Archive for the '*Recipes: LIQUIDS' Category

Bison grass and apple cocktail or “Tatanka” or “Szarlotka”

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Żubrówka is a Polish vodka that is infused with bison grass from the Białowieża Forest on the border between Poland and Belarus. It has a vague hint of vanilla and almonds, and I love using it in drinks and cocktails mixing it with champagne and other ingredients. But an amazingly easy and delicious drink is to only use Żubrówka and apple juice. The vodka in combination with the apple juice results in a wintery drink with a scent of cinnamon and vanilla. In Poland the combination of Żubrówka and apple juice is often refered to as Tatanka or Szarlotka. Szarlotka actually means apple pie and gives you a clue about how delicious this cocktail is! Just make sure to use fresh apple juice to get a really tasty drink.

Happy New Year!

Bison grass and apple cocktail
one glass

5 cl Żubrówka
200 ml fresh high quality apple juice
ice

Put ice cubes in glass. Add Żubrówka and apple juice.

*Recipes: LIQUIDS | Comments (12)

Apple and Rosemary syrup

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Today I realized that I havn’t written anything during the last two weeks. My schedule has been a bit busy and I havn’t really had the time. Yesterday I came home from Denmark and tomorrow I’m off to Finland. By now my collegues are used to that I always buy moomin cookie cutters on my way home from business trips in Finland :-)

I’m not lucky enough to have an apple tree in my garden. The garden is very rocky and I’m still searching for a good spot to plant a tree. This lovely apple syrup, made of store bought apples, is easy to make and tastes delicious. Blend it with water for a refreshing drink in a 1:4 ratio.

Apple and Rosemary syrup

700 ml water
1.5 kg red rather tart apples
200 gram sugar per 1 litre of liquid (see below for more info)
4 fresh Rosemary twigs

Wash the apples. Cut in slices with peel on. Don’t remove the cores. Let the apples simmer with water and rosemary twigs in a large sauce pan for 15 minutes or until the apples are soft. Strain the mixture through a very fine strainer, don’t press it through let it drop slowly for at least one hour.

Discard the apples and rosemary. Measure the strained liquid. For every 1 litre of liquid, add 200 gram of sugar. Bring to boil in sauce pan and let simmer for 15 minutes. Carefully skim froth with a spoon. Pour the warm syrup into clean and sterilized bottles. Keep the syrup in the fridge. It will hold for around a month.

*Recipes: LIQUIDS | Comments (6)

Lingonberry drink

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

This is a tasty autumnal lingonberry drink which can be made with alcohol or without. Both variants taste great. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough fresh lingonberries in the garden (I have a couple of wild plants), so I used frozen half thawed ones. The colour of the drink is gorgeous and makes you forget all about rainy and cold evenings, especially if you add rum :-)

One glass of lingonberry drink

1/3 cup (around 80 ml) lingonberries
2 tsp demerara sugar
1 tbsp black currant syrup
ice cubes
sparkling water
fresh mint leaves
optional: a splash or two of rum

Muddle lingonberries, sugar and black currant cordial directly in a glass. Add rum to taste if wanted :-) Stir well. Fill the glass with ice cubes and sparkling water. Add a couple of mint leaves and serve immediately.

Some of the lingonberries in my garden.

*Recipes: LIQUIDS | Comments (5)

Raspberry coconut drink

Monday, July 21st, 2008

I’m back from two very busy weeks: my last hectic week at work before vacation (and my new job that I haven’t told you about yet) and my first week of vacation. Both combined with succeeding overnight guests at the house leaving no time for internet but for cooking and cleaning and washing. I’ve had a great time but I’m exhausted and I’m trying to catch some rest these days before more people will arrive.

One evening when we were still living in the city centre we decided to go to Hard Rock Café, just to share a Jumbo Combo. However as we didn’t have any reservation we had to wait at the bar sipping their different drinks. This very tasty and ice cold drink is inspired by a coconut and raspberry drink that I had that very evening. But of course this one is better :-)

Rasberry Coconut drink

(serves 2-4 depending on size of glasses)

250 gram frozen raspberries, directly from the freezer
400 ml (one can) unsweetened thai coconut milk
1-2 tbsp caster sugar (preferably vanilla infused)
200 ml Vodka

Mix all ingredients in a mixer or food processor. Serve immediately.

*Recipes: LIQUIDS | Comments (8)

Frozen Pineapple drink

Friday, November 17th, 2006

The Belvedere vodka bottle is so pretty. It’s a great Polish vodka, distilled 4 times.

Friday and finally the weekend is here. What about a delicious frozen pineapple drink which reminds you of summer and vacation?

Frozen Pineapple drink

250 ml fresh pineapple and orange juice (use fresh juice instead of the one made from concentrate)
100 ml vodka
0.5 pineapple (rinsed and cut into pieces).

