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By clare, February 19, 2010

When Tropical Cusine: Cooking in Clare’s Kitchen comes out I imagine that some readers might presume I am a complete soak from the number of mixed drink and cocktail recipes it will contain.  However, coming up with these recipes is more about playfulness than ensuring a regular alcoholic intake.  They are like a liquid and simple version of a dessert, which is another satisfying realm of recipe testing because of the ease with which one can find and combine flavours and textures.  Ironic really given that I rarely eat desserts myself, although that pattern changed for a while during the recipe testing when I was working mostly on dessert recipes (and my waistline paid the price).

Anyway, todays offering is a take on the look of the Tequila Sunrise, and uses ingredients that are very much part of the identity of this part of the world – rum, red papaya, and the indigenous Davidsons plum.  Here it is, the Sailors Delight:

Sailors Delight

1 tablespoon Davidsons plum syrup, plus 1 teaspoon extra to drizzle around glass

45ml dark rum

1/2 cup pureed ripe red papaya pulp

3/4 cup soda water Continue reading 'Playing at sundown'»

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By admin, January 9, 2010

Crystals mixed drink © Clare Richards 2009

We are on the last night of mum’s visit, which has been two weeks of joy.  Sharing cooking, preparation, food, as well as many a swim and a wander.  Tonight we had a very simple meal of breadfruit chips, rump steak cooked on the BBQ and served with homemade BBQ sauce, and freshly peeled pommelo.  During dinner we indulged in a Davidson Plum rose from Sue Pyke’s bush fruit wine products at Sunset Ridge, and merrily consumed most of the bottle.

Dinner was preceded by one of my mixed drink recipe tests, and if I may say so, I think this is one of the best I’ve done so far.  The finger limes were from Sue Pyke’s farm; the kaffir lime leaves that composed the syrup were from my bush and that of my friend Norma; the vodka is newly released by Mt Uncle Distillery; and the lime liqueur is from Wild Mountain Cellars (23 Eacham Rd Yungaburra, ph. 07 4095 3000, email: enquiries@wildmountain.com.au).  Try this recipe if you have access to all of these ingredients, and if you don’t, belt off to your local native plant or independent nursery and buy yourself a kaffir lime and a finger lime tree, because this recipe is worth the nurturing of their green selves.  Crystals is pure, cool, effervescent summer in a glass:

Crystals

4 – 5 chunks ice

30ml Wild Mountain Rolling Thunder (lime liqueur)

15ml Anjea vodka by Mt Uncle Distillery

1 tsp Kaffir lime syrup (see following recipe)

1 tsp pink/red fingerlime bubbles

soda water to top up

Place ice into glass, add Rolling Thunder lime liqueur, Anjea vodka and Kaffir lime syrup, and stir to combine. Add fingerlime bubbles.  Top up with soda water, gently stir again, and serve. Best served in an old fashioned shallow and wide champagne glass.

kaffir lime syrup

10 kaffir lime leaves, torn along their edges

500g sugar

500ml water

sterile 1 litre jar

Place the sugar and water into a saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Add kaffir lime leaves and continue to cook at a moderate simmer for 1 – 2 minutes or until you start to smell the fragrance of the leaves, regularly dunking the leaves under the liquid as they simmer.  Turn off heat, leave syrup to cool, then remove kaffir lime leaves into a jar, pour syrup over, seal lid tightly and store in fridge.  This syrup will improve over the coming days and weeks.

© Clare Richards 2009