Posts Tagged liquor

VeganMoFo: Flavor Bible Week – Lychees

November 23, 2010 at 11:23 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged , , , , , ,

It hasn’t exactly been tropical drink weather here lately, what with the rain and the cold…or does that make it more appropriate to pretend I’m in the tropics?

Day two of Flavor Bible Week brings us to page 209, lychees.  I have never eaten lychees before, and other than the fact that they are a fruit I didn’t know much about ’em!  I had heard of lychee martinis, and I decided to make an adult beverage.  I’m not a huge martini fan though, so I consulted the flavor matches to see what else I could do.

According to the book, lychees pair well with a lot of fruits and Asian flavors – berries, cilantro, lemongrass, plums, etc.  The pairing that caught my eye was “melon, especially honeydew”.  Perfect!  I love Midori, which is a melon-flavored liqueur, and now the Flavor Bible was confirming that it would taste good with lychees.  Inspired by this cocktail recipe, I added more flavor matches with pineapple, rum and coconut.

Lychee-dori

20 oz can lychees in syrup
coconut rum
Midori
pineapple juice
coconut milk or soy creamer

Remove a few lychees from the can to save for garnish, and pour the rest of the lychees and syrup into a blender.  Blend until smooth.  If your blender isn’t the best, you can strain the puree through a fine mesh strainer.

For each cocktail, combine 2 ounces lychee puree, 1 ounce coconut rum, 1 ounce Midori and 1 ounce pineapple juice.  Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice, or pour over ice.  Garnish with lychees on a pick and top with coconut milk or soy creamer.

(The coconut milk that was in my fridge had sadly gone bad, so I used soy creamer as a last minute substitute.  I really think the coconut milk would be better!)

This drink is dangerous, because you can’t really taste the alcohol; it tastes like delicious juice!  However, I was really not a fan of the lychees themselves.  The flavor is nice, but the texture is weird and chewy and squishy.  Also, I had to make a special trip to the Asian market to get lychees because I couldn’t find them at my normally well-stocked grocery store.  I doubt that I will be seeking out lychees again, but at least now I know what they taste like!

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Snobby Joes & A Hot Toddy

December 10, 2008 at 2:10 am · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged , , , , , ,

I’ve been wanting to try the Snobby Joes from Veganomicon ever since I got the book last Christmas, and last week I was in the mood.  The idea of using lentils intrigued me.  I like lentils but never eat them as much as I could, so I’m always looking for reasons to use them.

On the side I had plain boiled cabbage, which is my favorite way to eat it.  I also made a cream of mushroom and broccoli stem soup that didn’t turn out so well.  I kept adding a bit of this and a dash of that in attempts to make it taste good and rather than improving the flavor it just became more convoluted.  So I sprinkled some red bell pepper on top, which helped a bit, and got through it.

The Snobby Joe was pretty good.  I liked the texture a lot, and I love any recipe that starts with onion, green pepper and garlic.  I don’t know that I’ll make this recipe again though, because there’s a sloppy joe recipe in Minutemeals Vegetarian that I kind of love.  The only issue is that it’s made with processed meat substitute, which isn’t really that bad, but I’m trying to avoid processed ingredients as much as possible.  Made that way it really does taste like a regular ol’ sloppy joe.  Maybe I’ll try making that recipe with lentils instead of faux meat?  The recipe is more simple, made with tomato paste, ketchup and red wine vinegar.  I don’t think I cared for the maple syrup that sweetens the Snobby Joes.  However, I’m not saying you shouldn’t try it if you think it looks good!

Last week I had a minor head cold and was feeling generally crappy.  I came home from work Friday night and for whatever crazy reason, I thought I would treat my cold with a hot toddy.  Even though I’d never had one in my life.  That’s what they do on tv, right?  A search of the internet yielded many versions, so I stuck with a simple one.  I measured it out and drank it from a sweet Jameson glass that I inherited when my mom cleaned out her kitchen cabinets.  A lot of people find hot toddies repulsive, but I liked it.  Then again, I like whiskey, so…there you go.

Looks harmless, right?

Vegan Hot Toddy

1 1/2 oz whiskey
1 oz agave nectar
1/3 oz lemon juice
3 oz hot cider, tea, water or other hot beverage (I used orange tangerine tea)

Mix and drink.  It’ll cure what ails ya!

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