Whisky a Go Go with a Whisky a No Go

Whiskey Club Adventures

First four deliveries
from The Whisky Club

With membership comes privilege and a whisky club offers the chance to imbibe choice, well aged single malts and premium batches of amazing whiskies from around the world. Our first two whiskies sat on a tasty scale of 8-9/10 and are being enjoyed. The first a 12 year old single malt from Glenfarclas is for me the better tipple with a very balanced savoury fire. The 15 year old Glenfiddich had a bit too much fire for me, but a wonderful mouth feel and flavour. I have to admit I would expect nothing less from historic and revered distilleries of Scotland.

Armorik

The last offer was a French Whiskey and our curiosity was peaked. Nothing could have been further from enjoyable. Rumoured to have up-front notes of citrus and apple, soon joined by salted butter, rich oak and sea breeze the Armorik from Breton  promised much, but I found it to have a heady nose and brief promising fore notes that are rudely dismissed by a metho inferno up into the sinuses that was nothing less than olfactory rape. Oh the horror! What does one do with an undrinkable whiskey? well ... cook with it of course and hope that the metho character is cooked off.

After living with this bottled travesty for a week I gave in and keeping it's nose quality in mind I thought ... beef ...

Recipes 

Beef and Whiskey Pie

beef and whisky pie

1kg chuck steak, cubed
2 chorizti sausage, cubed
1 tbsp of olive oil
3 small brown onions, diced
1/2 cup leek, diced
5 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 large shot whisky
1 tbsp horseradish, grated
1 tspn seeded mustard
1/2 tspn Vegemite
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup of water
1/4 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1 batch of wholemeal spelt suet pastry
5 large potatoes, cut into pieces and steamed until tender
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp soured cream
large pinch salt

Fry off the choritzo releasing some of the fat, add the oil and the beef and fry, stirring, until the meat has browned.
Add the onion, leek, garlic, horseradish and mustard and sauté until the onions are translucent.

Add the Vegemite, Worcestershire, water and whisky and stir, cover and lower the temperature and simmer gently until the meat is tender, at least an hour. Check and stir occasionally to ensure that it doesn't cook dry and catch on the bottom of the pan.
Whilst you wait for the meat to tenderise, mash the potatoes with the butter and soured cream until well creamed.
Roll out the pastry to fit a pie plate, butter the pie plate and gently ease the pastry into place and shape. Place some baking paper on the pastry and fill with baking beans and bake until lightly browned. Remove and allow to cool,

beef and whisky pie

Take the meat mix off the heat and blend in the flour quickly. Return to the heat and cook the flour so that you have a thick gravy. Add some water if it gets too thick. Allow the meat to cook slightly.
Remove the baking beans and paper from your pie case and fill with your meat mixture allowing it to heap up in the middle if you have plenty. Just be careful you don't have more gravy than pie case and have an overflow issue.
Gently add the potato mash on top of the meat also allowing a heaping in the middle and use a fork to rough up the potato surface a bit.
Place your pie in a moderate oven and bake until the potato gets little brown crispy rough bits on top and the pie is heated all the way through.

Slow baked lamb in whisky and tomato relish

Slow Baked Lamb in Whisky and Tomato Relish

1 leg of lamb
3 sprigs rosemary
1 large jigger Whisky
1/2 cup tomato relish
(I had the benefit of a splendid home made relish made by the gorgeous Cherie of Tasmania)
2 pinches Murray River Salt
2 splashes olive oil

Pull half the rosemary off the bottom of each sprig and place the sprigs on a splash of olive oil in a heavy base roasting pan.
Place your leg of lamb on the rosemary and with a sharp pointed knife stab holes into the lamb into which the reserved rosemary leaves are to be inserted. You can add slivers of garlic if you wish.
Pour the Whisky making sure it dribbles into the rosemaried holes.
Pour the relish over the rosemary studded leg and season with salt and the other splash of olive oil.
Cover with a roaster lid or foil to seal in the flavour and moisture.
Place in a preheated low oven, about 150degC, for at least  hours. Remove the lid/foil for the last 1/2 hour.
Allow to rest before carving and serve with baked vegetables and some greens.

