Tag: sweet basil vodka

A new T.O.B cook – Lorraine!

One of the really, really great things that come from blogging is the fact that you make friends with people you wouldn’t have have met if it hadn’t been for the blog. When those friends start cooking things they have seen on the blog it makes me really happy.

Those who did cook sent me pictures to show me what they had done and I was so pleased I posted the pictures here – anything to encourage people to cook. Now what we do is make that into a page for the person who’s cooking… they become a T.O.B. Cook. Look in the drop down category box for T.O.B Cooks and you’ll see what the others have done so far.

And here’s the latest T.O.B. Cook –  it’s your turn to meet Lorraine! 

Actually, I may well have met Lorraine in reality at some point… she is the best friend of the Bear’s cousin. Thing is,  they both happen to live in Quebec so  we would have had to gone over there, but, you know, we may well have met up.

As it happened, I “met” Lorraine because she read the blog and we became friends on Facebook. Lorraine started to read the blog and we started to talk about cooking. Then we became real friends.

The first thing Lorraine cooked was the Lemon Drizzle Cake that my aunt taught me. She managed to work out what I meant when I talked about caster sugar (in Canada they call it super-fine)  and took it with her when she visited the Bear’s cousin.

We message each other a lot now and one day when we were talking  about the huge amounts of basil we had and what we could do with it, I mentioned  that I had made Sweet Basil Biscuits but that I was intrigued been reading  what Katie from Cozy, delicious did with her basil. She made Basil and Watermelon Martinis – Lorraine needed no further encouragement. 

Lorraine used the sweet yellow watermelon they can get in Quebec

And made the most delicious Basil  and  Sweet Yellow Watermelon Martinis for herself and Sonny, her husband. Cheers!

(And because I couldn’t get lovely watermelons, I made Basil vodka with tomato essence cocktails)

Lorraine’s next challenge was No Knead Bread as she’s never done much yeast cookery. She said she’s never had any success with it…

Well, that looks like a success to me!

Lorraine made lovely Roasted Red Peppers 

And with the No Knead Bread and some lovely Stilton, made the perfect lunch!

I’m so glad Lorraine started joining in and even more glad she has become my friend.

Lorraine will, no doubt, tell you more about her cooking and will have more pictures to post in the future but until then, look at at what she’s done so far and welcome her as the latest T.O.B. Cook!

And this is what she says…

What can I say, just love the blog. After many years of cooking for just two of us, it became a routine, chops one day, always pasta on Friday, steak on Saturday, etc. If entertaining, I would plan for weeks and weeks but some things were always bought like Bread. Had never had any success and gave up. I began reading the blog religously and realized I was not alone so I gave bread a try once again. First time – did not quite work out but from Wendall’s help and encouragement I did it and continue to do so on a weekly basis. Have even managed to have a local shop import some Allinsons flour so I can try the other breads.

Am looking forward to trying many more of the receipes, especially Dahl and chicken receipes and will try to remember to take pictures to ecourage others. It is never too late to try new things. Thanks Wendy and The Bear – keep blogging.

Lorraine’s Update – 21 September, 2010 – EASY APPLE BUTTER!

This morning when I opened my computer I found a message from Lorraine. She had made the apple butter and what’s interesting is that she had a far easier way of doing it than the method I used! As a Canadian, Lorraine has more experience than me with apple butter so perhaps we should go with her on this.

Lorraine peeled, sliced and cored her apples (whereas I just quarter them and cook them, skin, pips and all)

She says “I ended up with 14 cups of apples before the stirring and added, cinnamon, ground gloves and 5 1/5 cups sugar. That’s it. My receipe did say I could use 2 cups of sweet apple cider to replace two cups of the sugar but I did not have cider.”

Simple, eh?

She blended them in a food processor

Returned to the pan and cooked again for about 2 hours until the natural apple sugars caramelised and went brown

Filled her jars

Boiled them in a water bath to sterilise everything

And ended up with 10 jars holding 250 ml each. Good work, Lorraine!

Now that, my friends, is a faster way of doing it than I have been doing it… and bearing in mind the immense apple glut we have, well, I think I will have to try her method!

I shall ask her to write down what she added to the apples and then I shall add it to her post!

Basil infused vodka and essence of tomato – the most perfect cocktail ever

If you look at the far right hand column on this page you will see a section called Blogroll. That’s where I keep a list of my favourite blogs so I can click on the links and go straight to their page. Have a look and see if there’s a blog you might not have come across before – you might find a post there that really interests you.

That’s what happened one day when I was having a coffee and taking a break from work – I thought I’d look at Katie’s Cosy, delicious and see what she was up to. Her latest post was Watermelon and Basil Martini… intrigued, I read on. It sounded great! She had infused some vodka with basil and made a mixer with fresh watermelon juice.

Thing is, I didn’t have any watermelon and I’m sure that the watermelons Katie gets in the States will be much sweeter and fresher than anything we could get here in England… but it left me thinking.

I had lots of basil so I could try infusing the vodka anyway (after all, I made the old favourites Toffee Vodka and a Coffee Liqueur just before Christmas last year) and whatever you do with vodka and an infusion has to be fun….

In my pot on the balcony, high above the rest of the city, I had Sweet Basil and Greek Basil growing   – and as the weather was turning cooler and autumn was on its way, I really should get it used up.

I thought I would try with both kinds of basil to see what it was like.

Katie said she had used 2 cups of basil to 4 cups of vodka

So twice as much vodka as basil was poured into my large storage jar and it was put into the larder to keep it in the dark for a day or two. Two days is the maximum but check it to see how it is doing.

Now, as I didn’t have lovely watermelons, I started to think of what else I would put with the basil vodka when it was ready.

And what came to mind was basil’s perfect partner – tomatoes……

…………………… but not that thick and gloopy tomato juice you make a Bloody Mary with, no, I wanted a pure, clear, almost sweet, essence of tomato juice.

It would be like my favourite salad in a martini glass!

I had some beautiful tomatoes that I knew tasted delicious. I’d read about people making clear tomato juice by straining the tomatoes to get just the juice and none of the pulp. That was what I wanted… just translucently clear, pink, sweet tomato juice.

To make it, I’d need a sieve, some muslin and a jug to catch the strained juices.

Lining the sieve means you keep more of the pulp out of the way and allows the pure juice to drip through.

I chopped the tomatoes roughly and gave them a little squeeze as I put them in the lined sieve.

And watched as the pink juice dripped through.

It really was a beautiful, bright pink.

I squeezed the cloth to get more juice out but what that did was thicken the juice. I’d have to strain it again….

I used a coffee filter paper this time and poured the juice into that.

The juice looked almost clear and I wanted this to be the most delicately coloured drink imagineable.

I got the jar with basil infusing in vodka out of the dark cupboard – it had been in there for 36 hours and, when I checked it, the vodka had been tinted by the basil leaves and it smelt delicious. It had a softly sweet smell of basil – not harsh, just sweet and fresh smelling.

All I had to do to that was pour it out of the jar through a sieve to get the leaves out.

See how pretty that looks!

What I imagined would be the perfect cocktail had to have the perfect glass. I had just the thing. An old, handblown glass with intriguing bobbles on it. It’s been one of my favourite glasses for years, ever since I was given it by an old friend. I have no idea how old the glass is or where it came from originally but I love it.

A measure of the delicately tinted basil vodka was poured over the ice.

The sweet, clear tomato essence was added

And as a finishing touch? Tiny Tomberries (the smallest, sweetest tomatoes there are) and a baby leaf of basil were speared with a cocktail stick

And what was it like?

It was delicious. It was sweet and aromatic with the most subtle flavour of basil – not overwhelming at all.

It was the essence of summer in a cocktail.

I had one… the Bear had one and we agreed this was possibly the most delicious drink there ever was. Every sip was perfect.

I’m going to make this again and again and perhaps when I next serve a tomato and basil salad I will make this and serve it alongside to highlight their pure, sweet and aromatic flavours.

You really have no idea how much this cocktail pleases me… I suppose, all I can say is have a go yourself.

And cheers!