Whiskey-baked camembert? Yes, please. Wine is old school, spice up your home-cooking with these non-wine foodie recipes.
MasterChef’s Diana Chan put us on to this combo, and we’re obsessed. “Use it like rice wine,” Diana explains. The sugars of the soju will seep into the clam meats, making it a flavourful and delicious little dish. You’ll need about a cup of soju, and make sure it’s not grape, peach or any other wild flavour that soju comes in. Chateul Soorok’s Original Soju is perfect.
As with any clam dish, it’s important to purge and wash the clams before cooking. Once that’s done, get your wok and place it over medium-high heat. Toss in some butter, chilli, salt and garlic. When the butter is sizzling and the edge of the garlic starts to brown, throw in your clams and gently mix through the butter. Then splash in your cup of soju and let it boil in the wok for one to two minutes, or until the alcohol has cooked off. Once that’s done, throw in a cup of water and bring it to a boil. When 90% of your clams have opened up, taste your broth. If that’s all good and not too alcoholic-tasting, transfer to a serving plate and garnish with spring onions and chilli. Et voila!
This is a no-brainer recipe and works on a whole range of foods – ribs, pork or even a big slice of pumpkin. Here’s what you’re going to do. Combine Plantation Stiggins Fancy Pineapple Rum, golden syrup, chilli sauce, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and lemon juice in a large baking dish. The quantities of each ingredient are really up to you – taste as you go and adjust to your liking.
You can use this glaze to improve almost any dish. Just coat it fully, then cover and refrigerate so it can marinate overnight. Cook your pumpkin, ribs, or whatever else you decide to bless with this glaze however you like, and make sure you keep any leftover marinade for splashing more over the top once it’s done (just be sure to first boil it if it’s been in contact with raw meat). Once cooked, the marinade will be thick, gooey and finger-licking good.
Cheese? Monkey Shoulder Blended Malt Whiskey? Melted? Count us in. There are few ways to improve the absolute genius that is melted camembert or brie, but whiskey would have to be up there.
To do this for yourself, just make a foil parcel and douse your wheel of cheese in a good drizzle of whiskey before sealing the parcel tight and sticking it in the oven for 20 minutes at around 160°C, or until oozing. This will not only give it a thicker, saucier texture, but will impart a lick of spice that you may not have otherwise thought about. If you really want to pimp your cheese, also stick in some slivers of garlic, and maybe a sprig of rosemary here and there. Yum, we’re salivating already. Serve it up with some crusty bread.
What's better than pork tacos? Beer-braised pork tacos. This will take a little effort, but, friends, the payoff is massive. Deliciously succulent, fatty pork tacos.
We won’t give you the full recipe because let’s face it, everyone likes their taco done differently. But what you’re going to do is get your pork belly or neck and add it to a big pan. Preheat your oven to 170°C. Place some quartered onions and garlic cloves in with your pork with some generous sprinklings of paprika and cumin. Lastly, pour that Killer Sprocket Amber Ale – about 400mL – over your pork and add enough water to submerge the meat. Cover and place in the oven for around four hours. The result? Drippingly good, pull-apart meat for your tacos al pastor.
A beurre blanc (literally “white butter”) sauce is traditionally served alongside fish and is beautifully fatty, sweet and creamy – and not too heavy. This is the Julia Child-approved recipe, so you know it slaps. Sure, you can use regular white wine in this sauce, but keep in mind THE Julia Child said “white wines should be dry and full-bodied such as sauvignon blanc, but because many whites are too acidic, I prefer to use a dry white French vermouth.” You can’t argue with the OG home cook. And yes, vermouth is technically wine – but we’ve included it in the list anyway.
Chop up 340g of cold unsalted butter and set aside for later. In a medium saucepan, bring 60mL of white wine vinegar and 60mL of dry white vermouth – Noilly Prat Original French Dry Vermouth is ideal – to a boil. Add in a tablespoon of minced shallot, along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Lower the heat down to a simmer and cook until all but 1.5 tablespoons of liquid has evaporated (if you take it too far, you can add a teensy bit of water to re-moisten). Now the fun begins – take the pan off the heat and whisk in two chunks of butter until totally melted. Put the pan back over a very low heat, and whisk in more of your chopped butter, a chunk at a time. Be careful you never let the sauce come to a boil, or it will separate. Once you’ve carefully whisked in all your butter, you should be left with a thick, pale yellow sauce. Whisk in half a teaspoon of lemon juice, check if it needs more seasoning, then strain the sauce through a sieve, making sure you push the shallot against the sieve for extra flavour. Yes, this process takes time, but it’s extraordinarily easy once you get the hang of it – and outrageously delicious.
Now for a little sweet treat. Your mum poaches fruit in red wine, but you’re going to use tequila. Why? A: because it’s the delicious Mexican twist pears have been screaming for, and B: it’s the perfect no-fuss dessert for the lazy cook.
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Halve three peaches and three pears (remove the stones and cores), and put them in an oven-proof pan. Sprinkle over around four tablespoons of brown sugar, half a teaspoon of cinnamon, half of a small bunch of thyme leaves and top with several dabs of butter, then roast for 10 mins. Drizzle three tablespoons of blanco tequila (we like to use the Prospero Blanco Tequila) and 100mL of cream over the top, and roast again for five minutes, or until your fruit is looking all golden and caramelised and it’s impossible to wait any longer before you dive in. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to really ramp things up. The tequila will give the fruit a little bite and a wonderfully welcoming warmth.
