Garbarsardar's cookbook

[MoROmeTe]

If you do not like beer, you're not gonna like the Cannon... Plus it is usually something we mix at parties after we've allready had a few drinks...

[MoROmeTe]

OK... on a more conservative note...

How to serve wine

The old saying that cooler is better is not quite true. A younger and cheaper wine can be served cold, is better served cold, as it the cool temperature can mask some imperfections. A better, older wine has to be served a little warmer, right under the temperature of the room, so that it can "express" itself.

Red wine: 13 - 20 degrees Celsius
White wine: 9 - 14 degrees Celsius
Rose wine: 9 - 12 degrees Celsius

Also a typical refrigerator will chill wine at a rate of 2 degrees Celsius for every 10 minutes.

When drinking wine never fill the glass to the top. Filling it 2/3 of the glass let's the wine "express" itself.

White wine needs to be served in a taller, tulip shaped glass while red wine needs a rounder and wider glass. This one I never respect...

[Tom Paine]

in vino veritas

[Nihil]

How to serve wine

The old saying that cooler is better is not quite true. A younger and cheaper wine can be served cold, is better served cold, as it the cool temperature can mask some imperfections. A better, ilder wine has to be served a little warmer, right under the temperature of the room, so that it can "express" itself.

Red wine: 13 - 20 degrees Celsius
White wine: 9 - 14 degrees Celsius
Rose wine: 9 - 12 degrees Celsius

Yup, red must be nice and warm. My father, who even after retiring from his journalistic career, still continues to write his weekly wine column for the paper (attracted by the perks of the job: plenty of free wine and trips to vineyards all over the world, the lucky scoundrel), and will often be seen placing his (complimentary) bottles of red near the fire in winter months, to ensure a healthy temperature (just before "reviewing" them, which looks suspiciously like drinking them to you and I).

When drinking wine never fill the glass to the top. Filling it 2/3 of the glass let's the wine "express" itself.

The glass should then be emptied rapidly; then refilled, then emptied, etc etc. :wink:

White wine needs to be served in a taller, tulip shaped glass while red wine needs a rounder and wider glass. This one I never respect...

Me neither. I have also been known to quaff straight from the bottle when I can't find a glass. What a crazy, devil-may-care renegade I am!

[MoROmeTe]

Quaffing from the bottle is not a good idea... You cannot get any taste from the wine, as you need to breathe to get the full flavor. And also it can get you pretty drunk, pretty quick. Hope you have a designated driver...

[Nihil]

Quaffing from the bottle is not a good idea... You cannot get any taste from the wine, as you need to breathe to get the full flavor. And also it can get you pretty drunk, pretty quick. Hope you have a designated driver...

"Needs must when the devil drives," as they say. If you have no glass, you have to just soldier bravely ahead. :wink:

[MoROmeTe]

OK as Garb seems to be more interested in hid Fight Club (And I am a beautiful and unique snowflake) I'll post another one of my killer beverage recipes. Please, any comment (like, don't like, why) is apreciated and any suggestion is welcomed...

Black Maria (for just one cocktail)

Coffe - 2 tablespoons
Vodka - 50 ml
Milk - 200 - 300 ml
Sugar - 1 tablespoon

Make yourself a coffe. Just the way you like it. But refrain from drinking it... Please. Otherwise you'll have to make yourself another cup. Then pour the vodka in a tall glass and then look for your coffe. You can either 1) mix the milk with the coffe and then pour it evenly over the vodka or 2) mix the coffe with the vodka and then pour over the milk. 1) produces a nicer mix while 2) produces a tastier beverage, it has been said.

One could add a few beans of coffe in the drink or a tablet of chocolate, sour, my personal choice...

Enjoy!

[Garbarsardar]

So that would be the Russian response to the "Irish cofee" ? Nice, I'll give it a try later, since I happen to have all the ingredients ready.


Well since we venture into cocktail land here's one I was drinking in FREVD bar, London.

AZTEC
3 shots of yellow Tequila
2 shots melted black chocolate (for the melting see fried bananas recipe)
teaspoon honey
Tabasco or chili powder to taste.

Melt the chocolate, let it cool a bit add the rest. Pour into shaker filled with ice, shake violently. Serve in martini glass (frozen-without the ice).

...and for Nihil:

A Greek's Dublin.

