Food Wine Sleep

Perhaps passé and old (and sometimes forgotten) tradition, but, if not only for nostalgia sake, Sulze (German), 'en gelee' (French) or aspics are still great appetizers. Certainly, for a dedicated Garde Manger Chef, the preparation of aspics is a close seconds to the art of preparing Terrines, Galantines and the most famously, the Pate. Using too much gelatin and it becomes a bouncy jelly, not enough of it and the aspic will fall apart. The trick of the whole matter is that the stock, meat or fish needs to be really tasty and flavorful in order to produce the aspic. If not, it becomes a dull and uninteresting jelly and a far cry of what our culinary forefathers created...

This recipe that is a mixture of mulled white wine and a white sangria. During cold winter nights I find this a very nice drink and it seems to make me less sleepy than a mulled wine. The warm white wine will keep you warm and your nose free, the citrus fruits add freshness, vitamin C and balances the sweetness of the honey and sugar. The Cardamom adds a little surprise to this old and tested recipe.

Shortly before Christrmas a guest was asking for Egg nog to be served during her party. It came to me that, even though I had fond memories of egg nog being served at Christmas parties during my time spent in New York, I had never bothered to write down the recipe. So with the help of our bartenders and some of my kitchen staff we started to collect recipes and sample, test and taste them(and in the progress getting pretty tipsy). The recipe below is the result of this research and testing. This recipe is for a chilled egg nog, but egg nog is at times also served warm. Then the drink is done the same way and then gently warmed in a waterbath and brought so to temperature.

Mulled wine is popular throughout Europe, on chilly nights, as soon as the winter breaks in November and especially during the Christmas season. Even though I have lived in a tropical country for the last 15 years, for me, it wouldn't be Christmas without a glass of "Gluehwein" while sitting around the Christmas tree. There are quite a number of variations of it, from the Swedes which add raisins and nuts to it, to French in the Bordeaux region that add nutmeg and bay leaf to it and use rather heavy Cabernet or Merlot wines. Originating from Germany although it is best to use a light dry red wine or as another variation a dry Riesling type of white wine. This...