Today's Smoothie

I love a cocktail and I love a smoothie.  When I can combine the two, I am even happier.  I often make smoothies at the weekend, so the smoothie for today is a mixed fruit smoothie.  The ingredients are as follows:

Makes enough for two people:

• two handfuls of frozen mixed fruit 
• Half a peeled English cucumber 
• 6 fL oz of pineapple juice
• 6 fl oz water
• two shots of Cointreau

I don't have a blender but I do have a food processor so I use that to blend the smoothie,  Served over ice in a tall glass with a large straw.

And this is what you end up with.

I am getting to the bottom of the bag of frozen mixed fruit so there is a lot of cranberries in there giving it that deep purple color.  It tastes smooth with a hint of the Cointreau but no real alcohol taste which is what I wanted. I wasn't going for something I could get hammered with, rather something I could enjoy one or two of,  

So there it is, today's smoothie.  Let me know if you try this and how it worked for you?

The cocktail of the Day

Yesterday, my wife and I were having brunch and as part of brunch we had a cocktail.  The cocktail in question was a Beija-flor (or hummingbird in English).  It was a delightful apricot flavored drink and went down very well. 

I figured, how hard can it be to make this so I thought I would have a go at home and with that in mind, I snapped a pic of the menu that gave the basic ingredients.

I don't have Cachaca or any sort of apricot liqueur, but I do have basic white rum and apple liqueur so I figured lets make an apple flavored one.  I tried a couple of mixes but to no avail, I just could not get it to taste good.  So I gave up; this weeks cocktail is a Daiquiri.

As I had the rum out, I figured I would try my hand at a Daiquiri.  And I have to say this one tastes pretty good.  The recipe is simple; 2 parts rum to 1 part lime juice and a splash of simple syrup, shake and pour over ice.

Doesn't look like much.

I must say this tastes great, most enjoyable on this alternatively sunny and rainy afternoon.   Any idea what I should try my hand at next week?

This weeks Cocktail

This week's cocktail is the Cosmopolitan.  I've been making these for a while now.  I have my shot glass for measuring and my cheap Amazon shaker that I use.  

The ingredients for this cocktail is as follows:

        1.5 oz Citrus vodka

1 oz Cointreau

.5 oz Fresh lime juice

1 dash Cranberry juice

Garnish: Lime wheel

Glass: Cocktail

Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake.

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a lime wheel.

I don't have any citrus vodka, just basic Grey Goose, and that seems to work just fine.  As you can also see, I don't own a cocktail glass either!  Be careful adding the cranberry as too much will overpower the taste of everything else.

And here it is in all its glory.

Delicious. Just the thing for a Sunday afternoon.  This one is number 2, and with luck there might be another one before the afternoon is over. 

Cocktails: Cape Cod and The Bear's Den

I am going to talk about two cocktails that I am fond of here and both are cranberry based.  I like cranberry juice, especially pure cranberry.  It's not sweet and can have quite a tart bite.  In fact, I am quite fond of fruit in general, especially berries so it was a foregone conclusion that I would enjoy a nice raspberry liqueur.  In this case Chambord.

The Cape Cod

Lets start with the basic Cape Cod.  It's a cranberry juice and vodka mix in a ratio of 4 parts cranberry to 1 part vodka.  I think its an extremely refreshing cranberry drink but if this is a little too tart, turn it into a bear's den.

The Bear's Den

By mixing Chambord raspberry liqueur with cranberry juice, one ends up with a cocktail called a bears den.  This is one I have only ever seen on the internet and have never seen at a bar, but I had a go at making it, and all in all, its pretty good.

        Fill a glass with ice and add:

1 oz Chateau Monet® Framboise raspberry liqueur
6 oz cranberry juice

        Stir with a long spoon and enjoy the deliciousness.

Simple but tasty.

And then there is the franken cocktail I made today; a bears den with an additional shot of vodka because I turned a cape cod into a bears den.  A cape cod bear's den if you like.

This made a very pleasant end to a sleepy Sunday afternoon.

Smoothies

As I am on this mixed drink kick right now I thought I would also have a go at making smoothies.  I like the occasional smoothie but I am not a huge fan of them being milk based.  I know some folks get around this by using almond milk and similar products but for me its all the same.

Last weekend I got a bag of frozen mixed fruit with our groceries.  One of the meals I cooked last week involved orange juice, so I had some of that around as well, but not much else.  So this morning I decided to try making a mixed fruit smoothie with the ingredients that I have.

This is the result:

A mixed Fruit Smoothie

It tasted pretty good, not bad at all for a first attempt, and given the ingredients that I have.  The biggest issue I had is that I made too much - Oh no!

The Recipe

It was pretty simple really.  Take two handfuls of mixed frozen fruit, one cup of orange juice, one cup of water, chuck it all in a food processor and blend with the sharp knife attachment.  If it seems a little stiff, add more OJ and water. That should make enough for two; I made enough for 4 because I wasn't sure how this was going to come out.

Lessons learned

The first thing I learned is that I over estimated the amount of ingredients resulting in way more smoothie than I needed.  Also I think I used too much OJ as it is overpowering the taste of the mixed fruit.  What I might need to do in order to loosen this up a little is use more water and maybe something like peeled cucumber.

Was this a successful test? Yes absolutely.  My wife seems to be enjoying her smoothie and while I am a little critical of the way it came out, it is a refreshing and delicious snack.

So what should I try to make next?

Cocktails and Mixed Drinks

Let me first start this post with this; I am not a sophisticated man but in an effort to widen my horizons a little I started trying cocktails a few years back, and I think its fair to say that I enjoy a tasty mixed drink. 

I am beginning to build out a list of recipes that I enjoy, with a view to making them myself occasionally. I do have a sweet tooth so my efforts at making mixed drinks tend to err on the side of sweet, but tart is also good.  Who doesn't enjoy a little tart in their life!

For instance, at brunch with my wife a while back, I had this extremely nice cocktail:

Delicious!

However given the list of ingredients I will not likely make this at home.  So what do I keep in the drinks cabinet and what can be used for cocktails?

The wife and I are mostly beer and cider drinkers and occasional drinkers at that.  We might have 18 cans of various beers and ciders that might last us several months.  Stronger spirits keep even longer in this house, and tend to vary depending on what I have recently purchased.  With that said, this is what I have in stock right now:

    Delord XO Armagnac            Cointreau

    Michter's Bourbon                 Chambord

    Barbancourt White Rum        Schonauer Apfel
    Grey Goose Vodka                 Limoncello

    Ruby Port

    Mead (x2)

    Chardonnay
    Simple Syrup, cranberry juice and orange juice

So what am I going to make today?

My ingredients and work station

I was thinking about trying the Madras today.  A Madras is a vodka cocktail, made up as follows:

1.5 shots vodka

1.5 shots orange juice

2 shots unsweetened cranberry juice

1 teaspoon simple syrup

1 lime wedge

To make the cocktail, pour the vodka, cranberry juice and simple syrup into a glass with ice, stir, and add the orange juice and squeeze the juice from the lime wedge into the mixture.

My first Madras

You will have to excuse the glass, I don't have any cocktail glasses handy, just these gas station glasses.  Also while making the cocktails, my wife was cooking bacon!

BACON!

So the big question now is how did it taste. My wife liked it but for me it was not that great.  I think I would increase the OJ and decrease the cranberry as i think the cranberry taste was too strong.

I might try modifying the mix next weekend just to see if increasing the OJ makes a difference.  Has anyone else tried this?