Best arrack type for cooking

Alcohol carries flavour, and arrack brings coconut, fruit and a light woodiness to food. In baking and desserts, it adds warmth and depth; in savoury dishes, a subtle sweetness that suits spice.

Sri Lankan cooks have long used arrack and brandy in festive baking, especially Christmas cake, whose dried fruit is soaked in spirit for weeks. Hotel chefs use arrack for flambéed desserts and sauces.

Because heat drives off some aroma, cooking does not need your best bottle. A flavourful mid-range arrack gives the most return.

Sri Lankan Christmas cake is rich with semolina, chopped dried fruit, preserves, cashews and spice. Many families soak the fruit in arrack or brandy for weeks, and brush the finished cake with spirit as it matures.

Old or double distilled arrack is ideal: rounded and nutty, with enough body to stand up to the fruit and spice. Pure coconut arrack adds more aroma if you prefer, but the difference is modest after baking.

Soak the fruit in a sealed jar, stirring every few days. Brush the baked cake lightly with arrack once a week until serving.

Love cake, the Portuguese-influenced semolina and cashew cake scented with rose water and spice, is sometimes finished with a spoonful of arrack too. Use a light hand, as love cake is delicate, and choose a softer old arrack rather than a fiery young one so the rose and cardamom stay in front.

Flambéed bananas or pineapple with kithul treacle and arrack is a hotel favourite. Pan-fry the fruit in butter with treacle or brown sugar, add a splash of arrack, tilt the pan to ignite and let the flames die down before serving with ice cream or curd.

Old or double distilled arrack flames well and leaves a pleasant flavour. Higher-strength coconut arrack flames more readily. Always warm the arrack slightly, pour it from a measure rather than the bottle, and keep a lid nearby.

Flambéing burns off much of the alcohol but not all. Warn guests who avoid alcohol entirely.

Arrack works in marinades for prawns, chicken or pork, alongside lime, garlic, ginger and chilli. A splash in a devilled sauce or a glaze adds a faint sweetness that balances heat.

Use old or everyday arrack here, as subtle notes are lost to spice. Add arrack early in sauces so the harsh alcohol cooks off, leaving flavour behind.

Lankan Stays & Trails can arrange a cooking class where the chef shows how arrack is used in festive and hotel dishes, from Christmas cake to flambéed fruit.

For a quick glaze on grilled prawns, simmer equal parts kithul treacle and old arrack with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of chilli flakes until syrupy. Brush it on in the last minute of cooking. The arrack's coconut note and the treacle's smokiness make a glaze that tastes distinctly of the island.

In syrups, creams and desserts where arrack is added after cooking, aroma survives, so a young coconut arrack shines. Stir a little into kithul treacle for pancakes, into whipped cream or into a fruit salad.

Arrack-spiked syrup over watalappan, the spiced coconut custard, or over love cake makes a festive twist. Use a light hand: a tablespoon or two is plenty.

These desserts keep their alcohol, so label them for guests and children.

Arrack-soaked pineapple is an easy dessert for a villa dinner. Slice ripe pineapple, sprinkle it with a little sugar and a few tablespoons of young coconut arrack, and leave it in the fridge for an hour. Serve with buffalo curd or ice cream and a drizzle of kithul treacle.

Avoid cooking with long-aged arrack, whose expensive subtlety is lost to heat. Keep it for sipping.

Avoid adding arrack to very hot oil, which can flare unexpectedly. Add it off the heat or to a liquid sauce.

Never use unlicensed spirit in cooking. Licensed arrack is safe; illicit spirit is not, whatever the recipe.