Hot Room Cocktail - give me something thirst quenching!

I know I said I was going to try writing one post a day. That was part of my 2012 New Years resolution. Just 2 weeks after New Years, I've already missed 2 days and will be missing another one tomorrow. Feeling a bit ashamed at my lack of endurance, I hope you can forgive me as I really have been busy. Tomorrow I will be a bridesmaid at one of my best friend's weddings. It's going to be a blast but it means I won't be able to write tomorrow either. After tomorrow, I promise I will be writing every day again! :D

For the mean time I leave you with another one of my alcoholic adventures, or rather Yuye's. It was a very hot day that day and he said 'I want a drink that's cold and thirst quenching. I'm thirsty!' So, he made this cocktail. Although I think it backfired on him because although it was cold, it was a bit too alcoholic to be thirst quenching.

Hot Room Cocktail - give me something thirst quenching!
Ingredients:

- 20ml Cointreau
- 20ml Limoncello (the one I used was house-made, I will post up a recipe for this at a later date)
- 20ml Southern Comfort
- 40ml soda water
- wedge of lemon
- 40ml apple juice or pineapple juice*
- a few slices of apples as garnish
- ice cubes

Acha-cognac with honey

I can't believe how fast the days are flying. It's already more than one week into the new year and I feel like I haven't done a thing! I set myself a news years resolution to post everyday and I'm struggling with a friend's hens and wedding as well as many other things that just seem to happen at the same time. I will start cooking soon too and will be trying to take better photos of the food I make.

In fact, I have done quite a lot this year already. I just came back from a massive hens weekend away and it was so much fun! Most of the other hens parties I went to were more toned down and not overnight so this one was different. There was a lot of good food, good games and good company. We made our own pizzas, pastas, puff pastries (recipe in a future post!), salads and BBQ'd goodies and managed to fit in a good session of spa-ing at Peninsula Hot Springs and the beach! My back is still sore from sleeping on the floor and my arms too from carrying my massive camera with flash attached all 2 days we were there. It was well worth it though!

Wagyu - the ultimate indulgence...

I remember when I went to Las Vegas a number of years ago and tried the wagyu at an awesome restaurant in the Wynn Hotel, I just wanted to melt with it. It was the first time I had wagyu (Japanese marbled beef) and I fell hopelessly in love. It was definitely love at first taste. I wanted to have the whole thing to myself but unfortunately, it was over $200 a steak so everyone just got a small taste.

I couldn't eat beef for ages when I got back to Australia. The steaks weren't bad here but it just wasn't the same. None of the steaks here had that perfect melt-in-the-mouth texture and lovely fragrance from the scorched fat content. I didn't even have to chew! Time has since passed and the memory of wagyu started fading. I had proper wagyu twice in Japan but they weren't as high grade.

Watermelon Mojito, I love summer!

Summer is really the season for eating refreshing, beautiful fruits. They come in a myriad of colours, my favourite being red. Red is the colour of strawberries, of raspberries and of course, of watermelons. Red is also a festive colour, perfect for Christmas, New Years, the up coming Chinese New Year and even Valentines Day! In fact, my favourite colour changes with the season.

It's a fantastic thing being able to use up left over fruits in a tasty cold drink. Not that I don't like eating the fruits by themselves, there's just been such an abundance of fruits that we couldn't possibly have eaten them all. Yuye and I made watermelon mojitos the other day. The vibrant colours really had me.

Ox Tongue with ponzu sauce

I only started eating ox tongue a few years ago when I had Japanese BBQ at Torimatsu. After that meal, I fell in love with the slightly chewy, crunchy and fragrant meat that many people probably wouldn't touch. It's not an easy meat to prepare but it's quite cheap compared to other meats. I used to buy them for $4-5 each at good butchers and recently they were around $5-6 each. Not too bad if you ask me for the amount of enjoyment I get out of it.

Have you ever seen a tongue un-skinned? It's not a pretty sight. Yuye used to skin the tongue himself which took about half hour each and was a very tedious task. Now we've found a store in Springvale that skins the tongue for us at an extra $1 per tongue. It's a good deal!

Always pick a thicker tongue if available and I recommend asking your local butcher where you buy the ox tongue from to skin it for you as it really saves time. If you can't find a place to skin it then do the following:

1. Freeze tongue for a few hours until roughly 80% frozen. It needs to be firm but not too hard so you can still get your knife through.

