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A Single Malt Christmas Result
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I personally ate far too much and washed it all down with some fantastic whiskies.
For anyone who attempted to make a Christmas pudding, I thought I better post some photographic evidence of my own Macallan filled pudding.
Cheers,
Craig
In my glass: Glenrothes 1985 -
Recipe: A Single Malt Christmas
I must admit that I hate thinking about Christmas before December, but there is one thing that must be contemplated at least a month in advance. The famous Whisky Christmas Pudding!
A couple of years ago I decided to make my first ever Christmas pudding. A traditionally boozy dessert full of rich dried fruits and oodles of spices, not to mention a bottle of whisky. It is a great triumph to get one of these right. This recipe is taken from the BBC food website, but of course we have substituted the brandy for some lovely Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
The trick is to make this as early as possible and feed it with some amazing Whisk(e)y to ensure an incredibly rich flavour come the festive season! This year I’m going with a stunning bottle (that’s right, the whole bottle will be in the pudding by Christmas Day) of sherry casked 10 year old Macallan.
Here’s what you will need:
Ingredients:- 225g/8oz golden caster sugar
- 225g/8oz vegetarian suet
- 340g/12oz sultanas
- 340g/12oz raisins
- 225g/8oz currants
- 110g/4oz candied peel, chopped
- 110g/4oz plain flour
- 110g/4oz fresh white breadcrumbs
- 55g/2oz flaked almonds
- 1 lemon, zest only
- 5 eggs, beaten
- 1 level tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 level tsp mixed spice
- 5g/1 level tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 150ml/5fl oz Single Malt Whisky (The Macallan 10 year old)
Method:1. Lightly grease 4x600ml/1 pint or 2x1.2 litre/2 pint pudding basins.2. Mix together all dry ingredients
3. Stir in the eggs and Whisky and mix well
4. Spoon the mix into basins. Put a circle of baking parchment and foil over the top of each basin and tie securely with string. Make a string handle from one side of the basin to the other so it is easier to pick the basin out of the pan after cooking
5. Put the basins in a large steamer of boiling water and cover with a lid. Boil for 5-6 hours, topping the boiling water up from time to time, if necessary. If you do not have a steamer, put the basins in a large pan on inverted saucers on the base. Pour in boiling water to come a third of the way up the sides of the pudding bowls. Cover and steam as before.6. Cool. Change the baking parchment and foil covers for fresh ones and tie up as before. Store in a cool cupboard until Christmas Day. Be sure to add more Macallan every couple of days so the pudding soaks up all of the Whisky’s flavour and aroma.7. To serve, steam for 2 hours and serve with brandy butter, rum sauce, cream or homemade custard.I’d show you the steamed product, however it’s still steaming away!Let me know how you get on!Cheers,CraigIn my glass: Courvoisier Exclusif as I had no use for it in the recipe! -
Cocktail Corner: The Hot Toddy
As the winter sets in, and I lie here with Manflu, I have decided to share my favourite recipe to help get over the cold, or at least make you forget you have one. (I occasionally use it as a preventative.
The Toddy I have used for the past few years was learned from a very good friend of mine, Laura Hay. Here is Laura’s recipe passed down through generations.
Ingredients:
50ml The Naked Grouse Scotch Whisky
1 Lemon Wedge
1 tbs of Honey
4 Cloves
1 Cinnamon Stick (my own optional extra)
Hot Water
Method:
1. Rinse a mug with boiling water
2. Squeeze the lemon wedge into a mug
3. Drizzle in the honey
4. Add the Whisky
5. Stud the lemon wedge with the cloves and drop into the Whisky
6. Top up with boiling water
7. Stir it all together with the Cinnamon stick
Enjoy. You’ll feel better in no time.
Cheers,
Craig
In my glass: Doesn’t matter, I can’t smell a thing with my blocked nose… -
A Day Out in Pitlochry…
After a couple of posts regarding food pairing, and a couple of recipes explaining how to make Whisky desserts, a good friend of mine got in touch to tell me about his favourite recipe book.
