I came across few aficionados of that Old Monk in this site. This page is dedicated to those hardcore aficionados.
I was also an aficionado of that monk but now an apprentice of a different school of thought.
How can I forget those old days when I used stay with my colleagues and friends at that bachelor’s hostel at Harihar? (Harihar is a small township near Hubli in Karnataka.) We used to try many exotic recipes during our leisure hours. Very naturally alcohol was one of the ingredients. Old Monk was our favorite drink but some of us were not interested to have same cola-mix everyday. Hence we tried many dishes from the recipe book of one of our friends.
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Old Monk has some advantages :
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1. Comparatively low cost and from a reliable source
2. Easily available even in remote places
3. Consistency in quality. Not yet came cross tainted quality
4. No hangover to responsible consumers
5. Its slight sour test is good works well with many recipes
6. Its dark color helps to improve appearance of many dishes
By the way, for those who are not familiar with the name, Old Monkis dark rum. It is one of the oldest brands in India. It may be the highest selling dark rum in this part of the world. Manufacturing process is same, fermentation of molasses followed by refining, aging and blending. Being a sugar producing country, we have molasses of our own. In India, rum is preferred drink of many young people. Of course trend is slowly drifting towards vodka.
Old Monk Rum - Aged for 7 years; blended dark rum.
Old Monk Rum (Gold Reserve) - Aged for 12 years; blended dark rum.
Maker - Mohan Meakin Limited established in1855
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Some of my favorites dishes with Old Monk:
Drunken Bird
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Big chicken weighing about 1.5 kg (after dressing) cut into 8 pieces or large leg pieces. Soak dry pieces in about 250 ml dark rum (preferably Old Monk) for about two hours.
Take 100 ml Mastered oil (you can use edible oil of your choice) in a bowl. Add 50 gm Garlic paste, 50 gm Ginger paste, 50 gm of pudina or mint paste (I prefer mint). Mix very well.
Take out chicken from rum and add this mixture and work into the chicken with your hand. Marinate chicken pieces for about 5 hours in a refrigerator. After 5 hours takeout from fridge, wait for an hour, sprinkle pepper.
Slow roasting by a charcoal stove produce tasty roast. One can use microwave for the same purpose but taste is little different. Follow your favorite roasting procedure.
Green sauce for this roast -
Mix in a bowl paste of coriander leaves, little oil (of your choice), salt to taste, green chilly paste as per your choice. Egg beaters may be used for mixing.
Green Salad -
Finely chopped radish, carrot, cabbage mixed with lemon juice, green chilly (or pepper) and salt.
Serve with green salad and green sauce. Many of my friends like to have it with hot tomato sauce.
I prefer a Duck in stead of Chicken.
Drunken dessert
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Take small pieces of mango (not very sweet and soft), pineapple, apple, peaches etc in a glass bowl. Add salt and lemon juice to taste. Add about 50 ml of rum in 250 gm of fruit. Mix it and keep it in fridge for about 2 hours.
Variation -
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Replace salt and lemon by sugar and add red sweet wine.