Tasting & Living #20 May 2012
A Brussels based foodie blog-magazine with an international and healthy appetite … tastingandliving@hotmail.com
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A Most Unusual Hendrick’s Gin and Tonic
May 23, 2012
It’s spring and quite warm here in Brussels, so it’s the time to pretend it’s summer! So get those cocktail shakers out and a good bottle of gin. Our favourite is of course Hendricks, so here’s an ‘unusual’ G&T for you. ENJOY (But with moderation)
The classic gin and tonic cocktail was introduced to the world in the 18th century by the army of the British East India Company in India, almost by accident, as they added gin to their daily intake of quinine-based tonic water to make the elixir more palatable. Tonic water was taken at this time as preventative for the dreaded malaria. And so, the humble gin and tonic was created, and to celebrate the beginnings of the most quintessentially British cocktail, Hendrick’s Gin has created a gin and tonic with an unusual twist, which pays homage to its modest beginnings!
Inspired by a “lassi,” a traditional yoghurt-based drink of the Indian subcontinent, the use of sweet Falernum liqueur and coconut water in this cocktail highlights one of the eleven botanicals found in Hendrick’s Gin -– the zesty fresh taste of lemon peel. The sweetness of these two ingredients act as a contrast to the sharpness of the lemon, bringing its flavour to the fore.
A Most Unusual Gin and Tonic
Ingredients:
50ml Hendrick’s Gin
12.5ml freshly squeezed lime juice
12.5ml freshly squeezed lemon
50ml coconut water
15ml Falernum liqueur
Tonic water to taste (up to 30ml)
Preparation:
Build all ingredients in a highball glass over cracked ice. Stir to chill and mix the tipple. Garnish with both a cucumber and lemon wheel and a sprig of fresh mint.
Gin & Rooibos Cocktail
April 25, 2012
At Tasting and Living, we love our gins, so we saw this great cocktail at The Aviary, Chicago.
At Grant Achatz’s buzzy state-of-the-art cocktail lounge, expert mixologists use a double-chamber vacuum pot to create the Rooibos cocktail tableside. In the bottom pot, gin is heated over a flame until it’s sucked into the upper pot where it is infused with Rooibos tea, grapefruit, lemon zest, crushed almonds, herbs and spices. When the heat source is removed, the drink gets muddled back into the lower pot and served warm.
Espresso in de wagen: nu kan het!
April 18, 2012
http://www.etvonweb.be/nl/20598-eindelijk-een-espressomachine-voor-in-de-wagen
In de ochtendspits barst het van de thermossen koffie, waarmee de dagelijkse pendelaars – soms tevergeefs – wakker proberen te worden. Vanaf nu is de tijd van de koffie voorgoed voorbij! Tijdens de lange rit naar en van het werk kan je een espressomachine meenemen in je wagen. Handpresso, een producent van draagbare koffiezetapparaten, stelt zijn nieuwste uitvinding voor. Deze espressomachine wordt aangesloten op de aansteker van de wagen en houdt je favoriete drankje op die manier lekker warm. Een kleine demo verklaart al veel. Kopen maar!
Cooking with Hendricks gin
April 1, 2012
There are basically two ways to use gin in your dishes when cooking. One is the straight forward one: Allegedly when Julia Child was asked what her favourite dish was, she replied: a red steak and a glass of gin. The other is the more complicated for the rest of us that do not posses Mrs Childs qualities: use gin as an ingredient.
Once in a while you come across a product that clearly has more potential than what it looks like. This is how I feel about Hendricks Gin. It is a gin – and a damn good one – but it is more than “just” a gin. Having listened to a presentation of the history of gin and the ways of distilling gin – and there are more than one way – and having sat through a tasting of Hendricks Gin in different cask strengths and combinations, I could not help feeling that something more than adding tonic and lime was needed.
Be not confused: Hendricks Gin is excellent for your drinks and cocktails, as other gins. Just be prepared for the extra taste, that Hendricks has. It is not a simple gin. It has a complex taste which makes it different from other gins. If you prefer a pure gin of excellent quality, I would still refer you to the tasty clarity of the Arctic Gin we tasted some months ago. But if you (also) like your Gin complex in taste, then Hendricks is a good alternative.