Whisky Kitchen: 100 Ways With Whisky and Food
He went one better and offered to cook a couple of dishes from the book to show how easy they were to follow. This called for a Whisky Adventure in his home town of Pitlochry.
Pitlochry is a quaint yet extremely busy highland town with masses of history from Jacobean battles to Mafia linked distilleries and everything in between. It is a place I will always hold extremely close to my heart as it was the summer holiday destination for my parents, my siblings and most of our extended family for the best part of my childhood.It was the kind of place where we paddled in the river, rowed in the loch, watched the fish dance and walked for miles to the local pub for a pint and the local catch. A magical place where my curiosity in the whisky industry flourished as I got to explore the then smallest distillery in Scotland, Edradour, the classic malt of Dalwhinnie, the unsung hero in Blair Athol and the wonderful Aberfeldy. An excuse to stop here is one I will never turn down!So fellow Adventurer Patsy Christie and I jumped in the car and headed north to Kindallachan to meet our wonderful friend and Red Bull connoisseur Iain Wisely and his colleague and partner in crime fighting (they’re lawyers) Francis.Our first stop of the day was McKays. Added bonuses all around as we discovered a mixed grill breakfast platter with ham, steak, Stornoway black pudding, chicken, sausages and an egg as well as a chicken wings(best in Scotland)/tattie skins/nachos combo platter all accompanied by some great live music. Brunch and Dancing, cannae beat it!
This was effectively our battle planning arena as Iain set out his grand plan of combining Whisky with food. We heard wonderful stories about haggis soup, chicken with a whisky reduction and some Fiery Irn Bru to wash it all down. After the plan was called, we headed out.
It was pouring with rain. Our initial objective was to climb Ben Vrackie before sharing some Highland Park at the top. Unfortunately it was shrouded in cloud, so instead we headed for the black spout working up a sweat and eventually landing at Edradour. A distillery that despite it’s modern visitor centre still looks like a time capsule. Tiny little worm tubs and a morton refrigerator are a couple of highlights for the geeks, and the sheer range of Signatory Vintners bottles will leave any serious collector in awe. The Whisky is fantastic as well!On the way back we stopped at everyone’s favourite bar: The Moulin Inn. Character, warmth, good humour and dogs allowed, what more could you ask for. Oh yeah, and great pub grub!
After a pint of local brew we headed back to Iain’s for our starter. The fabled Haggis Soup with a smidgeon of cask strength Tobermory, fabled to bring grown men to their wobbly knees, calling on Bruce and Hugh as Billy Connolly might have put it. The reasons for such mytghs became quickly apparent as Iain’s smidgeon is like an old style dram. I couldn’t finish the bowl as I had to drive, Patsy just couldn;t finish the bowl and Francis had to leave the room as the fumes were getting to us. Definitely a stag do starter! Less whisky though and this would have been magical!
After the soup had settled we decided to wander around Pitlochry’s Enchanted forest. This is a must see for any visitor. Run every October, the local foliage and gardens are engulfed in a wonderful light and sound show which will make everyone from 5 to 55 gasp in delight and feel at peace with the world. Quality!
After an hour lost in the magic of it all, Iain brought out his Pièce de résistance. His chicken was cooked perfectly, coated in a balsamic, mustard and Singleton of Dufftown sauce. Served with spinach and tomatoes, the whisky shown through without making anyone fall over.
This recipe is worth the price of the book alone! The morale of the story, follow the recipes, their usually right!Cheers,CraigIn my glass: Singleton of Dufftown, garnished with some chicken and mustard. -
Recipe: Lagavulin Whisky Torte
Good morning Whisky Adventurers,
I am about to embark on a wee Whisky Adventure to Pitlochry today, climbing hills, visiting Edradour and checking out the Enchanted Forest.
While I’m out exploring, I thought I’d post a recipe for my famous Whisky Torte.
