' BOURBON and COLA.'

Bourbon & Cola jelly shots, Bourbon and cola jellies, Cola reduction, Butterscotch bourbon sauce, cola pop-rocks and sherbet. 

            The classic party drink with a contempory twist for a modern day party. This ones for my wife as she enjoys the taste of Jim Beam bourbon as my early party days keeps me away from this one, although I still taste bourbon in food I wouldn't enjoy these jelly shots. Bourbon has a classic flavour that pairs well with foods as you can see in one of my earlier posts I had paired bourbon with bacon, maple syrup and coffee. For this one I stuck to the old faithful mixer Coca cola and by using different elements of these ingredients. The idea is to have the two big jelly shots as is and with the small jellies made of both straight bourbon (yellow) and straight cola (brown) dip into opposing flavoured accompaniments. For example a cola jelly topped with bourbon butterscotch sauce and dipped in sherbet or a bourbon jelly with cola reduction and dipped in cola pop-rocks.
             To construct this dish I began by making the jellies, one at a time a measured out a quantity of one cup of each cola and bourbon adding one level teaspoon of agar agar powder to each. Working with the bourbon one first, bringing to a simmer while whisking to dissolve the powder removing from the heat and dividing into two moulds before setting in the fridge. The cola one pouring half over one of the half set bourbon jelly to form a double layered jelly shot and the other half of the cola into a separate mould, to set in the fridge. Now having a bourbon and cola, a cola and a bourbon mould, I sliced these when set into different shapes for serving. The cola reduction was simply that, cola simmered on a low heat until thick, reduced and syrupy. The butterscotch bourbon sauce was made by melting unsalted butter adding bourbon and xantham gum whisking and slowly incorporating a little icing sugar to form a rich paste of which I drained on paper towel before serving. The sherbet and pop-rocks came from my sons show bag and added a nice sweet candied dipping dukkah.