Cocktail - Retro Food For Modern Times

11
Dec
2018

The Nine Cocktail

The Nine is a delicious cocktail from “The Nightmare Before Dinner” the book I mentioned last week in the post on Beetle Pie. The book features recipes from Beetle House, Zack Neill’s Tim Burton inspired restaurants located in Los Angeles and New York.

Tim Burton + food? You had me at hello! 😍

I love a sour cocktail and The Nine is the best blend of sweet, sour and apple flavours.

And it’s a great colour! An almost iridescent green. You can almost imagine it glowing in the dark. It doesn’t (I checked) but it looks as if it might! This is a fun cocktail As is the book it came from!

If you like your food to come with a pun (and I think by now we all know that I do!) or you are a fan of Tim Burton, or you want to dine at Beetle House but can’t afford the flight to New York or L.A, then this book is for you! Or the film buff in your life! Christmas is coming peeps….

The Nightmare before Dinner begins with Sauces and Dips for the Recently Deceased – my favourite being the Veruca Sauce! To be used only when you “want an Oompa Loompa now, Daddy, now”…or, probably more commonly, to put over chicken, fish or veggies as it is a delicious sounding honey butter garlic sauce.

And with all due respect to Tim Burton – there will only ever be one Verucca Salt. (And just so we’re clear? It’s not his version)

The next chapter is caled The Nightmares Before Dinner. This contains recipes for items like Hallowpeno Honey Cheddar Cornbread, Charlie Corn Bucket and Beetle Bacon Bread….just listen to this mouthwatering description

“It’s a hearty sundried tomato and bacon “pizza” with a sweet balsamic reduction, soft mozzarella cheese and crisp scallions”

Here’s the picture from the book:

How I good does that look? Let me tell you a little secret into my obviously maladjusted childhood. When I was a child, apparently I would kiss the tv screen whenever my favourite handsome boy of the moment would appear. This picture kind of made me want to lick the screen…

I didn’t!!!!! I swear I didn’t!

And let’s never talk about any of this ever again.

The next chapter, Soups and Salads for The Living contains, of course, a Giant Peach Salad. The Macarbre Mains section has an Edward Burger Hands, a Shrimpy Hollow and my very, very favourite….ah no. I’m saving that one for a special occasion.

But the Edward Burger Hands sounds delish! And a lot easier to eat than this meal!

I won’t take you through all the chapters because I think you should have a taste for the book now.

See what I did there? A taste for the book?

Oh…Kay. moving swiftly along…the final chapter is how you can put together the various meals to have themed parties. It also offers suggestions for table and room decorations so you can really set the scene!!!! Here are both the menu and the scene suggestions for an Edward party!

The joy of The Nightmare before Dinner lies in that it is seriously good food and cocktails that don’t take themselves to seriously. Hmmm…sounds kind of like the ethos of this here blog…no wonder I like it so much!

Here’s the recipe for The Nine:

Now, let’s all make ourselves The Nine and jump in the line…..

Day -O….

Many thanks to Net Galley and Quarto Publishing for the ARC of The Nightmare Before Dinner.

Have a wonderful week. I”m going to binge on Tim Burton films. Speaking of which…what’s your favourite?

Mine is an absolute four-way tie between Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

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24
Oct
2018

Bittersweet Symphony – The Aperol Gin and Tonic

categories: Aperol, Cocktail, Cointreau, Gin

People of the world, meet my new favourite drink! Forget the Aperol Spritz, the Aperol Gin and Tonic is a great drink for summer drinking, or really for any time of the year.

I love G&T’s and Negroni’s and the Aperol Gin and Tonic is kind of a cross between them. Or, as I like to call it, win-win.

The Aperol Gin and Tonic is slightly sweet, slightly bitter, has great citrus flavour and a lovely complexity from the botanicals in the gin. All of which is a fancy way of saying “It’s delicious…drink up!”

It’s also a very pretty drink!

Even though this is called the Aperol Gin and Tonic, there is a surprise ingredient in here which I think rounds out the flavours, ramps up the orange and adds the sweetness….

Yep! Cointreau. Which I am also partial too! If you wanted to take the Negroni-ness of this up to 11, you could, of course, sub out the Cointreau for some vermouth!

I found the recipe for the Aperol Gin and Tonic in a Waitrose magazine when I was in England earlier this year. Made it and then promptly lost the recipe. Luckily it was not hard to remember!