Rice Pudding with Whisky Ginger

1 cup short grain rice, rinsed
4 cups milk
1/4 tspn salt
1 vanilla pod, split
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 clove
1 stick cinnamon
10cm2 banana leaf (approx)
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup crystallised ginger, chopped
1 large jigger whisky
1 cup cream
1/2 tspn brown sugar, extra

Soak the ginger in the whisky and set aside.
Place the rice, milk, salt, vanilla bean, clove, cinnamon, banana leaf and brown sugar in a pan and bring to a simmer stirring often and for 30 minutes or until the rice is soft and creamy.
Stir the butter into the pudding dish into dessert bowls. Drizzle some whisky from the soaked ginger.
Whip the cream with the extra sugar until soft peaks are achieved and dollop unto the pudding.
Top the dessert with whiskey soaked ginger and the whisky syrup.

Whisky Devilled Kidneys

Whiskey devilled kidneys

4 lambs kidneys
1/4 cup milk
3 bacon short cut rashers, finely sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red chilli, finely sliced
2 green onions, sliced
1 tbsp whisky
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp cream
2 tbsp basil finely sliced
pinch salt
freshly ground pepper to taste

Peal any skin off the kidneys then slice off the core. Soak the kidney slices in the milk for at least an hour.
Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and fry the bacon and chilli lightly. Drain the kidneys, slice and fry with the bacon.
When the kidney slices have coloured add the green onion, whiskey and Worcestershire sauce and stir until the sauce begins to bubble off some of the alcohol.
Season and add the basil and cream the stir until the sauce thickens slightly.
Serve with rice

Adventures in Sausage Making

One of the projects we invested in with great success was mince and sausage making. Nothing quite compares to the satisfaction of frying or BBQing your very own sausage and the combinations and flavours are only your own imagination away.

We found a mincer and sausage maker on sale at Aldi and with our limited budget threw caution to the wind and grabbed it. Our happy sausage making adventures began so allow me to share some of our delightful recipes.

Garlic and pepper pork & veal sausage

Garlic & Pepper Sausage

2.4kg pork & veal
5 cloves garlic
5 tbsp fresh coarsely ground black pepper
5 tsp salt
5 tsp paprika 

½ cup chopped fresh sage ¼ loaf sour dough bread slowly toasted in a low oven
1 cup red wine 
Sausage casings (approx 3 meters well soaked overnight)

Use a mortar and pestle to pulverise the bread to produce a fine crumb
Pass all the garlic, meat and attached fat through the course mince setting.
Add the sage and all other ingredients and combine well by hand.
Pass the blended ingredients through the mincer again to ensure a homogonous mix.

Place the casing on the sausage stuffing cone and adapt for sausage stuffing.


Pass the sausage mix once more to stuff the prepared casing.


knit your sausage into smaller serving sized sausages.

Lamb & Rosemary Sausages

2.5kg lamb leg strips complete with fat
1 handful fresh rosemary tips
1 cup red wine
1 bulb garlic roasted whole in olive oil for 15-20mins in a hot oven
6 teaspoons salt
6 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3 teaspoons paprika
2 cups sour dough bread crumbs
2 metres of hog casing

pass the lamb through the mincer on a course mince setting
pass the skinned roasted garlic and the rosemary at the same time
add all other ingredients to mince and then pass it through the next finer setting.
mix well to ensure the mince is evenly flavoured
change the mincer to the sausage stuffing setting and apply the hog casing ensuring the end is knotted
feed the mince into the mincer and stuff your casing.
knitt the sausage into links or wrap in a spiral and skewer to bake whole

Links and BBQ spiral

Lamb & rosemary sausages in the making

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken sausages

Chicken Sausages

5 kg Chicken Marylands (ask the chef to debone them and reserve the bones for stock)
1 head of garlic oven roasted for 20 minutes
5 tablespoons course salt
3 tablespoons finely chopped sage
3 teaspoons paprika
1/2 cup sour dough bread crumbs
Hog casings

Method as above

Mascerating the blueberries and rind

Bambi and Smurf Sausages

3kg venison shoulder, cut into strips
1kg pork belly and pork suet fat, cut into strips
1 punnet blueberries
1 rind of seville orange, finely shredded
1 cup rosehip and fig port (or port of your choice)
2 tbsp herb salt

hog casings

Mascerate the berries and rind in the port

Bambi & smurf sausages

Method as above

These sausages were a great hit and the blue skins of the blueberries are testement that there are smurfs in there.

you can see the smurfiness!

 Served with home made chutney and a shaving of parmesan cheese ... perfect!