This is an adaptation from a recipe I saw in a charity recipe book a few years back. It is incredibly versatile and can be made with a number of different drams, as well as chocolates. My favourite combination is Lagavulin DE and 85% cocoa chocolate. A peaty finish to a rich chocolatey monster! Here’s how you do it:
Ingredients:
250g chocolate digestives
90g butter
340g dark chocolate
500ml double cream
25-50ml Whisky (you decide)
Method:
Method:
1. Whizz biscuits in blender
2. Melt butter in saucepan and add to biscuits and mix. Spread the mixture evenly in a tin (tart or pie pan) with a removable base and put in fridge to chill.
3. Melt the chocolate in a microwave, checking and stirring 30 seconds at a time to make sure that it does not burn.
4. Whip the cream until it makes soft peaks
5. Warm the whisky in a microwave for 30 seconds - make sure it is warm and not hot. Add the chocolate mixture, stir and fold it may look like it will separate but keep mixing.
6. Add the Whisky and chocolate mixture to the whipped cream and fold.
7 Spread the mixture evenly on top of the biscuit base and leave in fridge for approx 6 hours
Other possibilities:
Originally the recipe called for Baileys and Irish Whiskey with White Chocolate, lovely.
Macallan Fine Oak is great with White Chocolate, light and delicate with a zing at the end.
Highland Park is amazing with Orange Chocolate, sink into this cake.
Aberlour with Dark Chocolate is like the Shimmy and the Shake, a perfect marriage!
The possibilities are endless.
Let me know how you get on.
Cheers,
Craig
In my hipflask: Scotch Malt Whisky Society 4.155 a true hillwalking dram! -
Recipe: Craig’s Edible Peat
When was the last time you had a Whisky lunch?
Whisky and food matching is an extremely enjoyable thing to do, and one which can be terribly hit or miss. What I can say, is that the beauty in food pairing with whisky is the plethora of results and the diversity of opinions. The Adventuring, the Experimenting and the Experience of sharing these weird and wonderful delights is a joy to behold.Food pairing was probably the hardest part of my job, until I realised that my audience were far more interested in the story behind the choices than the choices themselves. As with everything in life, we all have an opinion and we are entitled to it. A pairing that gets some people singing, might encourage others to revisit their breakfast. You can’t please all of the people all of the time, but you can get them chatting about their experiences. This led me to the following rule of thumb:When food pairing with whisky, always try to Compliment or Contrast, and always be open to feedback regarding the marriage, expanding your experiences as you go. Here are a couple of my more triumphant pairings and their alternatives:A salty, briny, fishy whisky is incredible at taming a robust smoked fish chowder, yet the same dish can be exacerbated with a gorgeous and deep peardrop and vanilla flavour profile.orA full blown sherried whisky is the perfect compliment to a nice haunch of venison, yet it can also allow a blue cheese to blast off on the palate.But occasionally you will come across a whisky that does not want to play ball…
The difficulty generally comes from the peat monsters. These whiskies are generally too smoky and can easily mask a cuisine. (I did meet a guy from Texas once who glazed his roast with Lagavulin, but I found out that this was more a measure to keep others away from his red meat than to heighten any flavour expectations. Turns out his friends hated peaty whisky.) How can we get around this most intense of flavours? The answer is simple. Serve them up with a side of peat.Last year, I had the difficult task of matching Ardbeg to food. Everyone agreed that it was too overpowering for everything. But never one to back away from a challenge, I decided to put my apron on and get to work in the kitchen. I decided that the best thing to match a peaty whisky with was peat itself. Therefore I developed this edible version of our favourite fossil fuel:
It looks like peat, it can have the consistency of peat, and with enough Ardbeg it smells like peat smoke too. If you want to shock a group of 100 whisky enthusiasts, just explain all about peat with a piece of this in your hand finishing with the line “and what 99.9% of the world don’t realise, is that it is 100% edible…” Then chuck it in your mouth.Let me know how you get on, I’d love to hear your feedback and see your photos and tweaks to this recipe. You can share them with me on Twitter.Cheers,Craig
In my glass: Ardbeg Alligator and a chunk of Craig’s Edible Peat
Here you will find all interesting things I come across in the world of Scotch Whisky as I travel and spread the wit and wisdom over a dram or two...