But why – I asked myself – just drink it? French cooking is full of cognac, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, Armagnac, Poire Williams etc added to dishes at different points in the preparation. While all these alcohols have strong tastes, and thus suitable for adding to dishes during cooking, this is not in general applicable for gin. But that’s where I thought Hendricks Gin might offer new opportunities.
An obvious choice with Hendricks is of course to make a pickled cucumber salad with some gin added to the dressing. Obvious because Hendricks contains this tasty hint of cucumber (and warm summer days). I can recommend to try this, but add the gin after boiling the vinegar marinade. In my experience that enhances the taste.
But I was more intrigued by another recipe I found on the net when looking for “cooking with gin”. The recipe is about curing fish with a mixture containing gin. While I have no doubt that this is probably originally a Nordic recipe, using aquavit rather than gin, I immediately thought it would be interesting to test with Hendricks gin.
The process for curing fish is simple if requiring patience. You take a fresh filet of salmon or sea trout – skin on. And you cover it with salt and spice based mixture, leave it in the fridge for days – depending on size of the filet – clean of the mixture and it is ready to be sliced and eaten on white bread, or crispy bread or blinis. You can also experiment with mackerel, but the fish needs to be fat to survive the curing process.
The interesting thing here was to add Hendricks gin to the mixtures of salts, pebber, lemon or lime zest and juice, juniper berries (crushed), different spices according to your taste (cumin, coriander, cardamom, chilli etc). You cover the fish in this mixture on both sides, wrapped up in film and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours.
The taste is stunning. Cured salmon is always delightful, but Hendricks adds that extra touch. And you have the opportunity to enjoy the dish with a Dry Martini with Hendricks. We all have our own
preferences for a Dry Martini. In view of the nice taste of Hendricks I would tend to go for the recipe where you place your glass in the shade of the Vermouth bottle and then you feel the glass with the shaked Hendricks gin, add the olive and enjoy. Alternatively you can of course – if you prefer your Dry Martini less dry – add a few drops of Vermouth.
Søren
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Bathed and Infused
March 23, 2012
James Watkins swears he may never buy flavored vodka ever again. That’s because Watkins, until recently beverage director of the Houston-based Azuma Group, is embracing a new cocktail “killer app”: sous-vide technology.
Yes, that same sous-vide technique used by so many chefs—cooking vacuum-sealed foods in a temperature-controlled water bath—is now being used by a growing number of mixologists to flash-brew infused spirits, bitters, tinctures, and even unusual garnishes. Hey chef, the bartender’s in the kitchen again!
The ability to quickly create unique flavored spirits is the biggest draw for bartenders. “We started to do infusion-style cocktail lists at Soma Sushi in Houston about a year and a half ago,” Watkins recalls. (Although Watkins has left Azuma to pursue other opportunities, his cocktail creations will remain on the Soma Sushi menu.) “We found that if we were steeping, it would just take too long—five to six days in order to achieve flavor.” As with many of the bartenders experimenting with sous-vide, the technology already was in use in the kitchen. “We just started playing with it. We found in three to four hours you can get an infusion completed, and it will be more intense.”
His first forays centered around infusing in-season fruit, such as strawberries or blood oranges, into Tito’s Vodka, a Texas brand that doesn’t make flavored spirits. Butternut squash, black Mission figs, and pumpkins all have since found their way into Soma’s sous-vide infusions, as well as herbs and other flavorings. Indeed, the runaway hit has been the Somajito, a Mojito riff made with Bacardi rum infused with a garden’s worth of herbs—mint, sweet basil, kaffir lime leaf, and lemongrass—via sous-vide. It’s also a relief to bartenders, who consider the popular Mojito something of an albatross, because of the labor- and time-intensive muddling required for each individual drink. “Sous-vide has also become a vehicle for more outrageous flavors, such as Soma’s lardo- and oyster-infused Bloody Marys,” Watkins says. “It gave the vodka that essence of pork and bacon, and still had acidity from the oysters. It made for amazing Bloody Marys.”
