Festive alcohol
Using alcohol to zhuzh up meals of all sorts this holiday season.
For many families around Aotearoa, Christmas is synonymous with a wee tipple. Whether you’re sipping bubbles before the big meal, serving wine alongside the turkey or enjoying a couple of digéstifs post pavlova, Christmas is a time for indulgence and holiday spirit. Here are some of the dish team’s favourite ways to incorporate festive alcohol into your celebrations – for the ultimate special touch.
Macerate fruit
Use your favourite festive tipple – think brandy, whisky or sherry – to soak dried fruit. Rich and warming, the heartier spirits shine here, rehydrating fruit that may have spent a neglected year lurking in the pantry, and lending complex flavours you’d never achieve with a purchased fruit mix! You can use your soaked fruit in classic Christmas desserts such as fruitcake, Christmas pudding or mince pies, or toss it through some of our less traditional favourites, such as our Christmas Mince Brownie Bites (recipe in Issue #69 and at dish.co.nz). We also love it swirled through yoghurt or good-quality vanilla ice cream for a cooling treat.
Add to frozen desserts for a kick
A dash of alcohol is a great addition to frozen desserts as it doesn’t freeze solid, keeping your icy delights soft and scoopable (just don’t overdo it!). For a ticket to flavourcentral as well as texture-town, add a dash of gin or sparkling wine to sorbets – we love it in our Strawberry and Prosecco Granita (recipe in Issue #69 or at dish.co.nz). If sweets aren’t your thing, a gin and tonic also makes a fantastic flavour base for a granita to serve on top of fresh oysters.
Roll into truffles
A morsel of chocolatey goodness is the perfect end to a festive meal – and you can soup up homemade truffles with a drop of something fancy. Gently melt 200 grams of chocolate with ½ cup cream over a bain marie, whisk in 100 grams chopped butter off the heat, and add a generous splash of your favourite tipple – we love brandy, whisky or rum. Let set in the fridge, then roll teaspoonsful into balls and dust with cocoa or crushed freeze-dried berries for a simple but sophisticated after-dinner treat.
Soak the cake for a trifle
It’s traditional to soak the cake for a trifle – so why not do it with something a bit special? Sprinkle your cut sponge pieces with sherry, brandy, amaretto or a sweet wine before dolloping on your custard and fruit. If you’re after something a touch less boozy, you could consider going for a halfhalf combination of your favourite alcohol and fruit juice.
Steam shellfish
Shellfish and light alcohol are a classic combination – just think of the famous pairing of clams and white wine in dish of spaghetti vongole. For a festive celebration dish, why not steam mussels, cockles or clams in a fragrant bath of cider, vermouth, white wine or even a light beer? Sizzle a little garlic in butter, add your cleaned shellfish, top with your alcohol and seasonings of choice and steam until opened, discarding any that don’t open with the rest. Scooped up with warm grilled bread, it’s a dish that sings of Kiwi summertime.
Deglaze pans
Making a gravy or jus this year? Deglaze your roasting dish with something more exciting than stock – whether you opt for wine or something stronger, you’ll add layers of flavour complexity to the base of your sauce. Whisky is a particularly great choice with red meat. Sweet tooth? Try deglazing a pan in which you’ve roasted fruit with your favourite tipple – we love rum with pineapple or brandy with stonefruit, or you could try a splash of your favourite fruity liqueur.
Get pickling
White spirits are a great choice for pickling. Add a splash of vodka, gin or tequila into your dressing for ceviche or mix with the vinegar you use to pickle onions, cucumbers or other crunchy veg for a fresh kick. We love the herbaceous hit of tequila in our Tequila and Lime Pickled Pineapple and Fennel (recipe in Issue #74 and at dish. co.nz), which shines as part of a Christmas barbecue spread.