on the far right is the completed tomato vodka. it's very subtle, and the tomato sings a sweet, soft note. at first i strained it through a sieve only, and it was much murkier. the flavour was stronger as well, but not pleasantly so - almost as of fruit on the cusp - about to go off. i strained it again, through muslin this time, achieving the end result, and i am pleased. i'm trying to come up with a cocktail to showcase it, but until then... bloody marys! but for a bloody mary you need worcestershire, so...my worcestershire sauce recipe:
- 1/2 white onion, chopped
- 1/2 granny smith apple, peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 inch ginger, minced
- 3 cloves
- 2 allspice berries
- 2 tbs. olive oil
- 1/2 cup tamarind paste
- 3 tbs. palm sugar (it's a guess - slightly smaller then a golf ball size piece) - or brown sugar
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 3/4 cup malt vinegar
- 2 cups water
i like it because the vegetarian worcestershire sauces that i have been able to find (all two of them) have been thick and syrupy. this recipe yields something more like lea & perrins in viscosity, sans the little fishies.the other jar is tomato ketchup - which i am going to call love-apple catsup from here on after a recipe in salt: a world history. the book mentions how ketchup had it's origins as a fermented fish sauce - so worcestershire and ketchup have something in common... nice segue... the recipe i used is from jamie oliver, pretty much verbatim except for substitutions made out of necessity, but it's quite good. i used it to make a thousand island dressing, which along with my sauerkraut combined to make some mighty tasty tempeh ruebens (i'm trying tempeh again) last night that i did not take pictures of.
to come full circle, here is the vodka before straining:
