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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

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

9.21.10

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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




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    32 comments:

    denise @ quickies on the dinner table said...

    Hey Tanantha - each time I see one of your posts, I am more convinced that you should go to culinary school.

    Both the cocktail (mocktail?) and catfish dish are gorgeous! I love the touch of the exotic represented by the rosewater in what is already a beautifully balanced and certainly delicious drink. The colour is so pretty!

    Thank you so much for supporting our challenge and the very best of luck to you :)

    denise @ quickies on the dinner table said...

    Oh! I just realised that first line is open to misintepretation :P

    I meant you should go to culinary school to develop and expand on your obvious talent! LOL

    Hope I am forgiven ;)

    Anonymous said...

    What a delicious looking drink!

    bunkycooks said...

    Love the cocktail! Very interesting flavors. :)

    ~Lisa~ said...

    The cocktail looks so refreshing and delicious! Definitely a SEXY teast (=And deconstructing that dish into a sandwich, genius!

    Roxan said...

    T, great job on that cocktail. The furthest I ever get with making drinks is opening a bottle of wine and pouring it into a glass :) But I'm ok with that, I LOVE wine.

    And sorry to hear about poor poor bella!! I hope she's ok. My dog (Nala) is the exact same. if we're at home she would NEVER go on the coffee table or dining table... but we've caught her doing those things when we're out. they're just like children! haha! Nala will even dig through the trash if we're not there. Tsk tsk.......

    Oh, and LOL @ Denise's comments.

    Lazaro Cooks said...

    T,

    The drink is fantastic. Perfect entry for the cocktail challenge. Love the combo of flavors.

    Great job with the dish. I love the culinary path you are on of exploration, experimentation, and deconstruction. You have taken my dish and elevated it to another level. Really an awesome sandwich, smart and creative. Keep going and pushing forward, never stop exploring. You are an unstoppable force.

    By the way, you've given me a wonderful idea that I will be sharing next week...Thanks!

    Be good!

    lequan said...

    Oh Tanantha, firstly, I really hope your Bella is doing much better now. Dogs really get themselves into such unpredictable messes, don't they? My min pin once ate some chicken bones on a camp ground (such irresponsible campers...grrr). Let's just say, that was the longest weekend of my life waiting for him to return to us from the vet. So I know how you must've felt.

    Secondly, dang girl! That's one sexy drink! Such gorgeous colour! The combination of raspberry, lychee and rosewater sounds absolutely enticing! What a great entry! I love this. I'm going to try this if I'm still able to get raspberries here.

    Lastly, you did such a wonderful job in changing up Lazaro's gorgeous and mouthwatering dish. A sexy drink to go along with the sexiest sandwich I've seen = one sexy post!

    Evan @swEEts said...

    OOoh Tanantha, alcohol or not this drink looks fab! I saw it pop up on my twitter page earlier today and I couldn't wait to get a break from work to check it out! looovely!

    Torviewtoronto said...

    lovely dishes
    love the drink

    Unknown said...

    Hi Tanantha,
    I've been so busy lately, thank goodness for Facebook and my new blog list because it's easy for me to stay in touch and follow your latest post. I find the color of your drink very appealing and the exotic ingredients such as rosewater and lychee very clever, such a lovely combination of flavors! Thanks for the mention of Patty's Food in the description of your sandwich inspired by Lazaro's catfish dish, I love what you did with the inspiration from his recipe. Keep up the good work and your photos, as always are beautiful, Patty

    May Ling Wu said...

    Loving that cocktail, looks so refreshing and not too heavy as some of these drinks tend to be.

    Juliana said...

    Wow, love the combination of this drink...the color is awesome and lychee must add a nice flavor to it...yummie!

    Unknown said...

    Ginger ale, lychee, and raspberry are three of my amigos for sure! Blend them up in a drink and you have one very sexy concoction! I like how you made it non-alcoholic.

    Hope Bella is feeling better! Poor girl. That sounds like it was scary.

    Nancy said...

    Both sound so good, and like they would go well together. So you are not doing the PFB challenge? maybe that's why I couldn't find you. I'm glad that Bella was Ok in the end. We had a similar incident with our dog, he ate Godiva chocolates from the table, the Vet told us to give him Hydrogen Peroxide. He vomited the chocolate & no need to rush him to the Vet. Your analogy "It's like a monkey teaching fish to swim." had me cracking up, LOL!

    Stella said...

    Hey Tanantha! I love your cocktail-raspberries and rosewater together?! Wow, that sounds wonderful. Plus, lychee is so good too, so there is no way that it's too dirty (smile).
    Ooh, and that fish sandwich looks so delicious. I think Keith's cholesterol will be down in no time with healthful eating like this-me thinks at least.

    Mo said...

    It all works wonderful, Tanantha! I bet the drink is delicious! :)

    The bean paste looks deliiicious. I could eat it with or without the catfish. :P

    Anonymous said...

    A beautiful drink! And I love your deconstruction of Lazaro's dish, what a cool idea!

    Monet said...

    Can I please have one of these? I've had such a long day at school, and what I really need is a delicious drink like this! I think you found the perfect blend of sexiness here!

    RamblingTart said...

    A perfectly beautiful and luscious drink! Well done. :-) And the catfish is gorgeous. :-)

    Biren said...

    That drink looks fantastic! Love the color too. It's pretty sexy the way you've dressed it up :) All the best with the challenge!

    Megan said...

    What a fun and creative drink!

    Magic of Spice said...

    Fantastic and sexy entry for the challenge...And the catfish dish is so creative and scrumptious...Wow!

    Angie's Recipes said...

    What an exotic drink!
    Could I order the catfish with black bean? :-) Looks fantastic!

    Blackswan said...

    Hi Tanantha, I'm crossing over from Lazzaro after seeing your cocktail. I was one of the participant too :)

    Nice summer ale, specially good for hot weather. Nice mtg u & looking fwd to sharing @ Luxury Indulgence!

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