Meanwhile, Julian Cox, bartender/beverage director with five Los Angeles restaurants, notably Rivera and Picca, uses sous-vide for fat washing, creating ingredients such as brown butter rum. “We let that cook sous-vide for four hours at 165 to 170 degrees. Then we take it out of the bag, freeze it, and the fat congeals, making it easy to strain off.” Although it doesn’t shave much time off the process, mixologists report greater absorption of the fat into the spirit, and bigger flavor, compared to standard cooking techniques.
Spices, too, are given new life. Josh Berner, bartender at Ripple in Washington, D.C., first gave sous-vide a go when he wanted to make a spicy cocktail using powdered piment d’Éspelette. “Ground spices don’t infuse well,” he laments. “They fall to the bottom of the bottle in a traditional infusion, plus they sit for a long time. Our chef suggested using the vacuum sealer.”
Berner was thrilled with the results. “It worked well, it worked quickly, and I used less of the infused ingredient—one tablespoon of powdered pepper, compared to two or three in a traditional infusion.” It also retained the vibrant brick red color better than a week-long steep, which generally turns muddy brown. The final drink was called Castles Made of Sand: piment d’Éspelette–infused Milagro Silver Tequila, lime juice, and cucumber soda.
He’s also experimented with infusing Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur with saffron, which he later mixed with cherries and rye whiskey to create Fire Whiskey, inspired by the latest Harry Potter movie. The cocktail showed a dramatic flame-like range in color from dark red at the bottom to the infused, intensely golden liqueur on top.
But why stop at the liquid? Berner, for example, is developing the ultimate cocktail onion to accessorize a Gibson-style drink. He cooks pearl onions sous-vide with white wine, vinegar, and sage, which he anticipates will flavor the drink as well.
Cox uses a chamber vacuum sealer to create drink garnishes. “The essential oils push through the molecules in the fruit,” he explains. “You bite into an orange with an amazing jasmine note.” He also compresses spearmint oils into watermelon: “It makes the watermelon very fibrous and meaty, like a piece of tuna.”
Even bitters, one of the most painstaking bar products to make, is getting the benefit of sous-vide. “Normally, it takes two weeks,” Cox says. “And what if it doesn’t work? You gotta start over, and wait another two weeks. This accelerates things.”
Of course, not every mixologist has access to sous-vide equipment. All of the outlets mentioned above are restaurants. Only a few stand-alone bars have the space or the budget for a $2,000 immersion circulator and water bath. London’s Tony Conigliaro is famed as the only “mad scientist” bartender who has a bain-marie, vacuum-packing machine, a cold smoker, and a centrifuge in a laboratory above his self-dubbed “bar with no name” at 69 Colebrooke Row, where he can make a 20 minute apple-infused gin.
But what about everyone else? Many enthusiasts are playing with nitrous oxide canisters as a means for quick infusions. Others are experimenting with pressure cookers and simple hot water baths. “If you’ve got a vacuum sealer but not the immersion bath, you can fake it,” notes Scott Baird, founding partner of San Francisco–based cocktail consultancy Bon Vivants and soon-to-be bartender at Trick Dog. Baird tells tales of watching fellow bartenders create bitters in a pressure cooker in 20 minutes, or using nitrous oxide–charged canisters to blast botanicals into vodka, creating a 30 second flavored spirit. “Compared to that, sous-vide is a lower and slower braising of bitters. It’s more languorous. I don’t know if I’d choose it over the ones you steep over time, but it’s a tool. It gets the job done.”
A final note for bartenders thinking of venturing into the kitchen to “borrow” the sous-vide: you’re not just taking; you’ll likely have something valuable to give to the chef, too. Compared to a traditional week-long infusion, after just a few hours, the ingredients are still relatively intact, retaining color and shape. “That pineapple-infused Pisco? That fruit is not garbage, it’s not compost at that point,” Baird points out. “You can throw that into a pineapple upside-down cake, and it gives a different dimension of flavor.” Just be prepared to arm-wrestle the pastry chef to see who gets ownership of that lovely butter-infused Japanese whiskey.
Kara Newman
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The Singapore Sling and Cherry Heering
March 19, 2012
During an Absolut vodka party, I met with Filippo Baldan, Spirits Manager of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles. He told me about a Danish cherry liqueur that is used in the original recipe for a Singapore Sling cocktail. And indeed after investigating a bit further, I realised that he was completely right. Denmark has been able export their wares far and beyond apparently, even all the way to the Raffles in Singapore!
