Monthly Archives: April 2015

Egg Curry/Dimer Dalna

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Dimer Dalna
I don’t make egg curry very often but was moved to write this up after reading a comment by someone I follow on Twitter that referenced a complicated recipe they use. This foxed me because, in Bengal at least, one of the chief attractions of egg curry is more or less the fact that it’s a simple, quick thing to make: something you make because you don’t want to go through the hassle of cooking chicken or mutton (or if you don’t have any). As you’ll see, the recipe below is as basic as it gets. You boil the eggs and some potato; you make a spiced tomato “gravy” and then you simmer the potato and peeled eggs in it for a little bit longer; you eat it with rice. It’s certainly possible to add more twists along the way, and it’s also possible that there are more elaborate approaches by default in other parts of India, but you should be able to make a pretty decent egg curry in not more than 30 minutes.

By the way, in Bengal the dish is called “dimer dalna”. Dim (pronounced closer to “deem”) means egg, and “dalna” refers to the specific mode of prep (dalnas have thicker gravies than jhols). Continue reading →

Glendronach 17, 1996, Cask 1491

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Glendronach 17, 1996
Let’s do another Glendronach. Unlike yesterday’s 20 yo this one is from a PX cask and was a US exclusive, I believe. I’m not sure if the distillery is still putting out “single casks” in general release in the US or if they’re only doing store exclusives now. While the last PX cask Glendronach I had was no great shakes, I’m hoping this one will be as good as the excellent UK exclusive PX cask 4681, a 15 yo from 1995 which was my first ever “single cask” Glendronach (I still have a large reference sample saved; I should review it sometime).

Anyway, let’s get right to it.

Glendronach 17, 1996 (53.2%; PX cask 1491; from a sample received in a swap)

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Glendronach 20, 1993, Cask 33 (for Abbey Whisky)

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Glendronach 20, 1993
Of my two previous Glendronach reviews one was of a 21 yo,1993 from an oloroso cask that was quite good and the other was of a 23 yo, 1990 from a PX cask that was mediocre. This one is also from an oloroso cask and also from 1993; and like the other 1993 was also bottled for a store, in this case for Abbey Whisky in the UK. And where that was cask 23, this is cask 33—and since these were both distillery releases the proximity of the number suggests a strong likelihood that they were from the same distillation run and perhaps even the same parcel of quality sherry casks. So all the signs seem to point to a good outcome. Then again not every cask can be a winner. And it’s also the case that given the lack of clarity of what “single cask” means at Glendronach this may not all have started out in oloroso casks, and may have been re-racked into a cask 33 in a completely different year (if you read my piece on Glendronach’s “single cask” shenanigans you might remember that I was told that the cask numbers are often recycled every year). Continue reading →

Balvenie 15, Sherry Cask 4453

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Balvenie 15, Sherry

The bottle from which I poured my sample.

The Balvenie Single Barrel 15 used to be entirely a single bourbon cask series and as such was rather beloved of whisky geeks (give us the opportunity to explore the vagaries of cask variation and we will run with it). I have not tasted as many of the bourbon cask releases as some but all of the ones I’ve tasted ranged from good to very, very good. They were also easily available and quite reasonably priced: in Minnesota it was not difficult to find them for less than $60. As such, I gnashed my teeth with the rest when word came down that the series was going to be scrapped in favour of a new 12 yo single barrel series. But just as I was considering stocking up a rumour also emerged that the 15 yo single barrel was not in fact going away. I wish I hadn’t listened to this rumour because first the prices of existing stock of the 15 yo bourbon casks went up and then the series did indeed get discontinued. Or rather it got reconfigured as a single sherry cask series—of course at a fairly higher price.

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A&L Chinese: Dim Sum in Inver Grove Heights (Minnesota)

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Sticky Rice
We’re not very enamoured of the dim sum choices in the Twin Cities metro area. Yangtze is the best, in our opinion, and it’s no great shakes in the abstract, and certainly not worth the long round-trip or the long waits on the weekends. Mandarin Kitchen is the other popular choice and our last meal there was downright depressing, bordering on disgusting. As a result we tend to save dim sum eating for when we’re in Los Angeles and only make the trek out to St. Louis park to Yangtze if guests or friends really want to go. (I wrote about all this last year in a post that I gather made some people a little unhappy with me.) Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 1996-2012

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Ben Nevis 1996
I’ve had more Ben Nevis in the last year or so than I had in all my years drinking whisky before then. But I don’t think I’ve had very many in this general age range that were from sherry casks and so I’m very interested to try this one. Ben Nevis is a pretty idiosyncratic malt at the best of times and it’s possible that sherry could saw off some of its rougher edges in either a good or bad way. In the case of this excellent 25 yo the sherry had a very nice impact but that was a case of double maturation, not full-term sherry maturation.

