Little Flutters

Hurricane cocktail and Mint Julep © Tash Jayasinghe

I just returned from an awesome four day trip to New Orleans. Go there if you have a sliver of a chance. I had a great time, the people are welcoming, the food amazing and culture oozes out of every crack.

And my god, do they drink! It’s not uncommon to stroll from bar to bar with a couple of beers in your hands. They don’t let the morning light stop them either, people are still partying on the streets throughout the day.

I don’t mean to sound like an alcho, but this is one of my top ten places!

If you want a little piece of New Orleans magic, I would recommend a hurricane cocktail and mint julep, in that order.

Hurricane cocktail:

• 4 ounces (120mls) rum
• 2 ounces (60mls) passion fruit juice
• 1 ounce (30ml) orange juice
• 1 lime, juice squeezed into drink
• 1 tb sugar syrup (boil equal quantities of sugar and water until it thickens to honey consistency. Let cool then use.)
• 1 tb grenadine

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail mixer. Pile a long cocktail glass with ice.*

Garnish with a cherry if you feel fancy.

Mint Julep:

• 3 sprigs fresh mint, washed.
• 1 1/2 tsp white sugar
• a dash of soda water
• 3 ounces (90mls) whiskey

Put the mint, sugar and a tablespoon of the water into a long glass. Smash this mixture with the back of spoon for 30 seconds. Add ice. Pour in whiskey. Top with soda as needed. Garnish with mint. Serve with a smile.

*A typical American habit is to fill the whole glass with ice and then pour in the drink. Personally, my teeth freeze and it’s far too cold for me, but when in Rome. If you’re the bartender and you don’t want to be busy the whole night, make double the quantities and put half the ice. Simple, effective and fun to watch.

The funny thing about our making-of; I had my wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday. Come Thursday, I was all gung ho to eat some real food. I made the mashed potato but then the pain killers I took an hour ago kicked in and I was stuck on the couch while W. took over. I couldn’t even drain the potatoes. My hand-eye co-ordination was that whacked out. Those American drugs eh. The plus side, I was assured W. can still follow a recipe and I haven’t turned his brain to gobblegook.

The best thing is, this is such a week day meal. Quick and satisfying. I was a bit hesitant of adding two onions to five sausages but it was great. It caramelises down to a yum sauce.

Prep time – 10 minutes
Cook time – 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 450g good quality pork sausages
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 100g/4oz red grapes
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar (balsamic will do in a fix)
• Pre-made mashed potato made any way you like

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in large frying pan set over a medium heat. Tip in sausages, cook for 10 mins over medium/high heat, turning every so often. Stir in onions, then leave to cook five mins more until sausages are browned and onions are softened.
2. Add minced garlic, fennel seeds & grapes and cook for 5 more minutes, stirring often. The grapes should start to soften. Pour over vinegar and swirl aroud pan (The fancy word for this is deglazing). Cook for a few more minutes until onions are sticky.
3. Serve with reheated mash.

The kitchen is my war zone, I like to think that I know what’s happening at every corner. Whenever my partner enters the kitchen he insists that it’s unsafe practice to leave kitchen towels on top of the stove, just in case one of the elements was on. I agree, it’s a fire hazard but I’m like a cocky arrogant Napoleon Bonaparte. I would know if the stove was left on, I would sense it.

Danger comes with the kitchen, baby.

Kim from Cupcakes and Mace blogged on how she burnt her hand to test the stove element. I can relate. Kitchen scars = battle scars. I wave my hand over the stove to check if it’s hot enough. I always put my hands too far into the oven and my arms have got those parallel baking tray scars to prove it. To me, it’s part of the territory. If I’m completely honest, I’m a little bit proud of the little dinks in my fingers.

The way I figure it, if you’re in a place where you’re playing with knives and heat, you’re bound to get hurt. But I agree with Kim, testing the stove element with your bare palm is never a good idea. But she was tired and stressed, these things happen.

