Ginger Ale, Lychee, and Raspberry - The Chick 3 Amigos Drink

9.21.10

Happy Tuesday.

Best of luck to all contestants for the project food blog star! The voting is open now. There are quite a few profiles in my favorite box. Everyone is looking good! It's nice to see the story behind each blog and the blog's goal for each one. Anyway, I cast my vote!

As mentioned in the last post, I was going to be working on an entry for Denise's Quickies Cocktail Challenge over the weekend. I did! Phew. I'm glad I worked on it on Saturday, as Sunday was hectic due to Bella's  incident - poor thing. I had baked brownie bites and left them on the dining table before leaving for a Birthday party. I forgot to move one chair close to the table. She's smart enough to get on there and to the table without knowing those tempting chocolate treats could cause her  death! Sure enough, she was up all night running around due to a high sugar level and heartbeat. We had to take her to the pet emergency hospital. It was an expensive lesson for us.

Never trust your dog with food on a dining table! I wish she knew what was going on and wouldn't do it again (sigh)

Okay, back to this challenge. The Quickie Cocktail Challenge is a joint challenge between a talented sweet Denise Fletcher at Quickie on a dinner table and the smart supportive Lazaro at Lazaro Cooks. I'm glad they are open to non-alcoholic drinks! I'm a light weight and wouldn't be too convincing to create an alcoholic drink. It's like a monkey teaching fish to swim. The prize is a copy of Denise's Cookbook - Quickie: Morning, Noon, and Night. It contains awesome recipes for any time of day!

I went to a farmers market and got fresh raspberries and was thinking of what to do with them. I also had rose water left in pantry from my rose water infused creme brulee; the guest post for Lazaro. I wasn't sure how to put it together until I recalled one of the posts from Silvia at Citron et vanilla in which she infused berry and lychee. So, I added lychee as one of the ingredients. Lychee also goes well with rose water so it is a perfect candidate! Now, comes to the "stunt man" for alcohol. I could use sparkling water, club soda and such but I needed something a little sweeter. Ginger Ale came to mind. Here we go, the 3 amigos in one glass.

I hope it's sexy enough but not too dirty haha.

Ginger Ale, Lychee, and Raspberry - The 3 Amigos Drink

Yield: 3-4

Ingredients:

1 (14 oz) can lychee in syrup, drained

1/4 cup fresh raspberry

1/2 tsp rose water

Ginger Ale

4-5 Ice cubes per shake

Blender

Cheese cloth (optional)

Bartender Shake/Mixer

Directions:

• Add lychee, raspberry, and rose water in a blender. Puree it until mix and has no chuck of fruit.
• If you wish to have a clear looking drink, use cheesecloth to sieve the remain and chuck. If you don't have it, don't worry at all. A little chuck of fruit doesn't make the taste different. 
• Add ice cubes in a shaker, follow by 1/4 cup raspberry and lychee mixture. Finish with ginger ale until almost full. Close the cap. Shake to mix well. 
• Be careful while shaking. You will feel a pressure from the soda pushing the cap out. Make sure you close and hold it tight.
• Pour in a glass and garnish with raspberry and lychee.
• Repeat the first step for the next glass.

with some pulp

As Lazaro is one of the two behind this challenge, I will post another recipe inspired by his recipe - Pan roasted catfish with black beans. This is a guest post for Patty at Patty's Food. He made a flavorful soup and a sustainable fish. He's like a fish and seafood master to me. I deconstructed it to a sandwich. It tasted delicious! Keith also loves it! I adjusted a few ingredients to the ingredient access on my end. I also breaded catfish with cornmeal as they go well together. Catfish and cornmeal -Louisiana style. It's full of flavor and healthy. The original recipe you can find on his blog here.

For the black beans:
1 can black beans, drained
1 tbs olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 leek, minced
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt
white pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
splash of dry white wine

Directions:
Heat up a skillet over medium heat. Add oil. Swirl to coat. Add shallot, and garlic. Saute until tender. Add onion and cook until it's translucent. Add beans and all the seasonings. Mix well and cook until the bean liquid is almost dry. Add tomatoes and wine. Simmer it for 10 mins. It should become dry enough like paste but still moist. Smash it with fork or wooden spoon.

Catfish:
Catfish fillets, skinned
Salt
Pepper
Cornmeal

Directions:
Dry fish with paper towel. Season with salt and pepper. Dredge the fish in cornmeal. Heat up skillet with oil. Pan fry the fish about 5 mins on each side or cook through.

Assemble by spreading bean paste on toasted breads, mascarpone, chives, fish, and another teaspoon of mascarpone, then top with the other side of bread.

Don't forget to join my first organic giveaway to win a bag of organic mutigrain waffle & pancake mix from Arrow Mills, and a special gift from me! Enter here