Cherry Heering, the main ingredient in the classic gin drink the Singapore Sling, is a Danish liqueur that is dark red and has the flavor of black cherries. It was invented in the 1700s or 1800s by its namesake, Peter Heering. Cherry Heering is made by soaking slightly crushed Danish cherries and a blend of spices in neutral grain alcohol. It is then aged in casks for up to five years, with sugar being added throughout the process to give it the slightly sweet taste.
Cherry Heering can be used as a substitute in many cocktail recipes that contain cherry brandy. Its rich flavor will add depth to many different brandy drinks, such as the Ulysses or the scotch-based Blood and Sand cocktail. Many bar tenders like to use Cherry Heering because it is such a versatile liqueur, and can be used in many drinks. A popular way to use it is in a Brigadier, which includes Cherry Heering, green Chartreuse, and hot chocolate; or in the Cherry Samba, which has Cherry Heering, cachaca, and a smoky single-malt scotch.
The Singapore Sling is the most popular cocktail for the use of Cherry Heering. It was created by a bartender at a hotel in Singapore before 1915 and today there are many different variations to the recipe that can be found. In the original recipe there was gin, Cherry Heering, Benedictine, and fresh pineapple juice. The fresh pineapple juice in this cocktail is the most important ingredient, as that is what gives it the foamy top that it is known for. Some will use a pineapple juice that is not fresh, and therefore soda water needs to be added to make the foam.
To create your own Singapore Sling at home, you will need two ounces of gin, three-quarters of an ounce of Cherry Heering, two teaspoons of Benedictine, two teaspoons of Cointreau, two ounces of fresh pineapple juice, three-quarters of an ounce of fresh lime juice, a splash of real pomegranate grenadine, and a splash oh Angostura bitters. Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, strain into a glass, and garnish with pineapple and cherry. If you do not use fresh pineapple juice, add a splash of soda water to create the signature foam on top.
From Belgium to Greeland – a love of gin!
February 6, 2012 — 5 Comments
Living in Belgium it is only natural to be a lover of gin and interested in all that is gin-related. While many claim fatherhood to gin, it seems quite logical that the origin has been the genever, the juniper-based alcohol of the low-countries. It is said that when William of Orange occupied the British throne, he imported this drink to the British isles.
The rest is history as they say. Except that gin is becoming very popular – rightly so – and some clever Danes have come up with an idea of how to combine the best of everything. The freshest and clearest water from the Greenland inland-ice mixed with juniper berries, bergamot, orange, angelica root and cardamom: The Isfjord Premium Arctic Gin – www.isfjord.com.
Greenland is rich in many things, not least fishing, nature and ice. But it is not easy to have other kind of industries so far away from the world market. The idea of using the water of the ice for distilling gin is remarkable and has also given a local boost to the economy. The licence to collect the ice is only for the pieces that naturally break of from the beautiful glacier in Illulisiat on the west coast of Greenland.
For me personally, having spent some beautiful sunny days around the glacier in Illulisiat some years ago, it is a remarkable experience to taste the view, the icebergs and the nature in a gin. You may say it colours my opinion, but I have to agree, that Isfjord Premium Arctic Gin is one of the smoothest gins I have tasted. The taste corresponds perfectly to the beauty of nature. The softness of the water does make a difference, at least for me, and the mix of herbs is just right to not overshadow the quality of the distilled liquid.
Of course the trick is to find the right way to mix this gin. I tried a Dry Martin with a squint of Noilly Prat and the zest of an orange. And it was delightful. Compared to other gins, the Isfjord allowed the Noilly Prat and the orange to take part in the drink, while still clear providing a solid basis of softness and gin-taste. I am now considering how to best drink the rest of the bottle. I am slightly reluctant to mix it with tonic water – I fear it will be the wrong way to fully appreciate the values of Isfjord Arctic Gin.
Last year, the company behind Isfjord Spirit of Greenland, won the coveted red dot award for communication design 2011. So it is also a pleasure to look at. And it is truly Greenlandish, as it has been included in the beautiful book of recipes using ingredients from Greenland, “Nerisassiassaatigut / Vores råvarer” (our ingredients), which you can find on www.greenlandtoday.com .