2. Slice all the skin off with a sharp knife, don't be afraid to waste a bit of meat on it. The part that can be eaten is the fatty upper tongue part. The fattier it looks, the more tender it would be when cooked.

3. The skinned non-fatty parts (ie. the tip of the tongue and side parts that are not fatty) can be used in stews.

Although it's not pretty, it really does taste good. Trust me. ;)

The tongue also needs to be around 80% frozen to be able to cut into thin pieces after it's skinned. Yuye used to cut this by hand but I convinced him to cut it with our meat slicer which is a lot easier and less time consuming.

Achamango Paradise, perfect cocktail for the hot weather

 
It's getting so hot I feel like I'm going to melt. I don't have a proper garage so the car just sits in the driveway, soaking up every bit of the heat. On over 30 degree days like this, all I feel like doing is to sit in a well air-conditioned room and drinking a refreshing cocktail or drink and just laze around.

 
I bought a few achachas the other day from Seafood Smart in Springvale. I had no idea what an achacha was until I read the promotional pamphlet and did some research on it that night on the internet. It is a a tropical fruit from the Amazon Basin of Bolivia and in recent years cultivations of the achacha began in the North Queensland region of Australia.

 
During the research, I realised that there was an official launch of the fruit back in 2009 and many bloggers went to the event. It was held at Baroque Bistro in Sydney. You can find event details at popular blogs such as A Table For Two (Billy from Masterchef's blog), Grad Your Fork amongst many others.

Ichigo Illusion - a strong yet refreshing cocktail

I'm falling in love with cocktails. I know it's a strange occurrence when I can't even drink more than half a standard drink but it's true. It's the vibrant colours and the refreshing ingredients (not to mention sometimes it's actually quite delicious) that has me hooked. It doesn't help when Yuye loves making cocktails and even has a mini bar of his own (it's actually bigger than some real bars I've been to).

I made another cocktail that looked a little Christmassy - I know Christmas is over but I can't get enough of that lovely green and red combination so here's a little post Christmas booze hit, I'm sure you haven't had enough yet. The name "Ichigo Illusion" is a twist on the popular Midori Illusion drink. 'Ichigo' means 'strawberries' in Japanese and of course is also the name of my blog! :D

This cocktail is a bit stronger than the Pimm's one, and contains more than a standard drink. Please drink responsibly.

Ichigo Illusion (an original recipe by Ichigo Shortcake)
Serves 2

Ingredients

- 2 strawberries
- 1/4 lemon
- a few mint leaves
- 1 shot Soho Lychee Liqueur
- 1 shot Midori
- 1 shot Vodka (I used Finlandia, but any vodka can be used)
- handful of ice cubes

Note: You will also need a shaker and a pestle. 1 shot roughly equals 45mLs.

Technique:

1. Pour Soho Lychee Liqueur, Midori and vodka into a shaker

2. Put in mint leaves, ice cubes and squeezed lemon juice then shake well. Shake harder and longer if you want a cooler and well mixed drink.

Pimm's Cup with a gingery twist & Merry Christmas!!

I've never really celebrated Christmas with my family. I do remember having a Christmas tree when I was very young but the memories of celebrations are a blur. Even if we celebrated, I'm sure it was Chinese style instead of the usual Christmas fare.

After my parents became busy with work, mum gave all our Christmas decorations, including the tree, away to relatives. As we were rarely in Australia during this festival season, the tree wasn't even missed. Now I'm all grown up and I look back at the blurred memories of Christmas and felt just that tiny bit sad.

I spent last Christmas in Melbourne and wanted to go out for a drink and snacks with Yuye on Christmas Eve, but realised that nothing was open! I should have been smarter and thought ahead, who in their right mind would be opening their shop when they could be spending time with their families? We drove all the way to the CBD and then to Prahran, and finally found Basque Tapas and Wine.

Even with such an experience, I still want to try tonight as staying home when no celebrations are on just seems so lonely. I hope I find some nice places tonight. :D

To suddenly celebrate Christmas this year when we never did is a bit hard to achieve, but I felt I wanted to make this year a little more special. Although I didn't really cook up a storm or anything, I did mix up these cocktails for a little adult indulgence and add a little Christmas cheer and colour to our lives. It was especially good in this 30 something degree heat!

Instead of baking ginger bread (as I don't really like ginger bread much), I thought adding ginger beer or ginger ale instead of lemonade into the drink would make it even more Christmassy.

