Since I had more than two cups of mincemeat left from that steamed pudding I made last week, I figured . . . c’mon, there’s got to be some kind of cake you can make with mincemeat! Well, it turns out that mincemeat cakes are quite popular in Canada. Why? Beats me. But I figured . . . sold! I looked over several recipes and finally settled on one that uses 3 cups of mincemeat--and that means I’ve got yet another cup and a half to play around with since I had to go out and get yet another jar of mincemeat! Suggestions are welcome 🙂
Normally, I’d send this puppy off with the hubby, but I actually made this for a dinner and served it with a double cream/cream cheese topping sweetened with a touch of confectioner’s (about 1/3 cup), a teaspoon of orange extract, and then two tablespoons of Citronge. Oh, my heavens . . . this was moan-worthy: moist, flavorful, just sweet enough with a hint of citrus. The hubby still has about a third of the cake he can take to work and some leftover double cream.
Which is why I made madeleines, too. I really want to get these suckers down, and I think I’m getting there. As you can see, these little lemon lovelies are nicely baked, golden brown around the edges. They taste FABULOUS: very light and yet buttery with the lemon balancing out the sugar quite nicely. The recipe’s courtesy of Miss Madeleine’s We Love Madeleines although I did look through quite a number of recipes before deciding to go with the basic lemon in this book. Full disclosure: I deviated from the recipe a touch and did not spend 20 minutes nicely browning my butter before straining out the milk solids. Would that have made these even more scrumptious? Probably. You’d get that nice nutty taste. But . . . maybe next time. I was kind of tired out by the time I got around to these sweethearts. Here, you see the first batch fresh from the oven and then in all their little shell-glory. Proust might even approve 😉
And on to Friday’s Cocktail.
Seriously . . . does the Vesper need much of an introduction? I’ve always been curious, so I figured . . . sure, let’s try it (and I get to use my nifty new channeling tool for those lemon twisty curlicues, too.)
Now, purists will tell you–and they’re right because you just heard Daniel Craig quote Fleming verbatim–that Bond specified Gordon’s gin. Unfortunately, you can’t get Gordon’s in the U.S.–or at least, I can’t. Even my go-to NY store doesn’t have it. But I have read about it, so I know that most people say it’s got a very sharp bite with strong notes of citrus and juniper. (In fact, it sounds a little pedestrian, you ask me.) Now, you’re certainly not going to use something as floral as Hendrick’s. I settled for Plymouth because it’s a nice, smooth gin without too much bite but with a good blend of citrus and juniper. If I had it to do again, I might actually go for a very fine gin I just discovered, St. George Terroir:
Boy, one whiff, and you’ll swear you’re walking in a pine forest. This is a very smooth, incredibly aromatic gin. So it’s up for my next try at a Vesper.
Another thing for purists: the Lillet Blanc we have available today is not the same as the Kina Lillet Bond ordered, and the formulation’s changed. According to Haigh’s book on vintage cocktails, the company decided to ease back on the appertif’s bitter quinine component. Unless the company comes out with a special anniversary formulation or something, we may never know what a true Vesper should taste like.
As for what I thought: I really liked this drink. The taste is hard to describe, but the Lillet smoothed out both the bite of gin and vodka (though, again, I might actually go for a lower proof vodka next time . . . perhaps something smooth and clean, like Ultimat, which is a wonderfully rich Polish vodka made with potato, wheat, and rye). What I found was that the drink changed in character with the addition of another lemon twist and time, mellowing out even more. I think that the lemon is supposed to complement the citrus and juniper tang of whatever gin you’re using, so that’s another argument for going for St. George next time.
Not that I suffered drinking this, mind you 😉