I’m also interested to see how this distillery bottling compares to the younger independent releases I’ve had. Ben Nevis’ profile seems to be on the rise of late with more and more vintage based releases, at seemingly higher prices than in the past. Having said that though they’ve just released a 48 yo from 1966 at €600, which is a lot of money but less than some distilleries charge for their 25 year old malts. Anyway, let’s get to it. Continue reading →

Alur Dom/Dum Alu

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Alur Dom
Alur dom (in Bengal) or dum-alu (in the Hindi belt) is a popular dish made in a variety of ways across India. The name implies cooking on “dum”, or in a tightly sealed vessel so that the potatoes cook in their own “breath”, so to speak; in practice, however, it’s rarely prepared that way in most homes. At least the potatoes are rarely cooked entirely on “dum”. This is certainly the case for this recipe, which comes to me from one of my aunts who is one of the best cooks in the extended family and has a very successful, small catering business in Calcutta. Ideally, you’d eat it with luuchis (luuchis are a lighter, fluffier version of puris) but it goes very well with parathas and rice. Indeed, match it with some chholar dal and rice and you’re all set for a great vegetarian meal. Continue reading →

Spicy, Shredded Beef

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Shredded Beef
This is cooked with Indian spices but there is nothing traditional about this dish, nor does it originate in any particular region. I improvised the general approach some years ago for pork shoulder in the slow cooker (though I use a slightly different spice mix for pork). You cook it low and slow all day long, take the meat out when done and shred it with a fork and mix it in with the sauce. The end result is very close to the Mexican barbacoa in looks but, of course, tastes quite different. You can eat it in much the same way: with rice, or with chapatis or parathas (rolled up in them or otherwise). I suppose if you really wanted to get fusiony you could even put it in a sandwich.

But whether making a sandwich or an ersatz taco/burrito I find it difficult to add cheese. This is entirely my problem. Despite all the similarities between Mexican and Indian cuisines—both in terms of form and flavour—I can’t wrap my head around putting cheese over Indian meat dishes (or any other dishes for that matter). Those not bound by a lifetime of associations should feel free to experiment that way and report back. Continue reading →

Longmorn 21, 1992 (Faultline)

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Longmorn 21, Faultline
This is the whisky that caused me to abandon my better judgement and buy an entire parcel of K&L’s exclusive selections for 2013. I’m a sucker for older Longmorn and when I saw a 21 yo Longmorn from a sherry cask offered for less than $100 I didn’t ask myself if it might possibly be too good to be true and ordered it. And then, because I am weak, I ordered a bunch of other whiskies to go with it. Some turned out to be good (this heavily peated Jura), some were okay (this Imperial), some were boring (this Bunnahabhain) and some were not good (this Bowmore). You’d think I’d have learned my lesson, but no: I bought a few more of their exclusives this Spring (those turned out much better, by the way—more on those next month).

Anyway, as you can probably guess, I did not end up being crazy about this Longmorn, but I am happy to say that it was not a disaster either. Continue reading →

Tomatin 25, 1975 (Mackillop’s Choice)

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Tomatin 25, 1975
Mid-1970s Tomatin is as close as you come to a sure thing in the single malt world. Of course, a lot of people say that it’s 1976 Tomatin that’s the sure thing, but, as I’ve noted more than once before, that’s mostly romantic thinking about magic vintages. Anyway, it’s not like Tomatins from even 1976 are easy to find anymore; indeed, the entire decade seems to be exhausted now, with most available casks either bottled as singles or probably blended away. And I’m not referring only to Tomatin—when’s the last time you saw casks of Longmorn or even BenRiach show up in quick succession from the indies? And the little that comes available now costs a king’s ransom. And the tedious, old refrain: just a few years ago this was not true. As it happens, I passed on a chance then to purchase this bottle for not very much money (relatively speaking).

But who knows, maybe there are casks from the late 1980s and early 1990s as well from Tomatin and Longmorn et al that will also astonish us all when they get bottled between 25 and 35 years of age. Of course, I will probably not be able to afford any of those.

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Smoky Boulevard

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Smoky Boulevard
A couple of months ago I posted my recipe for a smoky take on the classic Boulevardier cocktail. I made that with Bowmore 12 in place of the regulation bourbon and as I made it for our Oscar party I named it the Boulevardier of Broken Dreams. It was quite nice but I’ve been playing with some variations since then, fueled by the fact that my bottle of Bowmore 12 got emptied that night. Most of these variations have involved tinkering with the proportions of the components. I’ve found that more heavily peated malts don’t work quite as well (or at least I haven’t managed to figure out the proportions). Then I hit on the idea of bottle “aging” a regular Boulevardier in a recently emptied peated whisky bottle. This, I am happy to say, has been quite a success—though continued experimentation is, of course, necessary. Continue reading →

Benromach 25

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Benromach 25
This is only my second review of a Benromach and in the previous one I noted that I’ve not tasted very many whiskies from this distillery. This is certainly the oldest I’ve had by a fair margin. Closed by the previous owners in 1983, the distillery has been owned by Gordon & MacPhail since 1993 but only started producing whisky again in 1998. Which obviously means this 25 yo was distilled by the previous regime. This is from a bottle that was purchased from The Party Source in Kentucky some years ago and there’s not much specific information on the label or out there on the intertubes on it. However, given that there was also a general release 25 yo at the same strength from the 1981 vintage it seems likely that this may have been part of that batch as well, bottled specially for The Party Source. If you know more about this release please write in below.

