Stereo (Glasgow)

I'm still not convinced that Glasgow is the most vegan friendly city in the UK. It doesn't take a statistician to realize that London has more v*gan cafes and restaurants than Glasgow, or for that matter Brighton too. Peta aren't known for being right about many things - perhaps they got it wrong this time too?

What I do like about Glasgow is several all vegan places*, as opposed to mostly vegetarian with vegan options (which may or may not bare any resemblance to the description). Edinburgh definitely fits more in this bracket.

Stereo's a good looking bar in the centre of Glasgow with an all vegan food menu, vegan drinks (Sam Smiths etc) and *the standard non-vegetarian ones (Guinness etc).

Service was friendly but chaotic - it wasn't clear whether it was table service or not. Still, it was good to see an all vegan eatery mostly full on a week night - other cities could do with something similar.

The food itself was alright but could have been better. The menu is focused more around tapas than the usual starter / main course, which is understandable given the type of venue. I chose a couple of tapas items to start then went for a pizza for main:

Vegetable Tempura - crispy battered seasonal veg with ponzu dip - £3.75
Garlic Bread - 2 pieces freshly made with our Stereo baked bread - £2.60
Haggis Pizza - with muhammara (spiced red pepper and walnut), tomato sauce & olives - £8.00

I took the liberty asking for vegan cheese on my pizza - a snip at 60p extra.

The tempura was rustic. A slice of sweet potato, mushroom, red pepper and half a carrot - deep fried in chip shop batter. The carrot was still quite crunchy and it wasn't that great. Rind in the ponzu gave an overpowering, slightly unpleasant aroma and taste. I wouldn't order this again.

The garlic bread's bread was lovely. You could tell it'd been made with love rather than by a machine. That said though it was basically toast with vegan margarine and the very slightest hint of garlic. It could easily be improved with a bit more garlic and seasoning - it's possible I just got unlucky.

I've got to be honest - the pizza could have looked more appetizing. Their pizzas are served 'flat bread' style - i.e. not traditional dough but tasty all the same. The real star of the pizza though was the muhammara, which was simply stunning. Really good flavour with a sensible amount of spice.

It could be improved however (both aesthetically and in terms of flavour) by adding cheese, which ironically I had ordered and paid for but didn't get. If I order this again I'll make sure it comes with cheese.

There was a choice of 3 desserts - 2 cheesecakes and a sticky toffee pudding. I went with a chocolate raspberry cheesecake & icecream for £3.50:

This I also liked. It wasn't on the same level as cheesecake from Dandelion & Burdock, but then vegan cheesecake generally isn't. Personally I'd happily pay a pound extra for a taller slice.

I like Stereo as a venue but wasn't blown away by its food. I may have caught them on a bad day, as it it could be pretty good with not a lot of tweaking. Next time I'm up in Glasgow I'll try someplace different, but would give Stereo another go if staying nearby.

Cucumber Gin

Having made Mint & Strawberry Sorbet last week I've been considering ways to get some cucumber flavour into my Strawberry Pimms Cocktail. The obvious answer is cucumber gin, however the stuff that is commercially available isn't cheap and vegan status unknown. Thus I embarked on making my own.

Creating soft fruit infusions is very easy; you just need fruit, alcohol, a jar and between 2 days and 1 week. Cut the cucumber into thin slices and add to the jar with the gin. I used Juniper Green Organic Gin, which I know to be vegan. When last checked both Gordons and Bombay Sapphire were also vegan, however I save the latter for drinks where the gin's flavour will be fully appreciated.

Seal the jar and give it a good shake and put it somewhere where you'll see it regularly, giving it another shake each time you do. After shaking be sure that all the cucumbers are covered, as you don't want them going mouldy. When complete strain the cucumber out and bottle. I can't imagine it going off any time in the next year, so it should be good for the summer.

Decent Hot Chocolate

Decent hot chocolate is easy to make and uses real melted chocolate; there really is no excuse for bad stuff made from powder.

Ingredients:

• Soya Milk
• 2 squares Chocolate
• 1 shot Kahlua
• 1 tsp Sugar (optional)
• Squirty Vegan Cream (optional)
• Chocolate Shavings (optional)

Fill a mug 90% full with soya milk. Add 2 squares of chocolate and microwave until hot (2m 20s in our 850w). Add the shot of kahlua. If using unsweetened soya milk add a tsp of sugar. Stir, taste and garnish with squirty cream and chocolate shavings.

Vegan Cocktails for Beginners

If you enjoy creating flavours you'll probably enjoy making cocktails. It's like cooking but way faster and there's loads of scope for new discoveries. Imagine your favourite dessert, in a glass.

Cocktails make alcohol taste good. That's not to say their only use is to disguise the taste and make getting drunk more pleasant. Typically I have 1 or 2 cocktails in a sitting - enough to enjoy the flavours but not enough to get drunk off. Non-alcoholic cocktails can also be good.

Making cocktails yourself is way, way cheaper than buying them in a bar. It's not uncommon for £1 of ingredients to cost £7 if someone else makes it for you.

You Will Need....

You don't need to go overboard with ingredients and equipment to start with.

You can pretty much get going with:

• Gin
• Vodka
• White Rum
• Bitters
• Brandy
• Lemons
• Limes
• Fruit Juices
• Simple Syrup (make your own)
• Soda Water / Lemonade / Tonic

Angostura bitters were vegan when last checked. If you want to make vermouth based drinks Noilly Prat was vegan when last checked. The white (dry) is in UK supermarkets, the red (sweet) online and in specialist shops (I buy mine from Soho Wine Supply on Percy Street in London). Look for non alcoholic grenadine made without cochineal (such as Bardinet, sold in the UK in Morrisons) if you want to use it, of make your own. The novelty of sunrises wears off pretty quickly however. Don't waste expensive booze (£30 a bottle plus) on cocktails.

Many cocktails don't require any special equipment beyond a measure. A cocktail shaker (dishwasher safe if you have one) is a good start. A measure that sits on top of the glass and can be tipped into the glass is highly recommended, so you don't spill booze over your hands. You can muddle with the end of a rolling pin and strain with a standard sieve if required. Black straws, cocktail umbrellas, stirrers etc can be purchased new off ebay a lot cheaper than in shops. IKEA sell cheap glasses; get a few types. A blender is useful for puréeing fruit/crushing ice, but not essential. WMF (in John Lewis, House of Fraser etc) make the nicest cocktail equipment IMHO, but it comes at a price.

Currently on the cocktail shelf:

Some Tips....

Not all alcohol is vegan.

You probably knew this already, but I had to say. This includes Martini (clarified with egg).

Fortified wine (vermouth, sherry, port etc) is made from wine, which can be clarified with gelatine, egg, blood etc. Spirits can be filtered with bone char and have had lactic acid added during fermentation (some also have colourings - particularly absinthe). Whisky is often stored in unwashed ex sherry barrels (particularly scotch) to pick up the flavour. Liqueurs can contain cream, colourings, flavourings, preservatives, sugar etc.

The best but far from perfect (the whole question and reply is often not stated) list online is http://www.barnivore.com/ - beware other sites with outdated information.

Don't forget that you can make your own flavoured spirits. I've made sloe gin, sloe brandy, damson gin, peach & lychee gin, Christmas vodka and cherry vodka so far.

I buy a bottle every few weeks. My booze collection a couple of years back (bigger now!):


Figure Out The Type of Cocktail You Like

Long? Short? Very Alcoholic? Non-alcoholic? With lots of juice added? A dash of juice? Hot? Ice cold? Fruity? Creamy? Chocolatey?

Despite it's fame, most people find martinis quite unpleasant. Don't feel like you need to conform.

If you've got an idea before you start looking for recipes you'll make less cocktails you don't enjoy.

Personally I like creamy cocktails and fruity cocktails. I'm not into overly bitter drinks or those containing only spirits.

Avoid Crap Recipes

There are a *lot* of crap cocktail recipes on-line. This includes video demonstrations of techniques where the actor clearly has no clue. Don't judge books by their pictures; they may well be stock photos.

You can waste a lot of good booze if you're not careful. If a recipe looks nasty it probably is.

Look for recipes on drink manufacturer websites, as they're likely to have had a professional go over them. Blogs can be good, particularly those with comments from people who have tried them and verified they're good.

Wikipedia has IBA ingredients for cocktails listed, however it doesn't often have the method included. Whilst standard, IBA ingredient ratios/product choices don't suit everyone.

Figure Out What You Want To Make Before Buying The Alcohol

Unless you have loads of money you'll want to collect bottles over time. Don't blow your budget then find you can't make what you want.

Follow Recipes - Don't Take Shortcuts

Muddling isn't the same as garnishing. Shaking is not the same as stirring. The temperature it is served at does matter.

How you make a cocktail will affect the result. If you take short cuts you will regret it.

You can often substitute brands for similar, but leaving an ingredients out (unless it's a garnish purely for decoration) can radically affect the success of a drink.

Watch Others

If you do go to a cocktail bar and the cocktails are good, sit at or stand by the bar and watch how the cocktails are made.

Make Sure You Have Enough Ice

Many cocktails require large amount of ice, which is often discarded after mixing. If you'renot lucky enough to have an ice maker consider buying ice cubes ready made or invest in a couple more trays. Keeping regularly used booze in the fridge can help too.

Strawberry Pimms Cocktail

A simple cocktail using the aforementioned sorbet.

This is really what I had in mind when I made the sorbet. It is however just as good eaten without the alcohol.

• 4 shots Mint & Strawberry Sorbet
• 2 shots Pimms (summer)

Shake the ingredients together and serve immediately.

At some point I'll experiment with getting some cucumber flavour in too :)

Strawberry Basil Cocktails

After several failed attempts I've found something actually quite drinkable.

