Whiskey Archives - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Whiskey

24
Nov
2024

Movie Night – November 2004

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Cake, Chicken, Delicious, Salad, Savoury Pies and Tarts, Snacks, Whiskey

Hello friends! Welcome to November 2004! This month, we’re going to the movies via the pages of Delicious magazine. Caution – there are puns galore in this post, so if you are not a fan, feel free to skip this one! But before you do, why not hang around and take a trip down memory lane as we look back at what was popular in November 2004!

Given this is movie night, let’s first take a look at what was at the top of the box office in November 2004. The Incredibles was the number 1 movie, with National Treasure and The Polar Express rounding out the top 3. I’ve not seen The Polar Express but I like The Incredibles and I also enjoyed National Treasure. Jumping back to 2024 for a moment, I recently watched Longlegs with Nick Cage and it was so creepy! I really enjoyed it, but it is definitely not for everyone!

Bookwise, I was quite surprised to see that I only recognised one of the books that topped the charts during the month: Northern Lights by Nora Roberts, Hour Game By David Baldacchi (this was the one I had heard of), Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich and London Bridges by James Patterson. I was a huge fan of the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich but Metro Girl completely passed me by!

The top three songs also got a “meh” response from me: My Boo by Usher and Alicia Keys, Dropp It Like It’s Hot by Snoop Dog, and Lose My Breath by Destiny’s Child Iam very glad to tell you that this month’s menu did not get that reaction. So, let’s take a look!

“Sunset” Boulevard

Let’s kick off our movie night with a Boulevard, which is a take on the Boulevadier, a Parisian Cocktail from the 1920s. The Boulevard packs a punch as it contains Bourbon, Grand Marnier and Vermouth! It actually reminds me of the famous quote from Sunset Boulevard. In the scene, Joe Gillis, a young and poor screenwriter, meets Norma Desmond, a former silent movie star dreaming of making her comeback.

“You used to be big,” he says.

She responds “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small”.

Well, like the film I’ve matched it with, the Boulevard is big! Sip slowly while enjoying the brilliance that is the film Sunset Boulevard!

Phantomato of The Opera Tarts

I loved these! They were so delicious! The combination of sweet caramlised onions, the tanginess of the goat’s curd and sweet bite of the cherry tomatoes was Chef’s kiss perfect. I could not find mustard cress so garnished my little tartlets with basil leaves. The phantomato tarts are sure to have you singing an aria of joy when you taste them!

Chinatown Chicken Salad

This was the first recipe I chose for this film night post because it seemed too good to be true that here was a direct reference to a film. (For new readers, I chose the topics for these 20 years ago posts via a random number generator). And yes, the name was incredibly fortuitous, but….I just didn’t love the salad. It wasn’t terrible. It was just a bit bland.

The second day I ate this, I added some baby corn and some crispy chilli oil to liven things up a bit, and that did make it better. I also didn’t have any coriander (cilantro) so I added some Thai Basil which to me is a far superior herb. Not everything is for everyone, though, and I’m sure many other people would find this delicious! Personally, I might have liked it better with the duck, which is given as an option instead of chicken. However, for me, this quote is my view on the Chinatown Chicken Salad!

Passionfruit Roulade of The Christ

Interestingly, both The Phantom of the Opera and The Passion of The Christ were released in 2004! So, technically, a movie buff in November 2004 could have themed a dinner party exactly like this. I added some whipped cream into the roulade along with the passionfruit curd.

And what a way to finish! The passionfruit roulade is as light as air with a little zing coming from the passionfruit so it is also not overly sweet! One might say it is divine!

My Nigella Moment – Polka Dot Popcorn

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that may not fit with the overall menu theme, but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share.

This month, my Nigella moment is definitely in theme! Because what’s a movie night without some popcorn? When I was growing up, we had a snack food called Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs, which were a combination of caramel popcorn and peanuts. This gave me the same vibes, plus a wave of nostalgia! It’s really yummy, and if you wanted to throw in some peanuts for a really Lolly Goggle Bliss Bomb effect, who could blame you?

I hope you have enjoyed Movie Night from November 2004. For me, the month was a little hit-and-miss.

I am taking a weekend break next week to travel to Queensland to catch up with some family. I will do my best to set up the next post to send out on Sunday morning at the regular time. However, if things go awry and that doesn’t happen, I will be back Sunday evening and will do my best to send it out manually then. Apologies in advance if it is late.

Have a great week!

14
Sep
2015

Nuwara Eliya & A Tea Punch Cocktail

categories: 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Books, Cocktail, Peaches, Sri Lanka, Travel, Whiskey

If you were looking to write a Gothic novel, your first choice of location would most likely not be tropical Sri Lanka. Because the tropes of Gothic novels include storms, rain, mist and fog and Sri Lanka is all sunshine, white sand, blue water and palm trees right?

Wrong, so wrong. Welcome to Nuwara Eliya.

Situated “up country” Nuwara Eliya is about as far away most people’s idea of a “tropical” country as you can get. This is a famous tea growing district – all of the bushes you can see in the photo above are tea plants. We were there for three days and the weather was like this the entire time, all low swirling clouds, fog, mist and rain.

As we climbed higher and higher into the hills, the weather changed from hot and sunny, to cold and gloomy. It was as if you were entering a different, very isolated world – even though the nearest town was only a few kilometers away and you could usually get a decent wifi signal.

As well as the weather, a good Gothic novel should be set in a (preferably haunted) old mansion or manor house. Nuwara Eliya is nicknamed Little England and The Hill Club, where we stayed, would not look out of place on the Yorkshire Moors.