And now let’s get right to it. Continue reading →

Palak Paneer

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Palak Paneer
This is another Indian restaurant favourite and like many Indian restaurant favourites it is usually made in restaurants with a gallon or so of cream. Home-made versions have a much lighter touch and, as in my version below, often leave out the cream altogether. This means you can actually taste the spinach and paneer—a radical concept, I know. Again, palak=spinach; you can make this with a combination of greens and if you do then you’ll have saag paneer (saag=leafy greens).

There are two major components to good palak paneer: good spinach and good paneer (ideally, home-made). If you have those two it’s hard to go wrong. You can tweak the other ingredients (proportions and texture) to your liking and make it entirely your own. You can even add some cream, I suppose, but to my mind palak paneer is best when it’s pureed spinach and soft home-made paneer that are the source of the velvety richness. Continue reading →

Maker’s Mark

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Maker's Mark

Maker’s Mark is one of the iconic American whiskies, though one suspects this has as much to do with its iconic look as with anything else about it. That famous red wax makes it unmistakeable and also makes everyone who tries to cut through it to open the bottles curse mightily. As you probably know, it is also relatively unusual among widely available bourbons in that it is made with no rye in the mashbill (replaced by wheat) and quite unusual in that they spell the word “whisky” without the “e” on the label. Only one of these facts is interesting.

Of late Maker’s Mark has been in the news on account of their acquisition, or rather their parent company’s acquisition by Suntory (as the subsidiary Beam Suntory). This caused some underpants twisting among the xenophobic (and uninformed: Maker’s Mark and Beam are by no means the only iconic bourbon makers owned by Japanese companies). But this fruitless controversy was not as loud as that over the decision a year earlier to lower the proof of the whisky from the traditional 45% to 42%. That controversy actually bore fruit as Maker’s Mark quickly reversed course. Continue reading →

Corner Table (Minneapolis)

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Corner Table: Monkfish
I’ve been meaning to get to Corner Table for a while for my very slow rotation through the current big names on the Twin Cities fine dining scene. For one reason or the other it hasn’t worked out in the past but this weekend we finally got there. It was a pretty good meal, on the whole, but it somehow simultaneously disappointed anyway. Well, I shouldn’t be vague, I know exactly why it disappointed: it was a meal that mostly pleased on the plate and palate but felt very unimaginative and by the numbers. This could be any number of restaurants in any number of cities in the United States and if you’ve been to enough that work this genre of contemporary American cuisine you could probably predict the contours of 85% of the menu without even looking at it. I’ll expand on this below but first let me show you pictures of what we ate (there were four of us; two of whom had been there at least twice before). Continue reading →

Ben Nevis 16 (Battlehill)

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Ben Nevis 16, Battlehill
Battlehill’s releases are exclusive to Total Wine, I think—at any rate, I’ve not seen them anywhere else. Frankly, I’m not entirely sure who Battlehill are—I have a vague recollection that it may simply be one of Duncan Taylor’s lines. If so, I suppose it may have been a replacement for their earlier value line, Whisky Galore. That one featured whiskies that were not at cask strength and I believe that may be true of all of Battlehill’s releases, not just this one; on the other hand, the Whisky Galore bottles listed distillation years and were single casks, neither of which is true of Battlehill. If this is indeed a Duncan Taylor operation I have very limited positive experience with their Ben Nevis selections: I quite liked a younger Ben Nevis bottled by Whisky Galore a decade ago. On the other hand, if they’re not in fact a Duncan Taylor line you’ve just wasted however many seconds it took you to read this. You’re welcome!

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Laphroaig 10 CS, Batch 005

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Laphroaig 10 CS, Batch 005

Pay no attention to the details on this label.

If you follow me on Twitter you might have seen me expressing some confusion a couple of nights ago about this sample. As I began to take notes on it I noticed that it seemed to have the same abv as Batch 004. As it seemed unlikely that two separate batches would have the same abv I went to Whiskybase and discovered that Batch 005 was not only listed as being at 57.2% but as released in February 2013 and not January 2013. Batch 004, on the other hand, was released in January 2012. This made me think that perhaps Florin (the original lobby boy of the Hotel Budapest and the source of my sample) had mistakenly sent me Batch 004 and labeled it as Batch 005. But when I began tasting it it didn’t seem to map onto my notes on Batch 004. This gripping mystery was solved when Florin confirmed that this was not Batch 004—he’d finished his bottle well before we’d started swapping samples—and that he’d mistakenly transcribed the information for Batch 004 from his spreadsheet when making up the label. Isn’t the world of whisky blogging fascinating? Continue reading →