Morning Comrades! The ongoing theme of deconstructing the propaganda that we exist under a democracy continues this week with some alarming facts from the US, who seem to be in an continuous competition with the UK in regards to how quickly they can move towards a fascist, ultra-capitalistic theocracy. However, before I get into that I am incredibly excited to say this the Black Lodges Fall Winter program continues this weekend with one of my favourite pieces from this year. The “Class War is my Love Language” jam returns for a one time hoodie and long sleeve shirt. Both are available now through to Sunday. Any questions drop me a line and as always I greatly appreciate your interest and support.
Popular Information does incredible research into what really shapes US politics, money, and only money and this latest piece is extremely alarming. In light of the draconian Texan anti-abortion law, several, 11 to be precise, other states have signaled that they fully intend in following suit with their own version of this insanely regressive, dangerous, racist and sexist mindset. Now, it is one thing for these crazy pseudo-christian fascist to spout this insanity, irrespective of how the majority of their citizens feels on the issue but since the reality of our so-called democracies is that our vote, opinion, realities simply play no role one has to look at who is at play here. What blew me away is the level of corporate money involved in making these stone age laws a reality and I am yet to understand why this is happening.
Across all seven states, top corporate donors to anti-abortion legislators during the 2020 cycle include Charter Communications ($264,555), Comcast ($252,500), and AT&T ($237,950). These figures include direct corporate giving, which is permitted in certain states, and giving from corporate PACs. Si2 has classified each legislators' views on abortion rights based on their voting record, candidate websites, and endorsements. (Just 2% of contributions went to candidates whose views were unclear or unknown.)
If I understand this correctly, a very vocal minority, evangelists for the most part, push politicians in these states to enact laws that put the Taliban to shame, global corporations donate millions of dollars to these politicians for, what I can only assume are tax breaks and other corrupt bullshit and thus an entire state, region, country is being held hostage by religious fanatics and greedy fat cats that run companies like AT&T. Democracy my ass. I highly implore any and all of you to read that article above and share this.
Shameless plug for an interview GOWTU, friends and comrades from Amsterdam did with this angry old dude earlier in the week. Click on the above to read.
In light of 9/11’s 20th anniversary, if that’s even the right word to use, Verso put together a most excellent reading list with essential readings on the United States' imperialist ventures in the Middle East by Deepa Kumar, Suzanne Schneider, and Andrew Cockburn. If you are looking to pick up a few good books for the coming colder months this is your spot.
Continuing with more infotainment outside of the imperial propaganda machine here are a few videos for your weekend that only come highly recommended individually, as a whole or a kick off point for some most excellent k-holes.
Last but most definitely not least, we are back with our two most awesome contributors, Ana and Tatjana to wrap up this week with much needed relief in form of food and booze.
Ingredients:
For the Hummus: 1 tin of chick peas ( feel free to do this the traditional way of bathing and cooking the chickpeas but IMHO, that’s overrated ), soda powder, 1 lemon, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 80m tahini, 2 to 3 cooked red beets, salt, pepper, chilis etc
For the side dishes to put on the hummus I used: pickled artichokes, rosemary, chili, zataar, sumach, olive oil and some salt.
Step 1
Cook the chick peas with the soda powder, onion and garlic for 30min.
Step 2
Let that cool off, add the beans, red beet, two thirds of the tahini, lemon juice from about half the lemon to a mixer and, well shred until it’s smooth. add an ice cube if you need to make the paste smoother.
Step 3
Spread the hummus on a plate - mix the rest of the tahini and lemon juice to make a bright looking sauce and add on top of the hummus.
Step 4
add the spices, pickled artichokes and off you go.
I've had a busy week with new menus (yes in plural), so we're gonna do another good old classic again: the TOM COLLINS.
A lot of people will already know this one, but there's also a lot who don't. It's a simple, clean and fresh little highball cocktail. It has come to strike me as a somewhat forgotten classic, but those who have had it tend really like it. Within the next 1-2 weeks we're gonna get into the stirred drinks, so I thought a Tom Collins would be fitting to 1) give a fair warning, if you want to buy some bar tools before, and 2) you can do this one in two ways. I'm gonna list the traditional and my own preferred first which requires a shaker, and the second, more 'home-y' version without a shaker in my notes.
The TOM COLLINS is an old cocktail – a classic. It hasn't been around as long as Juleps, but still fairly long in the history of cocktails. It's similar to some of the gin punches served in London during the 19th century, but we can't really pin point its exact origin. We do know the first version of it came about sometime in the 19th century under the name of a 'John Collins'. It's said to be named after a headwaiter or barkeep – depending on who you ask – from that period.
