New Year's resolution #1

So this year while celebrating the first day of 2016 by having a barbecue lunch at the 'naked' ski field (minds out of the gutter! Not naked people at a ski field - brrrr - but the ski field itself was naked. January being the height of summer in NZ means no snow, so yeah, a barbecue amongst the gravel slops with strangely fornlorn looking, purposeless chairlifts going to nowhere) at Mt Lyford with family, my sister said to me she had decided to buy a calendar showcasing a monthly cocktail.  Each year she buys a themed calendar that piques her interest.  Photos of Crete, contemporary NZ landscape art, Salvador Dali, to name but a few.  Last year it was rustic, tumbled down or slowly disintegrating, old outdoor dunnies... interesting, but I think I much prefer this years theme.
Anyway during our chat it was decided, as we are mostly 'cocktail' virgins, that we would follow the calendar and make the cocktail - a new experience every month.

Deciding that I'd like to get in the swing of things, a friend and I spent one evening at a local whiskey bar that also had a range of lovely cocktails to sample - The Last Word, on New Regent Street.  I confess I have been there once before with same friend but that had been many months prior and in that time the owners had changed so it was definitely time for a revisit.
Said sample was a Moonlight - their variation on an Aviation.  So tiny, but so delicious and far, far too easy to drink.  I had one!!!  Had to drive home after you know, so had to show at least a modicum of sense.

And now for our turn:-

With a definite lack of experience but an abundance of enthusiasm we dove into the making of our first Pina Colada (yes, that's right - we've never had one!!!) late on Tuesday evening...

Kitchen wizz and ingredients at the ready we followed the recipe to the letter.  Needless to say a kitchen wizz does not a blender make.  Turning it on, Pen got to wear the ingredients all down the front of her top. But here's the final result.

I know, I know, amateur much, but the pineapple chunk was an ingredient in her chicken curry for tea that night so we thought we'd better garnish our effort with something, otherwise it just looked like a glass of milk.

The first taste was nothing like I had anticipated, like a mouthwash of coconut cream and nothing else.  I hesitated to take another but it seems the longer you leave it the more the pineapple (and alcohol) infuses it and gives it the warm, sweet glow of setting sunshine, and it gets stronger with every sip.  The amount of white rum in it definitely loosens the tongue.
For a couple of wine drinkers it's not really the thing.  It needs the addition of scenery; the tropical paradise, a seat by the pool, floppy hat, funny little umbrella garnish/accessory/thingy, and a hot, hunky piece of eye-candy to ogle at to turn it from something a little mundane into something completely decadent and desirable.  It demands holiday laziness, relaxation, sunshine, palms rustling in summer breezes.  It's an event and not just a drink.  In that setting I'd definitely indulge in another...

Next month it's Mango daiquiri.  More my thing?  I don't know yet, but bring it on.  (I definitely will have to go buy a bullet before we try that one.  My turn to make it and I want to drink it, not wear it.)

Bottoms up!

Sydney Whyte

Germany and some Cake

In Dresden we all got taken out for coffee and cake - I had tea, of course, coz I'm not a coffee person...  The 'cake' was more like dessert, I thought, as it had berries and a custardy middle but I guess as it had a spongy/cake base & crumble on top, it could be called 'cake'.  It was yum by the way - went down in about five seconds flat.

Having finished rummaging through Neuschwanstein's fairytale castle, I had to have 'cake' for lunch just to top off the event... so I had cheese 'cake' - again it could be construed as dessert - but as it has 'cake' in the name, it's definitely cake. Right?  This piece was huge but the filling was so light and fluffy it was melt in the mouth delicious.  What a treat.

Black Forest Cake - so iconic!  So of course we had to have Black Forest Cake when travelling through Germany's Black Forest.  I actually ate my scrumptious portion so quickly, I was too fast on the uptake to remember to take a picture.  The nice gentleman who gave us the cake for free, kindly shared the recipe with all of us so if I want it again I can make it myself... (If I do I promise to share a picture, although I bet it won't look anything like this one).

Decadent Seduction

Haha... No!  Just wickedly decadent chocolate cake.

Take one recipe from the Australian Woman’s Weekly and add a sister who loves to bake and voila - Cherry Ripe Mud Cake.

This is an amazing cake.  One slice and you’re in heaven; two and you’re in overindulgence hell.

This is an annual offering my sis makes for her son’s birthday (his favorite), and yay, we get to indulge too…

Check it out:-

It makes a big as mother cake, and is divine.  This is on the day of his birthday, a few days later and the platter was clean.

Recipe can be found by following the link below:-

http://www.mouthwateringmunchies.com/?p=1506

Spiced Marinated Rabbit with Herbed Couscous and Pine nuts

“Each night the Mavishan had built a fire and cooked some sort of stew or soup with the gatherings of the day; and once roasted a rabbit caught in a snare he had quickly set up with springy sapling branches, sticks and coarse twine, across a trail leading down to the shores of a tinkling brook.” (Excerpt from Gift of the Blood God – Drawn)

As young rabbit is the best to roast, and young rabbit is particularly difficult to come across in New Zealand – honestly any rabbit is difficult for a city girl to come across in New Zealand unless she has some avid hunting mates to call on.  The furry bunny is a pest in our little country so not much call amongst the farming community to farm the little blighters, so not supermarket fodder.  The last time someone shot a couple of rabbits for me, it was my art teacher who took his cute little Jack Russell out with him on the hunt, and gave me the fruits of his labour, one for me and one for my dog.  My mum made rabbit pie (I think just because it was the easiest way to shred the meat and get the shot out of it).  In this instance, however, I’ve settled on a bunny recipe by Matt Tebbutt of Saturday Kitchen Best Bites on BBC Food and substituted rabbit loin for boned chicken thigh.  (I apologise profusely – it was the best I could do with my non resources, and it was on special too).

Here’s the link to the recipe:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/spicedmarinatedrabbi_87837

And here’s my bastardised version:-

Marinade:- Not owning a mortar and pestle, I couldn’t roast the cumin and coriander seeds, peppercorns or dried chilly, so ground and flakes it was straight into the virgin olive oil, garlic and chopped mint and coriander leaves and stalks.

Rabbit loin obviously takes less time to fry than deboned chicken thigh so before putting it in the marinade give it a quick bash to flatten it a bit otherwise, like me it’ll take longer than the 2-3 minutes a side to cook given in the recipe.

For the couscous, not being able to obtain Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar, I substituted it for the real thing – Selaks Cabernet Sauvignon actually, a tasty drop from Australia - bonus was that I got to have a glass or two after the meal which was really nice.  If you don’t have the vinegar, and use the real deal then lose the sugar, you don’t need it, just heat to burn the alcohol off and throw in your shallots (or spring onions in my case).  I had to forgo the piquillo peppers too, this is Christchurch, New Zealand – Spanish deli’s or supermarkets that carry ingredients from Spain are few and far between – so no piquillo peppers…

Here’s the result, and don’t forget when you’re looking at it, I’m not a food photographer, this is my actual dinner:-

It tasted great by the way, despite the colour of the couscous, however next time when I actually get a rabbit, I think I’ll add extra chilli flakes to the marinade.  The small amount I did put in bursting across my taste-buds was yum, and just made me want more.