Regrettably, Isfjord is not (yet?) on the market in Belgium. But you can buy it in shops in Copenhagen, which is yet another good reason to go to Copenhagen.
Soren
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Carole Bouquet bij ROB
January 24, 2012
Op 25 januari zal Carole Bouquet aanwezig zijn voor een signeersessie van haar wijn.
Noteer alvast deze afspraak met de bekende Franse filmster in uw agenda : tussen 17u30 en 19u00 brengt ze ons een bezoekje om haar wijn Sangue d’Oro voor te stellen en te signeren.
Deze gouden nectar wordt gemaakt met muskaat druiven van Alexandrië die ze in haar wijngaard in Pantelleria kweekt, een eiland gelegen in het zuiden van Sicilië.
Hendrik’s Gin
December 22, 2011
Allemaal luisteren naar FM Brussel morgen tussen 12,00 en 14,00 naar Kim in Panche! We geven een super fles Hendrik’s weg, rechstreeks vanuit Schotland naar jouw buffetkast! Er is er maar eentje, dus je zal snel moeten zijn.
Lees aandachtig dit artikel en dan ben je al een stuk verder! Proficiat aan Gerard uit Roeselaere : die krijgt spoedig de fles toegstuurd!
Hendrick’s Gin is een super-premium gin met een ietwat vreemde twist. Zo wordt Hendrick’s Gin bijvoorbeeld gedistilleerd in Schotland, met z’n eeuwenlange expertise op het gebied van distilleren en de aanwezigheid van het zachte Schotse water, in dit geval uit de lokale Penwhapple bron. De gin komt uit Girvan, Zuid-Schotland. Dan is er de ongehoord hoge kwaliteit ingrediënten, welke gebruikt worden bij de bereiding van Hendrick’s. De beste smaken van een zeer vreemd en omvangrijk botanisch boeket komen uit werkelijk alle hoeken van de wereld. De bereiding vindt afzonderlijk plaats in een Carter Head still en een Bennet Still. Waar de Bennet still (een koperen distilleerketel) de ingrediënten kookt, worden de ingrediënten in de zeldzame Carter Head Still gestoomd. Door het samenvoegen van de beide spirits, ontstaat een zachte gin met zowel een stevig karakter als een balans van subtiele smaken. Normaliter wordt een kleine batch omschreven als 1.000 liter. Hiermee vergelijkend wordt Hendrick’s Gin in minuscuul kleine batches van 450 liter gedistilleerd. Hierdoor hebben de Master Distillers een hoge mate van controle om het complete bereidingsproces tot in de kleinste details in de gaten te houden en zodanig een hoge kwaliteit Gin te bereiden, welke de naam Hendrick’s waard is. Tot slot wordt Hendrick’s afgerond met een infusie van de essences met Hollandse komkommers en de oliën uit Bulgaarse rode rozenblaadjes. Dit alles maakt Hendrick’s tot een wonderbaarlijk verfrissende gin met een fleurig aroma.
Top Cape wines 2011
December 19, 2011
The Platter wine guide is the equivalent of the Michelin guide in food. Every year the top wines winning 5 stars are eagerly awaited. We have tried several of them and here our recommendations:
Diemersfontein, Chenin Blanc 2010, Carpe Diem: five stars top rating in the guide and we don’t disagree. It’s dry and zingy, sparkly apricots and a lovely smooth after taste. We give it 4,5 stars, a top Chenin Blanc. If you can only find a 2011, buy it anyway, you won’t regret it.
Spiers, Creative block 2, it has 4 Platter stars. It’s a semillon/sauvignon mix and we thought it was a bit too sharp and lemony, however for a huge Spier production machine, not a bad try. We give it 3 stars.
Meerlust Pinot Noir 2010; 4,5 Platter stars. Meerlust is our favourite Pinot Noir estate, lying just next to the autoroute it’s certainly not an idyllic location but the wines are the top of all South African wine produce. We loved the 2010, crisp, fresh, sophisticated, full body with hints of vanilla. We give it 4,5 stars, the best of Pinot Noirs from SA, we’ve tasted this year.