Print

Aperol Gin and Tonic

Print Recipe

A delicious take on a G&T

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

15ml Gin
15ml Aperol
15 ml Cointreau
Tonic Water
Ice Cubes

To Garnish

Rosemary Sprigs
Orange Slices

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Instructions

Add ice to a cocktail shaker.
Add the gin, Aperol and Cointreau
Shake, baby, shake.
Add fresh ice cubes and orange slices to a long glass
Add the gin mixture.
Top with tonic water.
Garnish with a rosemary sprig

So good! The only downside is that it’s going to be very hard to stop myself from making them waaaaaay too often for both my liver and my waistline!

Have a great week!

30
Jul
2018

The Dirty Cowboy Martini

categories: Chilli, Cocktail, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day, Gin, Martini

Howdy Cowdies!

First up sorry for my tardiness for Cowboy Day but I have been laid low for about a week with a totally vicious cold/flu. But, just like that ChumbaWumba song from the 90’s, I get knocked down… but I get up again. (But only for a few hours at a time because this thing is wiping me out!)

Unlike that song which talks of whiskey drinks and lager drinks and vodka drinks, I made us a gin drink.

People of the world, meet the Dirty Cowboy Martini!

It’s good. It’s so good. As to be expected. Cos who doesn’t love a dirty cowboy?

😉

Now there is a bit of too-ing and ‘s fro-ing to make the Dirty Cowboy but believe me, it’s worth it!

First up you gotta make some Cowboy Candy. Which is no hardship because these Candied Jalapeno’s may just become my favourite thing to eat in the world. Ever.

Sweet, spicy, tangy, hot, sour…these are little flavour bombs!

I had fully intended just to post these but then I got to thinking (always dangerous) about how to show them off to full effect and I came up with the idea of the Dirty Cowboy Martini.

I used this recipe for my Cowboy Candy.

The Dirty Cowboy Martini is a riff on a regular dirty martini. This is where a bit of the olive brine is added to the drink. In the Dirty Cowboy, a spoonful of the sweet, spicy chilli liquid is added! It’s so good! And really hard to have just one of!

I used the Four Pillars Cousin Vera Gin for this as it is a lot more savoury than my usual Hendricks. It worked really well!

The perfect accompaniment to the Dirty Cowboy Martini was a little dip I made from some of the chopped up Cowboy Candies, some cream cheese and a spoonful of the French Onion Soup Mix I had left over from when I made the Selfish Girl’s Seafood Plate.

Here’s the Martini recipe. Now, I like a lot of vermouth in my martini so I would add more than the standard amount I have listed below.

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Dirty Cowboy Martini

Print Recipe

A delicious take on a Dirty Martini, using Cowboy Candy instead of olives.

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

70 ml gin (I used Four Pillars Cousin Vera)
1 tbsp dry vermouth (I used Noilly Prat)
2 tbsp Cowboy Candy Brine
Lemon Wedge
Slice of lemon to garnish
1–2 Cowboy Candies to garnish

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Instructions

Pour the gin, dry vermouth and Cowboy Candy brine into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well.
Rub the rim of a martini glass with the wedge of lemon.
Pour the liquid into the glass and garnish with a round of lemon and a Cowboy Candy. Add another Cowboy Candy to the glass if you wish.
Enjoy!

Happy Belated Cowboy Day to all who celebrated!

Thank you to the utterly awesome Greg Swenson from Recipes4Rebels for inviting me to take part in the festivities!!!! I am raising a virtual glass of Dirty Cowboy Martini to you!

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16
Jun
2018

Holiday Plans & Flag Cocktail 1

categories: Cocktail, Kirsch, Parfait Amour, Russia

So, just this last week I sent off my passport for a visa for a place where the flag looks kind of like this!

Need a few more hints?

Yep, if they approve my visa, I’m off to Russia in August!

I’m so excited! I’ve been watching as much of the World Cup as I can – not so much for the football but for the travel stories and the scenery.

I’ll be visiting Moscow:

And St Petersburg:

But back to the cocktail. I am both obsessed by and fascinated with the pousse-cafe style cocktail where various liqueurs are layered over each other. They always look so pretty. This recipe was called The Electric Flag and I had to include the original version of it here because it so quirky. (Doh! I can’t remember where on earth this recipe came from either!

Yep, this little drink here is 150% cocktail!