12 inch Pie pastry

1 or 2 pounds of Round steak

1 tablespoon of Flour

1 tablespoon of Brown sugar

1 tablespoon of Raisins

1 tablespoon cinnamon

5 medium size onions

1 bottle of Guinness stout (not the 'draught' variety)

1 glass of port

8 slices of bacon

3 tablespoon of olive oil
Some Chopped parsley, mint, spearmint,salt&pepper


Have a glass of Port

Dice the steak, cover with flour and brown, with the

bacon, on a medium heat using the butter. Peel and chop

the onions and brown over a good heat. Add to the meat

in a caserole dish. Add raisins cinnamon and brown sugar,

Guinness and Port. Cover the dish, simmer and cook over a lowish

heat for 2.5 hours. Now you can finish the rest of the port.Add water if the gravy mixuture

starts to thicken excessively. Or ask somebody else to do it. Coat a pie dish with half

of the pastry and bake. Add the Meat and Gravy mix (and all the ingredients not mentionned earlier) when

cooked and place the remaining pastry on top and bake

for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Listening to the Strangler's tune twice is time enough Serve with salad.

SALAD

Goat cheese(slightly better if grilled)
Honey
Mustard
Balsaamic vinegar:mixed to medium consistency.
Greenery of choice-as long as it isn't iceberg lettuce.


Tell me about it.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

ok Garb, as promised (threatened?) here's a recipe for Haggis which I have made for some friends over from USA. It's an easy one where you don't need a sheep's stomach (which are always hard to get) and is fairly 'americanised' so all the real 'nasty' bits are left out :laughing:

Eat with loads of whisky (of course)

1 lb boneless lamb shoulder or breast, cut into pieces (or ground lamb)
1/2 lb lamb liver, cut into pieces
1/2 c water
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 large egg
3/4 ts salt
3/4 ts pepper, black
1/2 ts sugar
1/4 ts ginger, ground
1/8 ts cloves, ground
1/8 ts nutmeg, ground
1 c oats, rolled, old fashioned
Heat oven to 350-F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf pan.

In food processor with chopping blade, process together half of the lamb, the liver, water, onion, egg, salt, pepper, sugar, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg until well combined. Add the remaining half of the lamb and the oats; process until well combined.

Spoon lamb mixture into the greased pan; pat surface to level. Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until center feels firm when gently pressed. Cool 5 minutes in pan; unmold onto platter; slice and serve.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

and on the drinking front, the best, most lethal and totally evil party 'drink' in the world (parts of Cape Town SA are still recovering from the party I hosted serving these things , the poor South Africans had never met them - that's what years of sanctions can do for you ).

Recipe amounts are based on the packets of jelly you can buy in Britain.

Get a packet of fruit jelly (or preferably, several packets of different flavours & colours). Strong flavours (blackcurrent, strawberry, orange) work best.

Cut it up and mix it with boiling water (about 150ml), but basically you need to use the minimum amount of boiling water possible to melt all the jelly.

Now add the liquid. Normal (British) jelly packets need about 750ml of liquid for the jelly to set. So a 'safe' combination is: 200ml of cold water to 250ml of vodka. If you have a good freezer and can be certain you can serve the jellies cold, put in less water and more vodka. (the SA jellies were 100% vodka straight out of the freezer)

Pour the jelly liquid into ice-cube trays and put in the freezer/fridge to set.

For an added twist you can add stuff into the jelly liquid (we added insects :original: ), makes for fun party games......

[imb39]

For an added twist you can add stuff into the jelly liquid (we added insects ), makes for fun party games......

excuse me whilst I grab a paper bag

[Garbarsardar]

Excuse my protege, dear Tactical; he has not developed yey the required thikness of protective stomach's coating, so needed for gastrimargic orgies. This is the Symposium imb39. Expect the worst!

About the Haggis: We can find easily sheep's stomach in Taiwan. In this case do I boil the lot?

About the Lethal Jelly:why not add worms as in Mezcal (tequila)? In fact I have a Mezcal in the freezer right now

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

excuse me whilst I grab a paper bag

strangely enough, that's what most people at the party did too, can't think why
We did it in rounds, if you drank/ate the shot you got into the next round. Started with meal worms (the things you fish with) and carried on from there. I'm proud (?) to say that all but the europeans and antipodeans had dropped out by round 5 (grasshoppers), the last aussie dropped out in round 7 (centipedes) and the winner (a Dane) was the only one who would eat the cockroach (round 9) and then capped his triumph with eating the shongollollo (a large millipede). Very good night all round.

