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Daveed delves into the delights of a decent cocktail

A little light refreshment

daveed

Thursday, 4 June 2009

Now that I have written a few articles about food, I would like to ensure that you, my dear readers, do not mistake me with a professional chef trying to change the world! Although I have been trained to be one, my real love has forever been in a liquid form, preferably matured in a barrel for some time by someone who learned the mysterious ways of distilling by his father who himself learned it by his, and so on for a couple of centuries! Although I have never really been fussed as to which product the barrel(s) contain, for as long as it is of quality.

I wouldn’t want to deny my first love, I mean, cooking is great, it allows your imagination to run wild, it makes your mouth salivates with anticipation and it allows you to actually live, as opposed to simply survive. It is an amazing social tool, where you meet your friends around a meal, you share dishes that you enjoy and hope that the rest of your guests will enjoy also and it simplify the real complicated scenario that is life, if only for a few hours. But the thing that gives your food some soul, the one ingredient that could easily ruin the whole magical spell that you have just spent hours to prepare should you not be careful in picking it right, is ....alcohol!

Forget the 4 hours of Oenology and wine making, the blah-de-blah of the right “chateau” or the hints of banana in your Beaujolais Nouveaux. The best way to confuse anyone about wine is to try to summarise a millennia of history into a 400 words article.

No, instead I am going to take you around the spring/summer collection of my favourite Al Fresco dining accompaniments. Cocktails! Refreshing, fruity, light and colourful, I do not really need to introduce them to you, but instead give you little alternatives that will guaranty to make you the new creative genius of your household (if you haven’t burned the gratin in the oven to cinder that is!):

The Apple Pimm’s:

For a large 2 litres jug:

Fill it up to 2/3 to the top with ice.
Add ½ a Golden delicious apple sliced thinly, with fresh mint, cucumber and some strawberries.
Follow up with 200ml of Pimm’s, and 100ml of Calvados.
Top up with lemonade, alternatively you can use soda water for a more refreshing drink.
The great taste of Apple Pimm’s will brighten you summer days even in case of heavy rain. It is a little more alcoholic than the classic Pimm’s but I always believed that a drink should be alcoholic enough to taste it, but not enough to make you wince. So adjust the Calvados accordingly, but you will find that as you go, the dose increases!

White Sangria:

For a large 2 litres jug:
Fill ½ the jug with ice.
Add one or two cinnamon sticks.
A few slices of oranges, a couple of slices of lemons.
¼ pint glass of fresh grapefruit juice.
¼ pint of Lychee juice.
50ml of sugar syrup.
1 bottle of medium dry white wine (Pinot Grigiot works fine).
Top up with white lemonade.

White lemonade is for people who, like me, cannot cope with too much red wine. The hangover is too strong and I cannot for the life of me deal with the purple lips and the morning after. It is very refreshing, light and fizzy, and, as before, if you want to regulate the sugar content, either swap lemonade for soda water or get rid of the syrup. Another good trick is to leave the wine to macerate with the cinnamon and the fruits overnight in the fridge for a smoother taste. But please DO NOT replace the sticks by grated cinnamon, first it makes it look like muddy water and second it will make you cough and probably expulse it out through your nostrils (can you sense the cruel sound of personal experience here?).

Green tea Mojito

In a teapot for about 3 or 4 mugs:

100ml of Dark rum (personal favourite is Havana, or Mount Gay)
A generous amount of fresh mint leaves.
Some green tea leaves (whole if you want a nice drink, teabag for a quick fix)
Juice of ½ lime.
Couple of soup spoon of brown sugar.
Top up with freshly boiled water.
This is the summer heat regulator (as I personally call it!). It is delicious, allows you to keep up with a really hot day, and, funnily enough, allows you to keep up with a really cold day as well. It finishes a meal perfectly, almost better than a coffee, and helps digestion! I could go on and on about the level of anti-oxidants, but do we really need to know when it tastes that good?

So here we are, there will be plenty more to come in the next few weeks. I should really add that these should be consumed with moderation but will you listen to me? I very much doubt it.