I’ve read enough Agatha Christie and watched enough episodes of Midsomer Murders to know that the English Manor house is actually a hot bed of murder and sexual intrigue. If it’s not a pyromaniac mad woman in the attic, it’s something nasty in the woodshed!

The Hill Club may well be the one place where the sun hasn’t set on the British Empire. Staying there is like taking a step back in time. I suspect that not even in Britain today are there many hotels where one wall in the bar is adorned with a large portrait of the Queen and another with an equally large photo of Winston Churchill. And this is not someone’s idea of a decorating a hotel with some kitschy memorabilia from the days of Empire. This is a Hotel from the days of Empire. Actually, sorry, not a hotel at all. A gentlemen’s club.

The olde-worlde atmosphere only contributed to the feeling that you had somehow strayed into either some sort of time slip stream or parallel universe. I would not have been entirely surprised to wake and find myself back the 1940’s or to see a ghostly figure roaming the halls. Speaking of which, there was also a long corridor which could have come direct out of The Shining:

Add to this some flickering lights and power outages caused by the storm and you have almost the perfect place to gather around the fire in the reading room either to read your favourite Gothic novel by candlelight or to see who can make up the spookiest story. Who knows, it may even be the next Frankenstein!

But telling ghost stories can be thirsty work, so whilst you are doing that you need the perfect libation to not only wet your whistle but give you some Dutch courage in the event that a large hound starts baying outside or the tap, tap, tapping on the window turns out not to be a tree branch but your dead lover come to woo you from the grave.

All of which, after the longest intro, ever means, I made us a cocktail.

I wanted to make something with tea to highlight the wonderful produce from Nuwara Eliya. And, in a wonderful piece of serendipity, the very next chapter of The A-Z of Cooking contained a recipe for a tea punch. (Yes, we are still only up to D – Dips and Drinks).

Sadly, the Tea Punch in The A-Z of Cooking was non-alcoholic. So, I boozed it up. Because in my mind, a punch needs to have a little punch if you know what I mean.

My only dilemma with this was what to use as the “spike” for my tea. Absinthe would have been the Byronesque choice however I can’t bear the taste of it nor the big shirts with frilly collars.

Arrack was my next choice because I brought a bottle home with me, but that would be no fun for any of you. Arrack is a Sri Lankan spirit made from toddy, which is the fermented juice from a coconut palm.

I then found this wonderful article in Gothicked which confirmed not only spiked tea as a Gothic drink of choice but also whiskey. I still had some Jameson’s from when I made the Emerald Presse so I used that.

The original recipe called for Orange Bitters, I had Rhubarb Bitters so I used them instead.

Whether you are in a Gothic Manor house or at home just reading about them, this is a really nice drink – the combination of the tea, whiskey and ginger give it a dark, smokey flavour whilst the peach and orange adds some sweetness and a lovely bright tropical colour!

If you are a reader and you were interested in learning a bit more about Sri Lanka, particularly the civil war that tore that beautiful country apart in the ’80’s and ’90’s you might want to take a look at this book:

I read it when we were there which made the story that much more real, particularly as completely by chance we stayed at two of the places, Mount Lavinia and Havelock Town which feature in the book.

And if anyone is inspired by this post to write a spooky Gothic tale or locked room murder mystery set in Nuwara Eliya, please let me know, I would love to read it!

Signature 1

Tea Punch Cocktail

Print Recipe

A tropical cocktail with a dark heart

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

50ml strong Ceylon tea
30ml whiskey
30 ml peach juice
30 ml orange juice (about 1/2 an orange)
5 drops Rhubarb Bitters
Dry Ginger Ale
Orange and peach slices to garnish

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Mix the tea, whiskey and fruit juices.
Top with the dry ginger ale.
Add the bitters and stir to mix.
Garnish with orange and peach slices

16
Mar
2015

Whiskey in The Jar – The Emerald Presse

categories: Cocktail, Ireland, St Patrick's Day, Whiskey

I was so disappointed with my attempt at an Irish Potato Salad Roll that it drove me to drink.

Quite luckily as it happened because that particular cab on the road to rack and ruin drove me right up to the Emerald Presse. And you know, if there’s one other thing the Irish are famous for outside of potatoes, corned beef and cabbage, it’s drinking. And the Emerald Presse will tickle the tastebuds of even the most fastidious of Fassnidges.

Emerald Presse1

I’m not normally a whiskey drinker so I was not sure how this would taste. I liked the idea of the mint, apple and lime even though they seemed a weirdly light combination for what I always think of as being a heavy drink.

Anyhoo….Put ’em together and have you got? Not bibbidi-bobbidi-boo but…My new favourite drink!!!!

The flavours worked really well together. That little frizzante from the sparkling apple juice also added some lightness to it. In my best Irish accent this was the fooking craic!!!! I can’t even begin to tell you how delicious this is. You need to make it immediately and come back to me.

Go on

I’ll still be here when you get back.

Now, take that first sip and “Ohhhhh…..Yeah, sooooooo good”

Then we’ll have a sneaky second. Just because that sparkling apple juice isn’t going to sparkle forever.

The original recipe for this called for 45 ml of Jameson’s. When I measured this out, it looked like a huge amount of whiskey. I scaled mine back to around 30mls and found it about right for my taste. You can scale up or down according to your preference.

Styling Tip

If you really wanted your whiskey in a jar, this would look really cute served in mason jars – in which case you probably could use the full 45ml of Jameson’s.

[yumprint-recipe id=’27’] Happy St Patrick’s Day, may the road rise to meet you!