The commander

Dishoom p. ███

The Parsi naval Commander, Kawas Nanavati, was a very dashing gentleman. When his beautiful English wife, Sylvia, confessed in 1959 that she was having a torrid affair, Nanavati sped over to her Sindhi lover’s apartment on the Nepean Sea Road and shot him three times. The Commander then gave himself up to be arrested at the naval base. The subsequent case became India’s most famous murder trial, not least due to the Commander’s good looks. Apparently Bombay’s women thronged the public gallery for the duration of the trial, dressed in their finest clothes and hoping to get a glimpse of him. In this drink, we’d like to think that the Navy gin represents the cuckolded commander and the Kamm & Sons (a London aperitif distilled from aromatics including ginseng, grapefruit peel, juniper) his English wife, Sylvia. The absinthe is the naughty spirit, the other man, and the pepper is the gunpowder. This is a strong, dry drink for sipping, a real palate-livener. Don’t have too many. Keep it in the freezer and serve it so cold that the liquid turns syrupy.