Maybe we should all be like Tom Hanks in the Castaway. Whenever we turn the stove on we should scream “Fire! I made fire!”. It could keep us awake and remind us that fire is something that is kinda, a big deal.

If you know someone who doesn’t like overtly sweet baked goods, this is the thing to make them. Mixing the sugar in at the last minute ensures that the muffins have a crunchy, crisp outside with a cinnamon scented scone inside.

This is a very slip slop mix it all together kind of batter until the last five minutes. But once you add the blueberries you have to treat this with love otherwise the whole batter turns blue and not that many people will eat it.

Once baked, this is on the verge of savoury, I’ve been eating them with unsalted butter.

• 3 cups plain flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 2 extra large eggs, slightly beaten with a fork
• 225 gm unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• Diced strawberries or raspberries if you like them.

1. Preheat oven to 190 C/375 F. Line a 12 holes muffin tray with paper liners.
2. Put the butter in a medium bowl and blast in the microwave until melted.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and baking soda together in a fairly large bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine.
4. Mix the milk and eggs with the melted butter. Make a well in the middle of the dry mixture and pour the wet mixture in.
5. Stir until just combined. Lumps are all good. Add the sugar until it’s well mixes.
6. Add the berries and fold them in very gently. Don’t over mix unless you want to look like Violet from Willy Wonka.
7. Spoon the batter into the muffin liners and bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Check with a skewer to make sure it’s cooked all the way through. If it comes out clean, you’re good to take the muffins out and let them cool.

This is adapted from the wonderful Ina Garten’s cookbook, barefoot contessa at home.

I’m posting this cause it’s a rarity: yummy greens. Not only that, these greens I would eat over a burger any day. You heard right, Tash is officially crazy.

The ingredients are cheap, the food is fast and it makes you feel good afterwards.

Get cracking on:

• A dash of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• as much baby bok choy as you please. Remember that it shrinks down to 1/3 of the size.
• 1/4 cup water
• chopped coriander (cilantro), sesame seeds or anything else.
• cooked rice, kept warm.

for the killer sauce:

• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoon sugar, brown or white
• 1 tablespoon honey

1. Put all of the sauce ingredients into a small pan and start it on a low heat.
2. Splash the sesame oil into a big pot. Grate the ginger into the sizzling oil. Add the baby bok choy. Stir every now and again for a minute.
3. Mix the sauce, it should start to thicken.
4. Add the water to the bok choy, bung the lid on and it’s going to steam for four minutes.
5. The sauce should be thicker, take it off the stove and let it cool a little.
6. Get your rice plated. As fast as possible, pull out the bok choy, cover it in the magic sauce and serve.

You need to eat this as hot as possible, otherwise it gets limp, cold and not so yummy.

Tip: You can buy ginger in bulk, peel them, shove it in a ziploc and put in the freezer. Grate straight out of the freezer as needed.

Another tip? Oh ok: Buy most of these ingredients at your local Chinese store, it’s cheaper, fresher and you get more.

The sesame oil on the left cost $7 from a Chinese market, the one on the right cost $14 from Safeway (Woolworths)

Balsamic vinegar has a sharp tart flavour but this draws out the sweetness in the freshly sliced strawberries, add a tablespoon of sugar and the whole thing caramelises to give you a rich sauce.

Run to the shops and grab these items:

• 2 cups strawberries, washed and sliced in half
• 1 tablespoon good balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar

1. Wash then cut the strawberries in half. Remove the tops.
2. Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar. Mix very gently.
3. Leave to sit for 45 minutes at room temperature.

I normally make the strawberries before I make pancakes, so that way they’re done around the same time. Or, if you want to be really decadent, put seven grapes at the bottom of a wine glass, fill with strawberries and top with whipped cream. A fancy and healthy breakfast. Yum.

For those of you enjoying Summer, take full advantage of the abundance of strawberries. As for me, Winter is just ending so I’m making frozen strawberry smoothies to pass the time.

