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Wickedly good Halloween cocktails

Here’s a guest blog from Garry and Adam, highlighting the two bespoke cocktails we’re serving up for Halloween this year in our top floor bar, The Black Cat.

Pumpkin Reviver

This is an autumnal spiced riff on the classic corpse reviver. It’s just the thing for reanimating lifeless bodies on All Hallow’s Eve!

Ingredients:
50ml Pumpkin Bourbon
15ml Maple Syrup
1 Clove
1 teaspoon Cinnamon Sugar
30ml Half and half (half milk, half double cream)
1 small pinch of 5 spice powder

Home Made Ingredients

To make your pumpkin bourbon, find a Tupperware, or other vessel. Take a packet of pumpkin seeds and some bourbon (although any dark spirit will do i.e. Scotch, Dark Rum, Brandy) place both in to your vessel and leave for 2 or 3 days. For added flavour, grind up the seeds.

To make cinnamon Sugar – get 3 parts sugar and mix with 1 part ground cinnamon (if you prefer to use sugar syrup, add 2 parts of the cinnamon sugar you have just made to 1 part of hot water and stir until sugar has dissolved).

Method

Add all ingredients in to a Boston shaker, or coffee flask if you don’t possess bar kit
Stir for about 30 seconds without ice in order to help the sugar dissolve
Add as much ice as possible to your tin and give a good hard shake for about 10 seconds
Strain the drink in to a stemmed glass, with a coupe being the best option (wine glass will do!)
Finish off by serving it on a crisp, clean autumnal leaf that’s fallen straight off a tree, adding a minuscule pinch of cinnamon on top, accompanied by a fresh pear.
This drink can also be served warm, just add all the ingredients to a pan, keep on low heat and stir until the drink is warm. Serve in a teacup with the same garnishes.

The Black Cat’s Eye

A distinctly dark and otherworldly-looking cocktail, this imagines our mascot as a witch’s familiar, and provides a very different take on some classic elements for Halloween!

Ingredients

40ml Bushmill’s Black Bush Irish Whiskey
20ml Lustau Sweet Vermouth
25ml Pineapple and Fennel Shrub
10ml Egg White
2sp Squid Ink

Method

Dry & wet shake before fine straining into a chilled cocktail coupe.

Garnish

Garnish with blueberry powder.

October 31, 2016

Recipe: Autumn fruit sabayon

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I used to make sabayon as a special in our old restaurant in Yorkshire: it was always popular with customers and sold out in a flash. Sabayons are great because they’re quick and easy desserts to make and you can can tailor them to whatever is in season. As a result they’re a bit of a chef’s secret weapon!

The start of September is one of my favourite times of the year: we’re spoiled with an abundance of great produce both in the shops and the hedgerows. This recipe takes advantage of the late summer / autumn fruits which you can easily buy right now. It’s also a great way of using up a little left-over white wine or fizz in the bottom of a bottle.

Autumn fruit sabayon

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the fruit

2 tangerines
4 figs
1 punnet blackberries
2 pears
1 punnet blueberries

For the sabayon

4 medium egg yolks
75g caster sugar
150ml white wine (dry is preferred, but this is a good way to use up any white or sparkling wine)
150ml lightly whipped double cream
Spring of mint and icing sugar to garnish

Method

Wash and prepare fruit. Quarter the figs, halve the pears and segment the tangerines. Place to one side at room temperature.

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and white wine in a metal bowl over a pan of boiling water until the mixture thickens to ribbon stage.

Remove from heat and whisk until cool. Fold in whipped cream, taking care not to over-whisk or the mix will revert to liquid. (Cook’s note: this mix will keep covered in the fridge for up to 5 days)

Place fruit in serving dish and gently top with the sabayon. Garnish with a sprig of mint, dust with icing sugar (optional) and serve.

September 6, 2016

Simon’s Mini Catalan Chorizo in Aspall Cider

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A classic El Gato Negro dish, marrying smoky rich Spanish flavours with a superlative English cider. A great riff on pork and apple!

Mini Catalan Chorizo in Aspall Cider

Serves 4

Ingredients

300g mini chorizo dulce (available from Brindisa & selected supermarkets) or good cooking chorizo
500ml chicken stock
200ml Aspall cider (cyder)
50ml sherry vinegar
50g chicken gravy granules
25g fresh flat leaf parsley

Method

Cut chorizo into 3cm pieces. Gently warm in a non-stick pan until the oil starts to come out of the sausage. Carefully remove chorizo from the pan, leaving the oil in place.

Add the sherry vinegar to the oil and reduce over low heat to make a syrup. Add the cider and reduce again. Add the chicken stock and reduce by half. Whisk in gravy granules to thicken.

Once the sauce is thick enough to coat to the back of a spoon, add the chorizo and cook for a further two min or until warmed through. Finish with chopped parsley. Enjoy!

June 24, 2016

Cooking up a storm at NRB 2016

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March 23, 2016

Highlights of 2015

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December 31, 2015

Simon’s Chargrilled Onglet Steak with Patatas a lo Pobre

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Chargrilled Onglet Steak with Patatas a lo Pobre

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the onglet

4 onglet beef steaks (approx. 200g each)
200ml olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
50g salted butter

For the Patatas A Lo Pobre

16 new potatoes
2 medium red onions
8 piquillo peppers
1 small bunch of mint
15ml balsamic vinegar
1 small bunch flat leaf parsley
olive oil
25g salted butter
salt & pepper for seasoning

For the red wine sauce

½ bottle red wine
500ml good quality beef stock
50g salted butter

Method

Marinate the onglet steaks in a mix of olive oil, chopped garlic and half of the fresh thyme. Ideally allow them to marinate for 24 hours, or at least overnight.

Cover potatoes with water in a pan. Add the mint, 25g butter and salt. Bring to the boil and cook for 15-20 minutes (until al dente), switch off heat and leave potatoes to cool in the cooking water for a further 20 minutes to enrich the flavour. Drain thoroughly and slice the potatoes into round pieces approx. 1cm thick.

Thinly slice the red onion and add to a heavy based pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Scatter with the remainder of the picked thyme and cook slowly over a low heat to caramelise the onion. While it’s cooking, drain the piquillo peppers and slice into thin strips. After the onion is lightly caramelised add the piquillo pepper to the pan, cooking slowly for a further ten minutes.

Heat a griddle or frying pan as hot as you can without it smoking. Add the marinaded onglet to the pan, without oil, once at a time. Cook for 1½ to 2 minutes per side, adding 50g of butter to the pan until it melts. Quickly baste the steaks then remove them, cover and allow them rest for at least 5 minutes.

Fully deglaze the pan by adding the red wine, then pour this into a saucepan and add the beef stock. Cook down for 3-4 minutes on a medium high heat until it reduces and thickens.

Add a splash of olive oil to a non-stick frying pan and heat. Add the sliced potato and caramelise it. Once the potatoes are evenly coloured add the red onion and pepper mix and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the balsamic and finish with the chopped flat leaf parsley.

Finish off the red wine sauce with the rest of the butter to give it a nice glaze. Slice the onglet steak into pieces, cutting across the steak on a diagonal to follow the grain of the meat. Place on the plate, then top with the potato and pepper mix. Drizzle the red wine sauce over to finish the dish. Enjoy!

November 1, 2015