Menghai #7572 shu pu-erh, 2002. Coming out of the collection and into the pot.
I’m drinking a cooked (shu) puerh tea called Purple Sky - limited quantity cake made for someone in Hong Kong in the mid 1980s. Smooth. Delicious. Each cake has a purple sky chop on the wrapper.
Indian butter chicken in the slow cooker. I nailed it.
I used this recipe, but added two ingredients to give the flavor more depth: ginger, finely chopped, and half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. (First time I made the dish, it seemed to lack … something.) This time - amazing.
Puerh: Xiaguan 2005 ancient wild tree tea from the Baoshan region.
Handmade. Still a young tea but I wanted to get a picture of how it tastes. Wow. This is and will continue to be a spectacular raw puerh. Very subtle, nothing astringent in the liquor. After a minute or so, your lips dry and your mouth from tip of tongue to back of throat is overtaken by the taste of apricots and peaches.
I love Xiaguan puerh cha.
Tonight: pulled pork in slow cooker. I am starting late, so I’ll cook on high for the first four hours. In the pot: 4lb pork shoulder, one bottle root beer, large onion sliced, dry rub on the pork, half jar BBQ sauce, 3 cups water (to get pot three quarters full). We shall see what happens.
Lamb shanks. Fri nite.
#armagnac at Balthazar NYC
Spiced pear galette (to be served with honey & creme fraiche).
Made by my wife, Merel.
Tangerine sorbet with shaved Scharffen Berger chocolate.
