For years, whenever I ate out at an Indian Restaurant, I somehow overlooked the self serve bowl of seedy bits. Perhaps I did notice, but not having a clue as to what it was (or thinking to even ask), it dropped off my radar. And I met my husband, who is half Indian, and going out to Indian restaurants became a whole new experience. Apart from getting stuff not on the menu, or having meals cooked a specific way (hello extra spicy!) , I started to observe the unspoken ritual at the end of the meal. A small spoonful of those pieces, eaten, or rather, and poured into a palm, crunched on.
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For the base liquor I’m turning to Everclear, one of my favorites for infusions and when I’ll be cutting on the potency of the ABV down. Everclear has a taste so there are not any surprise tastes when I’m making an extract. With the ABV, in addition, it suggests that after cutting on the liquid that is infused I won’t end up with a watered down liqueur.
Here are a few ways to use the liqueur:
- over ice with a squeeze of lemon
- with a splash of dry orange curaçao and tonic water
- neat, in a tiny glass, pinky up
Fennel Liqueur
1/2 cup fennel seeds, lightly crushed
16 oz Everclear
16 ounce water, filtered
10 ounces granulated sugar
- In a sterile, air-tight glass jar, combine fennel seeds and Everclear. Seal, shake to combine, and let sit, giving a shake every day or so, for two weeks.
- After two weeks, taste and whether the fennel flavor is powerful enough for your taste, strain out the seeds through a fine mesh strainer, reserving fennel infused Everclear. Discard seeds. Set liquid aside.
- In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine water and sugar.
- Once cool, combine fennel infused Everclear with the simple syrup in a new airtight container. Store in a cool, dark place. For optimal flavor, use within 6 weeks.
This post was made in partnership with Everclear. Recipe and ideas are my own.
~72 evidence
*Note: if you want to make a bigger batch, then adjust sugar as needed to your own tastes.
Making this liqueur is simple, but requires some time. I have made a batch to cut down on the steeping time, and also because I make a lot of infusions and don’t need so many full size bottles. If you’re trying this out for yourself, I’d imagine you want to maintain the sample down to a manageable size also.
Those seedy pieces were usually fennel seeds, plain, sometimes with brightly colored sugar coated seeds, other times a mix of those and aniseed. Every restaurant had its own mix. It was not presented to the diner. It would sit at the end of a buffet, or sometimes at the register. It was a ritual that didn’t need to be spoken of, one simply consumed it. I learned it was to help digestion, fennel seed helping in that department, with the potential to cleanse one’s breath after a meal.
So I started to try a spoonful after a big meal (a little too much that first time), and I think it’d help digest the meal a little faster, and easier, than when I had not eaten any. And I thought I’d turn towards producing a liquid version of this helpful digestif: Fennel Liqueur.
The liqueur is just sweet enough, since the fennel itself has its own type of sweetness along with that slightly numbing anise flavor. The aroma is as you would expect: ardently fennel. After a couple of sips I do feel like it is helping move the meal together, as a digestif should.
Source: Cocktail Making
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