Pimm's Cup with a gingery twist
Serves 2

Ingredients

2 wedges of lemon
2 slices apple
4 slices cucumber
4 blueberries
1/2 strawberry
Handful of mint leaves
1 part Pimm's to 2 parts ginger beer
Ice cubes

Technique:

1. Assemble 1/4 strawberry, 1 apple slice, 1 wedge lemon and 2 slices cucumber in a cocktail glass.

2. Pierce 2 blueberries with a toothpick and place inside glass, leaving a gap between the blueberries so it can lean on the side of the glass without falling into the drink.

3. Top glass with ice cubes.

4. Pour in ginger beer and Pimms and top with mint leaves.

5. Repeat steps for second glass.

Note: I didn't specify the amount of Pimms and ginger beer as the amount depends on the size of the glass. If you want to drink a slightly more alcoholic beverage, just add more Pimms and vice versa. I used the above fruits because that's what I had around the house, feel free to put in any citrus or refreshing fruits that you have lying around.

Merry Christmas everyone and hope you're having a great time filled with lovely food and good company!

xxoo
Jenny

Trout fishing & 2 trout recipes (lemon & herbs, Chinese with ginger & soy based sauce)

After strawberry picking at Sunny Ridge in Mornington, we decided to go cherry picking as well at a nearby place called Ripe 'n' Ready Cherry Farm. I was all ready for an afternoon of cherry stuffed bellies, climbing ladders and possibly fending off Asian tourists who are hogging all the good fruit. However, things didn't turn out as planned. We drove through the farm and it daunted on me that there really wasn't many good cherries on the trees. Most of the visible ones were pale red and looked very sour.

The 7 of us agreed in unison that we should go trout fishing instead of cherry picking just because we could. Turned out that Ripe 'n' Ready has a large trout fishing dam full of rainbow trout and as most of us had never gone trout fishing in a dam before, we were all quite keen to get our hands dirty. Entry into the dam cost $5 regardless of whether you catch anything. After that it's $19 per kilo of what you catch. Again like strawberry picking, cost of actually buying the fish outside would be a bit cheaper, but you're paying for the fun of catching your own fish and you know it's definitely fresh.

When Yuye cast his line (with the help of the farm staff above), it took literally 2 seconds for a trout to bite the bait. Yuye's fun was instantly over.

It was a reasonably good sized fish and a lively one at that. It jumped out of Yuye's hands as we were taking photos and he had to catch it on the ground and put it back into the bucket.

After Yuye's turn, one after another, people caught their own fish. My fish was one of the biggest ones! I couldn't even pick it up because it was so heavy and I was afraid the line was going to snap.

Since everyone caught a fish, the next thing to do was scatter fish food into the dam while the fish we caught get cleaned.

We threw them in little by little at the start and every time a few trout would jump and fight for the food. After a while, we thought, why not just throw the whole thing in and get a burst of happiness from it rather than in little increments? And so we did. This was the result.

6 fish were caught in total and the average weight for each one was around 1kg. After we got back, we split the ones we wanted to take home that night and left 2 of the largest for a BBQ the next day.

As the fish insides were already cleaned, all we had to do was clean the scales. It was no easy feat though as the scales on trout are very small and required a lot of hard scraping. As there were two trouts, we wanted to make two different types so one was lemon and herbs (using all herbs from our friend's herb garden) and the other was a Chinese style one with ginger, spring onions and a soy dipping sauce. Refer below for recipes.

Recipe: Kimchi Udon

I was sick last night with a fever. I thought maybe it was the cold weather or perhaps I was just tired. Whatever it was, it sure wasn't happy to be sick! I stayed in bed until lunch time today and thankfully, the fever had gone down. My appetite returned soon after and I was craving for some hot noodles to kick that cold away for good. Yuye, being such a good carer for sick people (not really since I had to tell him twice that I was hungry…), decided to make me a bowl of kimchi udon using the remaining ingredients we had after making jja jang myun the other day. The only ingredients left were vegetables so this sort of turned into a vegetarian dish.

Since I had my camera all set up as we are currently in the process of making a recipe app for iPad (Yes! How exciting!), I thought it was a good opportunity to write this up as my first recipe post. As it was a last minute decision, preparations weren't done very well so the photo of the ingredients isn't to scale and really isn't even all the ingredients listed. Anyway, just use it as a guide if you wish to make the dish. :)