Recipe XIII - Porterowka Liqueur

I was very fortunate to have been given a sip of one of Poland's finest alcohols at the house of my cousin in 2009, and since then I have made several litres of it - it makes you feel all warm and glowing inside, and tastes like a liquid tiramisu. It is a perfect after-dinner winter liqueur or a wonderful accompaniment to the successful conclusion of a summer party when you want your guests to go home with something they'll never forget...
...or never remember, depending on how much you give them.

Ingredients (pro rata):
2 litres Porter beer (London Pride, Guinness, etc...)
2 sachets of vanilla sugar
[My own addition: a few spoonfuls of syrup e.g. golden syrup, etc...]
One cup of ordinary sugar (or more, for taste - I used quite a lot)
250ml-500ml wine spirit (90%, from most chemists), depending on the strength you would like
One bottle of vodka - optional, depending on the amount you require

Instructions:
Take a very large cooking pot or cauldron and pour, ever so carefully, the beer into it. Heat it up, stirring constantly, but DO NOT let it boil. Add the vanilla sugar, the syrup and the sugar. Stir continually until the sugar disappears and the foam is no longer.
Leave it to cool.
Once it is totally cold, pour the wine spirit into the pot. Here is the moment to pour in the bottle of vodka, as this will give you more for the amount you made, but as I said in the list of ingredients, everything is pro rata.
Mix the ingredients very well, and pour into bottles. It is possible to use the same night, but for the best possible results, wait six months. If you do it now, it'll be ready in time for the Christmas season!

 

Try and taste the colour. It's exactly the same.

 

I recycled one of the vodka bottles for my drink.

 

How it might look after three or four glasses.

Recipe I - Carbonnade à la Flamande

Ingredients:
700g-1kg of stewing pork or beef, two onions, two slices of white bread, a couple of bottles of dark beer (Orval, Chimay, Rochefort 8, etc...), a slice of gingerbread or some five-spice, a bay leaf, thyme, mustard, cornflour (optional), salt and pepper.

Instructions:
Put the onion in a stewpot, fry until sweating, salt and add the meat, fry until sealed. Add the beer (pour slowly and try to avoid too much froth), put the other ingredients in except the cornflour. Cook the whole thing on a low heat for up to three hours. If the sauce is not thick enough, add some cornflour. Roux is often suggested, but I think it is too fatty.

Serve with a generous portion of chips and mayonnaise.

Unpretentious and utterly delicious!