I used kirsch instead of grappa for my version. I also didn’t knock it back in one but sipped it over the course of the evening. It’s strong! If you are also sipping, make sure you mix it well before you do.

Otherwise, it’s all alcohol at the start and plain sickly sweet grenadine at the end. The mix of the three together is lovely though!

I’m going to be spending the next few weeks delving into some Russian literature – starting with one of my favourites.

I’ll follow this classic with a wonderful piece of fantasy by dipping back into the Night Watch Series by Sergei Lukyanenko…this is an AMAZING series with Russian Vampires. The first book was also made into a crazy good film a few years ago. The sixth instalment of this series came out last year but I am going to save that for when I am in situ. Meantime, I’ll reimmerse myself into this world by re-reading the earlier books.

Have a great week? Are you watching the World Cup? Who do you think will win?

26
Jan
2018

Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougères

categories: Australia, Beer, Cheese, Snacks, Starters

Today, January 26, many Australians will be celebrating Australia Day. On the good side – it’s summer, it’s a great time to get outside and have a bbq and, if you are not in the midst of a dry January, have a few drinks with some friends. On the downside, the day itself is becoming increasingly fraught for all manner of reasons – some of which you can read about here for a considered view and here for the opinions of a lunatic. Hey America…you’re not alone with your President, we have a Prime Minister (well ex-Prime Minister) who says dumb offensive shit too. And whilst he might not be orange or have a mad comb-over, there was .this….ewwwww.

But we are not here to get political. We are here to eat, drink and be merry. Because it’s a long weekend. And we’re going to celebrate with some Australian food. If by Australian food we mean something that we have totally (mis)appropriated from another culture. So let’s get to it shall we?

Gougères are the French version of what we in Australia would call a cheese puff. And they are delicious! Feather-light pastry flavoured with cheese makes for a perfect snack. Particularly if you happen to be imbibing something of an alcoholic persuasion. Making it a perfect start to this weekend’s round of bbq’s.

But we’re not celebrating Bastille Day…we’re celebrating Australia Day…so how to “Strayanise” these delicious French delicacies? Well, first we’re going to throw a little Vegemite into the mix. Now, I’ll be the first person to admit that I…ahem…”borrowed” the idea of the Vegemite Gougères from Rosie Birkett’s recipe for Marmite Gougères.

And then, to make it even more Australian, I substituted the water in the recipe for beer. I used the Gage Roads Little Dove Pale Ale as the beer for this because it is my absolute favourite and I had some in the house but you could sub in your own favourite.

The gougères are delightfully light. The combination of vegemite, cheese, cayenne and the very slight hint of beer go so well together that it would be a real shame to only save these for one day of the year!

Print

Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougeres

Print Recipe

A tasty snack based on a classic French recipe

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

120g unsalted butter
150ml whole milk
1 1/2 tablespoons Vegemite
75ml Pale Ale
150g plain flour, sifted
4 eggs
100g cheddar, grated, plus 1 tablespoon extra, for scattering
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
big pinch freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoonfreshly grated nutmeg

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200°C and line 2 large baking sheets with baking parchment.
Put the butter, milk and Vegemite and ale into pan over medium heat and bring to the boil.
Add the flour and beat very quickly with a wooden spoon, over the heat, until the mixture is smooth and pulls away from the side of the pan (about 2-3 minutes).
Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a minute.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until the mixture is thick and smooth and glossy.
Stir in the grated cheese, peppers and nutmeg.
Spoon the mixture into the piping bag fitted with a nozzle. Pipe little rounds (about the size of a chestnut) onto the trays, leaving space between each mound to allow for rising.
Alternatively, just spoon small spoons of the mixture onto the tray.
Scatter over the remaining cheese.
Bake for 20–25 minutes, until puffed and golden.
Serve warm. Or cool on a wire rack and reheat in a 180°C oven for a few minutes until they crisp up.

Notes

The gougères can be made in advance and frozen once cool.

If you’re celebrating, have a wonderful day and enjoy the long weekend!

If not, make these anyway, they’re awesome!

But remember…

Back with more Z Food next time! Have a fabulous week!

Signature 1

Category: Cocktail

Aperol Gin and Tonic

Ingredients

To Garnish

Instructions

Dirty Cowboy Martini

Ingredients

Instructions

Vegemite and Pale Ale Gougeres

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes