COCKTAIL NUTS (AND A COCKTAIL)

Around here, days end – and the nights begin - with an Americano cocktail, and a small bowl of salty, crunchy nuts.

These cocktail nuts are the bastard children of tamari almonds, tossed in one of my favourite and almost forgotten spice mixes, Chinese five-spice.

Five-spice is generally made up of star anise, fennel seed, cassia bark, pepper and cloves. The pepper can be black or Sichuan, but if you put both in, you’ll have to call it six-spice instead, which is just plain wrong.

The nuts can be anything you like, although I favour almonds, cashews, macadamias, pistachios and hazelnuts. (Why do Brazil nuts even exist? Does anyone really like them?) The spice mix is both sweet and salty, because it’s that pinball yin-and-yang between the two that makes them so moreish.

It’s the egg white in the following recipe that’s the deal-breaker. I’ve tested it with and without egg white, and it’s fine without it – but with it, there’s a shiny gloss and a crisper texture that can only be described as ‘as-if-you-bought-them’.

Note: Said nuts also go very well with watching the tennis.

COCKTAIL NUTS

• 250 g almonds

• 250 g mixed nuts (hazelnuts, cashews, macadamias)

• 100 g pumpkin seeds

• 1 tbsp tamari or soy

• 1 tbsp maple syrup

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

• 2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder

• 1 tsp cumin

• pinch or more of cayenne pepper or chilli flakes

• 1 tsp sea salt

• 1 egg white, whisked until fluffy

Heat the oven to 160C.

Toss all the nuts and seeds in the tamari, maple syrup, sugar, five-spice, cumin, chilli and sea salt.

Add the egg white and toss well with your hands until well-mixed.

Spread out on a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15 minutes.

Shake the tray to redistribute the nuts to stop them burning, and bake for a further 5 minutes or until nicely tanned and dry, checking at 5 minute intervals.

Need to know: The nuts will be soft when they first come out of the oven, but will crisp up as they cool.

HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICANO - AND HOW TO AUSTRALIANO IT.

It’s been called the cocktail of the summer of 2023. To which I would add - and 2022 and 2021, etc. The Americano (not the black coffee) is the drink you have when you’re not having a Negroni.

Negroni: equal parts Campari, vermouth and gin, over ice, no mixer.

Americano: equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth, over ice, dash of soda.

It works because vermouth isn’t a spirit; it’s a fortified and aromatised wine; and because there are just so many damnably beautiful vermouths out there right now.

For a classic version, use the elegant Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth, best in class.

Or go brighter and rowdier with a deeper-coloured Spanish or Italian red (rojo/rosso) vermouth. Rosso Antico, Luxardo, Cinzano Rosso, Cocchi, Dolin, Gonzales Byass, Lustau or Fot Li.

Better still, make it an Australiano – because a/we should always be trying to bring things back home and support local producers, and b/ because we can! (Which we couldn’t, even just ten years ago, in terms of Australian production).

 Check out our best Australian vermouths and aperitivi such as Regal Rogue (Bold Red), Maidenii, Okar, and Saison. (And thank you Max, for giving me a bottle of the full-on After Dark fortified Durif from Scion Wines in Rutherglen that turns an Australiano into something dark, bloody and rich).

A slice of orange is the expected garnish for an Americano, which picks up on all the fruitiness, acidity, botanicals and florals - but that’s best in winter, when in season.

You could argue, I suppose, that the Sbagliato is the cocktail of the summer, but that would be a mistake.  In fact, the very name reflects that it was originally made as a mistake, when somebody started to make a Negroni - with equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth – and then completely forgot the gin and put Prosecco in instead.

Campari is currently pushing a Campari Spritz, which I am showing here because it’s such a gorgeous pic (and my current desktop background). It’s 2 parts Campari, 2 parts Prosecco and a splash of soda water, on ice, which just feels to me like a bit too spritzy, but maybe it’s the drink you have when you’re not having an Americano.

Whenever that is.

Congrats also to Hickson House Distilling Co. in The Rocks, for marking the occasion of their first birthday this week by collaborating with Regal Rogue vermouth to hand-craft an all-Australian Wild Rosé Summer Cup, a play on the classic British fruit cup. Using their own Dry Gin with RR’s organic Wild Rose Vermouth, married with tonka beans, native bush tomato and muntrie berries, it’s pretty cool on its own, but even better (shown here) paired with Campari. Because everything is, basically.

Thanks for dropping by! And special thanks to my right-hand man, Terry Durack, for making an excellent and revivifying Americano every evening - with a different vermouth, no less, for which I have to play guess-the-vermouth.

I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution. It’s about time, folks.