments. The star so far is an amaro with star anise, allspice, cloves, gentian, orange and lemon peel and fresh sage, rosemary and mint. It's freakin' delicious (and quite serious, at around 56% alcohol). Back on topic: the first vermouth I reported on making in my previous post (#12) has now turned out way better than I thought. I added some caramel and vanilla paste (just a little) to the bottle and let it sit a week or two longer, and it's now more than acceptable. One of the evening's pleasures recently was a 2:1 Martini made from my own gin and my own vermouth. And just this afternoon I've strained and bottled a couple of litres of Ippocrasso from Olemoelisa's recipe in post #11. It reminded me of mulled wine while I was making it; now it's bottled it still smells and tastes like mulled wine. Hardly surprising, given the spices and honey. I've only tasted it on its own so far, but it's going to give an amazing twist to a Negroni at some stage. Given my absorption with making higher-powered homemade drinks at present I'm not sure how often I'll be playing with other vermouth-style things, but my interest has been piqued, for sure.

Beautiful fougasse, FrogPrincesse. I haven't tried them with this recipe, but it's a great solution if you're having trouble handling the dough. And what cocktail did they go with? My most recent experiments with the 5 minute recipe have been using some spent grain from a colleague who brews beer. This gives a fantastic malty/chocolatey note to the bread. Since the grain is quite wet I've had to tweak the water/flour amounts, and it helps to have a bit more yeast and cook longer than usual. 2½ cups water/20g fresh yeast/3 cups spent grain/5 cups plain flour/1 cup wholemeal flour/1 tbsb salt with a cooking time of around 40-45 minutes gives a good result. Find a local brewer and see what you think.

If you're thinking Isi (and there's no reason you shouldn't), go with their 'normal' one rather than the Thermowhip. The Thermo is great if you're putting something in it at a specific temperature and want it to stay at that temp, but the non-insulated version can easily be heated/cooled as required, which is more flexible.