A John Collins used aged genever, but with time it got replaced with Old Tom Gin – hence the name change. For our recipe today, any kind of dry, London gin will do. A Tom Collins is not really a flashy, specifically pungent or deep flavoured cocktail. It's fresh, light and a great alternative to a G&T. Plus that type the garnish it has looks so old fashioned to our modern eyes it holds a special place in my heart. Like the kitsch and horrible pictures from any 50-80's cookbook.
WHAT YOU NEED:
- London, dry gin
- Freshly pressed lemon (strained, so no pulp thank you)
- Powdered sugar
- Soda water/sparkling water
- Lemon wheel
- Cherry (Maraschino or Luxardo preferably)
- Skewer for garnish
- Highball glass
- Ice cubes (both for your drink and for shaking)
- Shaker (I prefer working with Boston as my base set – and with glass on tin) - Jigger
- Bar spoon (a tea spoon will do here)
HOW YOU DO IT:
- Pour 5 cl gin, 2 cl lemon and put 2-3 bar spoons of powdered sugar into your shaker.
- Make sure the powdered sugar doesn't turn into a few big chunks once it hits the liquid, so stir it a bit if needed.
- Prep your garnish by cutting a lemon wheel. Put the skewer through one side of the lemon wheel, then the cherry and then the other side of the lemon wheel.
- Take out your highball glass and put ice in it.
- Put ice in your shaker, put it together and shake for about 10-15 seconds.
- Put your Hawthorne strainer on the tin with the ice and liquid in. Hold a fine mesh strainer over your glass, and pour the liquid from the shaker into the glass through fine strainer.
- Top off with your favourite soda water, give it a gentle stir to mix and maybe a put a couple of more ice cubes in.
- Place your retro garnish neatly on top of the glass, so it's resting there.
- Drink!
ON A PERSONAL SIDE NOTE:
It's gonna be more of technical one today. First I'm gonna address the other way the Tom Collins can be made for either the lazy ones or just those who don't own a shaker. It's the same measurements in gin and lemon, but put around 2 cl of simple syrup in the highball instead of the powdered sugar. Put your ice, some soda water and give it a little stir to mix. Top off with more soda water and your garnish. Traditionally a Tom Collins is done with powdered sugar and shaken – which is also how I like it, but this second version has also come about with time. Also I'm not gonna explain simple syrup this time. Either go back a week or two on here, or google your way through it. Before we get into the equipment and more technical stuff, there's one very important thing to remember: once you put the ice in the glass and the shaker, you need to move fast. As I said in the first of these weekly installments: it's a race between you, just the right amount of dilution and temperature.
Now for the strainers. The Hawthorne strainer is used when something has been shaken. The fine mesh strainer is used to filter away any bits of broken ice from your shaking. Back in ye olden times you didn't really use fine strainers a whole lot for this purpose since not a lot of bartenders had a hard shake, so it was more a sign of a 'good drink' when you had small ice pieces in. It meant your bartender had a hard shake. Most bartenders now do have that though, so to avoid any further unwanted dilution of your drink we often filter all the small, stray and broken off ice away.
Now I'm not gonna go too much into actual shaking techniques here since it's gonna be too long and besides it makes way more sense to have a visual guide for that – like a youtube tutorial or asking your own local bartender. There are some basic things I can explain here regarding a good shake though: first and foremost you must have a good, comfortable stand. Feet spread about your shoulder width, one in front of the other. The back pointing somewhat out/to the side and the front pointing forwards. The back food is where you're gonna put your weight. Now one hand goes on each tin facing different directions. For the people using glass-on-tin like I do: the glass always goes towards yourself. Never out. In case of the glass exploding or cracking in the middle of shaking – yep, it happens – you 'want it' to hit yourself. Nobody else. For most beginners the 'shaking stance' feels a little weird at first, but it quickly becomes second nature to bartenders.
For the actual shaking technique there's a few different ones, mostly depending on your style of bartending. I mostly shake from my shoulder and out. A colleague of mine shakes from the middle his chest and out. There's also the 'monkey shake' as I like to call it, where you shake upwards/downwards about the range of your torso's length. I think, this one is most likely the easiest for a beginner to learn by yourself. The sound is key; with a trained ear you can hear when a shake is off in some way – if the ice is bad, if there's not enough ice or if the shake's too soft. It takes practice to get a good shake with enough force in it, while maintaining speed. A good idea can be to practice with uncooked rice in the place of liquid and ice until you get it right. I know I did!
So kick back and enjoy the weekend with this little, somewhat forgotten classic.