I've been aware of the strawberry/basil combination for a while, but didn't become interested in it until they were both out of season. I like basil and I like strawberries, so why not? Luckily I picked up some sensibly priced strawberries this week and over the past couple of nights have been trying out various recipes off the internet.

Some recipes were just plain horrible; I'm not a fan of martinis at the best of times so strawberry/basil/vodka/gin was never going to be a winning combination. There seems to be a trend for using crushed black pepper and I can appreciate the extra dimension of taste that it brings, but it's not for me. Sugar syrup definitely brings out the taste, but makes the drink a bit sweet. The mojito recipe I tried sort of worked, but sort of didn't. Morgans Spiced (which I love in other drinks) completely overpowers the taste of the basil and defeats the point.

Eventually I found that peach schnapps and light rum goes pretty well, so here's the first combination I've come up with that I like and would happily drink again.

Ingredients:

• 3 Strawberries
• 3 Large Basil Leaves
• 1 Shot Peach Schnapps
• 1 Shot Light Rum
• Ice
• Pineapple Juice

Muddle the strawberries and basil until the strawberries have been puréed.

Fill the glass with ice and pour over the spirits. Top with pineapple juice and stir.

Serve immediately with a straw or strain and serve in a martini glass.

Perfect Mojitos

The best thing about mindfulness is that when you're onto a good thing you know about and can make the most of it.

I didn't love every minute of my 4 years of university, but for the most part I knew I was definitely onto a good thing. Late nights, nothing to get up for in the morning, parties, friends, endless amounts of free time. Yes, it's safe to say that I enjoyed university.

Where am I going with this story? Whilst at university I had several sets of friends. I developed them through various societies/interests and each I enjoyed socialising with for different reasons. One such group were a bunch of postgrad law students, who were on the whole more mature than my undergrad drinking buddies. I didn't drink with them very often and when I did it was more often coffee and soft drinks than alcohol. One night I do remember in particular however a house party at which I was induced to the pleasure of mojitos.

I remember this night for two reasons: first the drink itself and second because it was the first party I remember going to where there was more alcohol than people to drink it!

Over the years since this point I've made some truly terrible mojitos, for which I must send an apology to all I've made them for. I didn't appreciate the fact that unless you muddle the mint properly it doesn't release its oil, nor did I know correct quantities, order of adding or that the sugar really does need to fully dissolve.

This summer I finally got it right and have been making them regularly since. Thus I thought it would be wrong not to share.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Lime
• 10 mint leaves
• 1 1/2 shots light rum
• 1 1/2 shots simple syrup
• Ice
• Soda Water or Lemonade

Cut the half lime in half again and add to a glass with the mint leaves. Muddle them together so that the juice is released from the lime and oil from the mint, without shredding the leaves to the point were they will get stuck in your teeth. You can use the end of a rolling pin for this, or purchase a proper muddler. I'm currently using a beautiful WMF Caipirinha Pestle that I was bought as an early xmas present by my partner. It looks a bit like a sex aid but is in fact the poshest muddler I've ever seen.


Add the simple syrup and mix. Simple syrup is made by boiling 1 part water with 2 parts sugar, stirred until fully dissolved, bottled and refrigerated.


Fill the glass with ice, then poor the rum over the top. You can use dark rum if you prefer, but light rum is the traditional and in my opinion (having tried both) nicer. By this point about half the glass should be full with liquid. Top up with soda water (traditional) or lemonade if you have a slightly sweeter tooth like us. Stir and serve.

Don't be tempted to try to top it up/use the mint leaves again; they won't contain enough oil required for the right balance of flavour.

Vegan Hazelnut Nougat Vodka

Not wanting to be left out from the fun of Mars Bar Vodka I instead tried hazelnut nougat vodka earlier this year. The result was an instant success, so I tried a larger batch. This time however I scrimped and used standard dark chocolate to bulk it out, which once finished I thoroughly regretted - I now have a litre of quite bitter dark tasting chocolate vodka.

Thus today I made another batch of the 'good stuff'. It's easy to make and is the only recipe I've found so far that uses a dishwasher.


Using an air tight jar in dishwasher without detergent keeps the mixture hot but below boiling point for 2 hours, which seriously speeds up a process that would otherwise either involve a bain-marie and weeks of shaking.

I used Smirnoff Blue Vodka, which I bought back when it was certified vegan. I'm not sure it still is though, I remember seeing an email floating round forums a while back saying that Smirnoff no longer state whether their products are vegan or not.

Tear up hazelnut nougat bars (I used 7) and put into a dishwasher safe air-tight preserving jar. Pour in enough vodka such that it just covers them.



Close up and place in an empty dishwasher without detergent on the top shelf and put on a hot (but not boiling) cycle.



Open the door a couple of times during the cycle, take out and give a vigorous shake. When complete allow to cool and strain into a bottle. It should keep (given the high alcohol content) for a few months.

Tastes great blended with vanilla icecream and white chocolate syrup (add soya milk to taste if too strong).