Jamie Oliver is a food god. A king of the culinary. I was hesitant about this recipe but it turned out better than expected, the perfect combination of crunchy walnut, sweet butternut pumpkin and little bursts of brown sugar lumps. Resist eating this straight out of the oven, it tastes better after the flavours get to mingle and know each other for a day or two.

ingredients:

• 400g butternut pumpkin with the skin on, it seems odd but it works
• 350g light soft brown sugar
• 4 large free-range eggs
• sea salt
• 300g plain flour
• 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
• handful of walnuts
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 175ml extra virgin oil

for the frosting: (I love that word, frosting, so much better than icing)

• zest of 1 clementine, I used an orange instead
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 140ml sour cream
• 2 heaped teaspoons sifted icing sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, split length ways and seeds scraped out

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Line muffin tin with paper cases, or grease cake tin.
   
2. Whiz the squash in a food processor until finally chopped. Whiz for 30 seconds with the walnuts. If your food processor is big enough, add the sugar, salt, eggs, flour, cinnamon, virgin olive oil and baking powder. If it’s not, mix all of these in a big bowl until everything is combined and moist. Don’t over-mix, you don’t want this to look like cake batter.
   
3. Fill the muffin tin or cake tray with the mixture. Bake for 20-25 mins. If a wooden skewer comes out clean, it’s cooked. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
4. Make the runny frosted topping by mixing the clementine zest, all the lemon zest and the lemon juice into a bowl. Add the sour cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds. Mix well and taste. If you think you want more sour, add more lemon juice, if you want more sweet, add icing sugar. It’s a personal taste. Put it into the fridge. You want to put the toppings on just as the cakes are served, otherwise it doesn’t keep that well. Jamie recommends decorating with rose petals and dried lavender flowers, but I didn’t have any around.
5. Eat and know that you’ve done your healthy deed for the day. Yum!

The recipe was taken from the wonderful book Jamie at home.

If I could use four words to describe this recipe it would be: simple, easy, tedious and time. Don’t let the tedious part deter you, I did this while watching T.V and it took half an hour, I’ve been reaping (a.k.a drinking) the benefits for the last three months and it has been yum!

You’ll need:

• 2 liters of vodka
• 12 lemons
• a peeler
• a big jar
• a strainer
• someplace dark

1. Wash all the lemons. Get a scourer and rub down the skin with soap and water. We’re doing this to get rid of any pesticide or wax. A thin layer of edible wax is put on the lemon skin to preserve them for longer and to deter bugs. If you get lemons from a farmer’s market, or better yet, your own backyard, you’re laughing. Make sure each lemon is blemish free.
2. While the lemons are drying, fill the biggest pot you have with hot water and bring it to a rolling boil. Put in your big jar and it’s lid for ten minutes. Drain and leave to dry on absorbent paper. This sanitises it so you eliminate any chance of mold growing on your vodka. A dishwasher on the highest temperature setting will have the same sterilisation.
   
3. Start peeling your lemons and putting the rind into the jar. This is the tedious part so watch T.V or listen to an amusing podcast at the same time. DO NOT get any of the pith (white stuff) into the jar, avoid it like the plague. It’s bitter, nasty stuff. The lovely lemon flavour only comes from the zest. Once all the lemons are peeled, fill the jar with vodka. Keep the original vodka bottle to refill when done.
   
4. Place in a dark corner for six weeks. Once a week, give it a swirl. Marvel at the change of colour. The vodka is going to suck out all the good stuff from the peel. You’ll know your vodka is ready when it’s a bright yellow colour and the lemon peels are drained white and brittle when you break them.
5. Strain the vodka twice into the original vodka bottle. It’ll smell and taste like lemons. Yum. Enjoy the potent mix.

If you want to be really decadent, make a simple sugar syrup by boiling a cup of water, taking it off the heat and mixing it with two cups of white sugar. Wait to cool then mix this with a liter of the lemon vodka and shot it down like an Italian, or even better, with an Italian.

Last night I went over to a friend’s place and made a Lemon Vodka mojito with mint, sugar syrup, 7-up, loads of ice and lemon vodka. It went down a treat and didn’t leave me with a nasty hangover this morning. The options are endless.