Oak Valley, Pinot Noir 2009. 5 Platter stars. And we don’t disagree at all; fresh, dark berries, round and mellow, it equals Meerlust. Quite deep for its age, and will improve so they say for 10 more years. So buy and taste! We give it 4,5 stars.
Kleine Zalze, Sauvignon Blanc 2011, 5 Platter stars. The very best of Sauvignon this year, refined, vanilla, candied fruits, a little fat, rounded citrus, a must-buy, also good value for money.
Hendrik’s Gin: our favourite!
December 14, 2011 — 1 Comment
Sometimes food products don’t only taste right but they can also look right. Well in my case, I’m a big fan of Hendrik’s Gin.
Hendrick’s is a premium gin made with a number of unusual twists to deliver a most curious arrangement:
Unlike ordinary gins, it’s distilled in decidedly un-ginnish Scotland. This allows them to draw upon centuries of distilling expertise and plentiful pure soft water, which is sourced from the local source. Only HENDRICK’S uses a marriage of spirits from a Carter Head and Bennet Still. By boiling the botanicals our Bennet Still (a type of Copper Pot Still) produces a spirit with great depth of flavour. Conversely the Carter-Head Still gently bathes the botanicals in vapour, hence producing a supremely smooth spirit with subtle flavour characteristics. Combining the spirits from the two stills creates a divinely smooth gin that has both the required character and balance of subtle flavours.
HENDRICK’S is handcrafted in miniscule batches of only 450 litres at a time – the smaller the batch, the more control can be exerted by Alan the stillman.
It’s made with infusions of Cucumber and Rose petals. This produces a wonderfully refreshing gin with a delightfully floral aroma.
What gives Hendrick’s its distinctive flavour?
Among the 11 different botanicals are highly aromatic coriander seeds – evoking ginger, lemon and sage – which we source from Eastern Europe and Morocco. Juniper berries from Italy provide an exotic, spicy, bittersweet taste. Musky, sweet angelica root, imported from France and Belgium, is considered by many to have healing and protecting powers. Helping to bind all these flavours to create an intricate blend is Orris root, which is aged for up to three years.
Two curiously marvellous ingredients are then painstakingly infused into the spirit one small batch at a time. The first is a lovely hint of Rose, which is extracted by gently pressing the oils from the petals. Next comes the coupe de grace – cucumbers, the essence of which is obtained by mashing the fresh fruit, then mixing the pulp with water.
What’s so special about how Hendrick’s is made?
Hendrick’s is the only gin made in a combination of a Carter-Head and copper pot still. Despite using the same palette of botanicals, the two stills produce quite different spirits.
One of only a handful remaining in the world, the Carter-Head still was originally built in 1948, but was lovingly restored by the resident coppersmiths at the Hendrick’s ‘Gin Palace’. By gently ‘bathing’ the ingredients in vapours, it produces a wonderfully light, smooth, citrus spirit.
Why is it made in Scotland?
Hendrick’s is made by reigning ISC Distiller of the Year William Grant & Sons – who are better known for their whisky making – in Girvan, on the southwest coast of Scotland. The soft lowland water provides a perfect medium for the grain spirit and botanical palettes. The source of water is shared with a nearby whisky distillery and whisky makers place extraordinarily high standards on their water supply.
Commenting on Hendrick’s, John Ross, Master Distiller, said; “our unique distillation methods allow us to gently infuse unusual ingredients such as cucumber and rose petals to produce a refreshingly fragrant concoction with a flowery aromatic oiliness. It’s this that makes Hendrick’s so exquisitely distinctive for the vanguard of gin-lovers everywhere’’.
Since Hendrick’s first went on sale in 2000, it has scooped a number of prestigious awards and accolades including a double gold medal at the 2004 San Francisco International Spirits Competition (as well as gold medals in 2000 & 2003), ‘Gin of the Year’ at the 2003 Food and Wine Magazine Awards, and voted ‘World’s Best Gin’ by the Wall Street Journal.
Of course as we all know, it’s never a good idea to drink too much, nor drink and drive, so keep this one for the specials occasions and drink with moderation!