Garb, if you can get the bits a 'full' recipe is: WARNING - those of a tender disposition do not read on

1 sheep's stomach, thoroughly cleaned
The liver, heart, and lights (lungs) of the sheep
1 lb Beef suet
2 large Onions
2 tb Salt
1 ts Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 ts Cayenne or red pepper
1/2 ts Allspice
2 lb Dry oatmeal (the old-fashioned, slow-cooking kind)
2-3 cups broth (in which the liver, heart and lights were cooked)


Thoroughly wash the stomach bag in cold water. Turn it inside out and scald it, then scrape the surface with a knife. Soak it in cold salted water overnight. Next day remove the bag from the water and leave it on one side. Cut the heart off the large blood vessels and cut it open to rinse it, so that it can cook more quickly. The liver, too, has to be freed from the rest. Put them in a 4-quart pot with 2 to 3 cups water, bring to a boil, and simmer for about an hour and a half. Let it all cool, and keep the broth.

Run the liver and heart through the meat grinder. Take the lungs and cut out as much of the gristly part as you easily can, then run them through the grinder, too.

Next, put the raw beef suet through the grinder. As you finish grinding each thing, put it in the big kettle. Peel, slice and chop the onions, then add them to the meat in the kettle. Add the salt and spices and mix.

The oatmeal comes next, and while it is customary to toast it or brown it very lightly in the oven or in a heavy bottomed pan on top of the stove, this is not absolutely necessary. When the oatmeal has been thoroughly mixed with the rest of it, add the 2 cups of the broth left from boiling the meat.

See if when you take a handful, it sticks together. If it does, do not add the third cup of broth. If it is still crumbly and will not hold together very well, add the rest of the broth and mix thoroughly. Have the stomach smooth side out and stuff it with the mixture, about three-quarters full. Sew up the openings. Wrap it in cheesecloth, so that when it is cooked you can handle it.

Now, wash out the kettle and bring about 2 gallons of water to a boil in it. Put in the haggis and prick it all over with a skewer so that it does not burst. You will want to do this a couple of times early in the cooking span. Boil the haggis gently for about 4 or 5 hours. If you did not have any cheesecloth for wrapping the haggis, you can use a large clean dishtowel. Work it under with kitchen spoons to make a sling with which you can lift out the haggis in one piece. You will probably want to wear lined rubber gloves to protect your hands from the hot water while you lift it out with the wet cloth. (You put the dish cloth in the pot only after the haggis is done; you do not cook the towel with the haggis as you would the cheesecloth.)

Note: Even if the butcher has cleaned the stomach, you will probably want to go over it again. Turn the stomach shaggy side out and rinse. Rub it in a sinkful of cold water. Change the water and repeat as many times as necessary, until the water stays pretty clear and handling it does not produce much sediment as the water drains out of the sink.

[Garbarsardar]

I think it deserves my full attention and also the title I gave to it in the first page of the thread...
Well done, sheep here I come (not to be sang in Wales)!

[imb39]

See, Scottish quisine - so much more... appealing...

[Nihil]

I say, the cookbook has entered a dark chapter. Insects and innards, anyone? Yummy!

[Tom Paine]

See, Scottish quisine - so much more... appealing...

I'd say you need to drop an "e", but there you are. Although a good haggis is actually quite nice...

[imb39]

Humph. What have the French done for quisin?

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

added far too much rich sauces ........

ps. I will not be posting the recipe for deep-fried marsbar (it's an urban myth), although deep-fried pizza .........

See, Scottish quisine - so much more... appealing...

why do you think we invented/perfected whisky?

I say, the cookbook has entered a dark chapter. Insects and innards, anyone? Yummy!

Hey, at least I left it optional for those of you with a delicate\decedant palate

Anyway Garb, if you are going to try to make it (not sure whether that counts as brave or foolhardy, i particularly like the line 'Turn the stomach shaggy side out and rinse' )
you'll need clapshot to go with it:

Clapshot
1 pound boiled (and peeled) potatoes
1 pound boiled turnip
1 or 2 tablespoons chopped chives
1 Small Onion (finely chopped)
Salt and pepper
2 ounces butter or margarine

Method:
Beat/Mash the Potatoes and Turnip together while still hot and mix in the butter, chives, small onion and seasoning in order to make a light consistency. Season well with salt and pepper. Can be served as a meal with haggis or as an accompaniment to many stews or fried meats

[Garbarsardar]

Humph. What have the French done for quisin?

Methinks he meant to drop an "e" from appealing.
(P.S. cooking in french it's cuisine.)

And Squeacus need to drop a "u"...