Bitter Brew Boiled Better
There's a back story explaining my new collared slave, who I have named "Lucky", but the point of this entry is to relay how I turned a bitter bottle of Australian Shiraz into a lovely mulled desert sauce.
This evening Lucky opened the bottle of Black Swan 2007 Shiraz from South Eastern Australia. I took a small sip to see what it tasted like. My mouth puckered up immediately, and my brain flagged a tannin warning. Instead of pouring it down the sink, I encouraged Lucky to let me experiment with it. Out came a stock pot, I poured the bottle and my glass into the pot. Out of the spice cabinet came cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. Appropriate dashes of each spice, then the juice of one ruby red grapafruit was added, and the mix was boiled. A test taste proved the brew was still way too bitter, so a generous dose of sugar and grenadine was added. The brew was then boiled some more and another taste proved I was on the right track. The taste and scent was reminiscent of spiced apples from childhood, so a Fuji apple was finely cubed and thrown into the pot. While eating dinner and frequent stirrings, the concoction boiled down into a light syrup and filled the house with a heady, magical scent. The pot was taken off the heat and let cool, while Vanilla Bean and Dutch Chocolate Almond ice creams were fetched from United Dairy Farmers. The light syrup and apple pieces were drizzled over small portions of ice cream. Lucky remarked that the dessert was something that could have easily been served in a fine restaurant and raved about in culinary review columns.
While I am writing this, he is doing his best to distract me, so once again my skills as a Kitchen Witch have been confirmed.
This evening Lucky opened the bottle of Black Swan 2007 Shiraz from South Eastern Australia. I took a small sip to see what it tasted like. My mouth puckered up immediately, and my brain flagged a tannin warning. Instead of pouring it down the sink, I encouraged Lucky to let me experiment with it. Out came a stock pot, I poured the bottle and my glass into the pot. Out of the spice cabinet came cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. Appropriate dashes of each spice, then the juice of one ruby red grapafruit was added, and the mix was boiled. A test taste proved the brew was still way too bitter, so a generous dose of sugar and grenadine was added. The brew was then boiled some more and another taste proved I was on the right track. The taste and scent was reminiscent of spiced apples from childhood, so a Fuji apple was finely cubed and thrown into the pot. While eating dinner and frequent stirrings, the concoction boiled down into a light syrup and filled the house with a heady, magical scent. The pot was taken off the heat and let cool, while Vanilla Bean and Dutch Chocolate Almond ice creams were fetched from United Dairy Farmers. The light syrup and apple pieces were drizzled over small portions of ice cream. Lucky remarked that the dessert was something that could have easily been served in a fine restaurant and raved about in culinary review columns.
While I am writing this, he is doing his best to distract me, so once again my skills as a Kitchen Witch have been confirmed.