Put the pineapple pieces in the freezer for at least 1 hour. Mix all the ingredients in a blender until you have a thick mesh.

*Recipes: LIQUIDS | Comments (3)

Plum Pie with caramelized almond cream and Blue Booze

Thursday, August 11th, 2005

Yesterday we were invited to our friend Andreas for dinner. I always bake something when we visit him, and this time I decided to bake a plum pie to be served with almond cream, which in this case is whipped cream with carmelized almond. The pie was delicious, even though the plums that I bought weren’t perfect. Next time (and there definitely will be a next time for this pie) I’ll maybe substitute the plums with cherries or some other tart fruit. The pie filling consists of almond paste, eggs and butter which is a great combination.

For dinner Andreas made us a lovely salmon dish which is easy to make and is really great. The dish consists of salmon, leek, grated horseradish and boiled new potatoes. Put all the ingredients in an aluminium foil package that you put on the grill. As the weather was bad yesterday the fish package was put in the oven instead. The result was a delicious and easy fish dish that I truly recommend. For variation you can add some cream or white wine in the fish package. Andreas made a big one, but you can do small individual ones as well. For dessert we had the earlier meantioned plum pie and after the dinner Andreas started with his spooky drinks, that most of the time are delicious but sometimes can be horrible…

First he made some blue drink that we only had a gulp of before we sentenced it to the kitchen sink. Next up was Spillolja (”Oil spill”)… Does that sound like something that you would voluntarily drink? No, I don’t think so… But actually it was quite nice; Coca Cola, Blue Curacao and Cream. Except for the fact that the drink separates really bad…

The oil spill drink.

It looks just like… oil spill…or something worse, just take a look at the above photo. Andreas has actually worked as a bartender and when he ordered this drink on a night out with us last summer, the waiter didn’t think that we would actually drink it as it looks terrible. At least this time we didn’t drink “Monkey Brain” that consists of Sambuca, Campari and Baileys which clash and get the look of… yes monkey brain… Instead of Monkey Brain, Andreas invented a new drink yesterday called “The immigrant” containing banana liqueur and swedish nyponsoppa (rose hip soup), actually rather nice tasting.
We had a great time and we even played or actually sang the karaoke game Singstar (for PS2). Singstar is a funny party game, especially if you like to sing (but who doesn’t after some blue drinks?).

Plum Pie with caramelized Almond Cream
(From the Swedish magazine “Allt om mat”)

Crust:
180 gr flour
150 gr butter
3 tbsp sugar

Filling:
8-10 plums
300 gr almond past
100 g butter, room temperatured
3 eggs
2 tbsp flour

Decoration:
Icing sugar

Almond Cream:
75 gr blanched an thinly sliced almonds
1.5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp butter
250 ml double cream

Combine the ingredients for the dough and roll it out. Press the dough over the bottom and sides of a tart pan. Place the pan in the fridge for 1 hour. Heat the oven to 200 °C and bake the crust for about 10 minutes.

Divide the plums into halves and remove the plum stones. Grate the almond paste and combine with the butter. Add an egg at a time and blend. Add the flour. Pour the filling into the crust and add the plum halves. Bake in the bottom part of the oven for about 30 minutes or until the filling becomes golden.

Roast the almonds either in the oven or in a dry frying pan, put aside. Melt sugar and lemon juice in a frying pan. Add the almonds when the sugar is golden. Blend the almonds until all of them are covered with caramel. Add butter and blend. The butter makes the almonds to separate easier from each other. Let the almonds cool.

Chop the almonds and whip the cream. Combine the whipped cream with the almonds. Put some icing sugar on the pie and serve it lukewarm with the almond cream.

*Recipes: C IS FOR COOKIES, *Recipes: LIQUIDS, Pies and Tarts | Comments (0)

I miss you, darling!

Monday, July 11th, 2005

Baja Rosa and ice (Strawberry cream liqueur with tequila)

*Recipes: LIQUIDS | Comments (2)

Sunday Smoothie

Sunday, July 3rd, 2005

Smoothie with fresh mango and banana, frozen
bilberries, vanilla yoghurt, milk and wheat bran.

Two weeks ago we went on a rather crazy (but planned) shopping spre, which among other things resulted in a beautiful and great dishwasher and a blender, or actually a smoothie blender with a cute tap. The dishwasher is a blessing, as the kitchen and livingroom is integrateded and thus you see the kitchen all the time. I just love the dishwasher, it’s great! The smoothie blender is great as well, we didn’t have any blender earlier and decided for this one and now we drink smoothies to breakfast every weekend, they are so easy to make and incredible delicious. Fill the blender with liquid up to the “liquid mark” and then add fruit up to the “frozen ingredients” mark. Make sure not to add any sugar to make the smoothie extra healthy, and add some wheat bran aswell.

Smoothie with frozen bilberries, fresh banana, vanilla
yoghurt and milk. Before and after.