Cocktails - Retro Food For Modern Times

Tag: Cocktails

05
Jan
2025

January 2005 – Beachside Dinner

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Blueberries, Calamari, Cocktail, Fish, Salad, Seafood, Sorbet, Squid, Summer

Happy New Year, time travellers! Welcome to January 2025 and January 2005! Today we will enjoy a quintessential Australian beachside dinner. Unlike many parts of the globe, the start of the year here is hot, making dining on or near the beach a beloved tradition. Also very Australian is to magpie food and flavours from other cultures so today our “Aussie” meal has roots in the tropics, China, Mexico and Italy!.

I was particularly excited for this month, as seafood and ice cream are among my favourite treats. We’ll soon see how my culinary hopes fared. Today’s menu is inspired by the January 2005 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

But first, let’s ease ourselves into 2005, not with Pop Culture as per our norm but a look at the news events that defined the year:

YouTube’s first video: “Me at the zoo” was the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube. Can you believe YouTube is only 20 years old? I feel like I’ve been watching it all my life!

Hurricane Katrina: A devastating tropical cyclone that killed 1,392 people and caused $125 billion in damages, particularly in New Orleans
London bombings: 52 people were killed and about 700 were wounded in a terrorist attack on the London Underground
Angela Merkel’s election: Angela Merkel became the first woman chancellor of Germany
Kyoto Protocol: The Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, began to take effect
Same-sex marriage legalization: Spain and Canada legalized same-sex marriage

So a mixed bag news wise! Let’s see if the menu was also a blend of good and bad!

The Menu

Blue Hawaiian

I’ve always harboured a certain prejudice against blue drinks. They somehow screamed “college party” to me, a garish, overly sweet concoction best left to the youthful and the reckless. And creamy cocktails? Don’t even get me started. I’ve always considered them rather…gloopy.

But the Blue Hawaiian was an entirely different beast. The colour, was a glorious, cerulean blue, like a summer sky. But the flavour! It was a symphony of the tropics, a vibrant burst of sunshine in a glass. Honestly, I can’t imagine a more perfect aperitif for a beachside dinner. The mere thought of it now transports me – I can almost taste the salt spray on my lips, hear the gentle rustle of palm fronds overhead… pure joy!

Salt and Pepper Squid

Salt and Pepper Squid is a firm favourite of mine when dining out. But I had never tried to cook it at home before. And the result? A perfect prelude to a seaside feast, I served mine not with rice as per the recipe but with a vibrant fennel salad (though you wouldn’t know this from this photograph). You can find the recipe here. I also had some mayonnaise in which I swirled some chilli crisp just in case the pepperiness of the squid needed a bit more oomph!

Salt and Pepper Squid is as ubiquitous in Australian pubs as… well, as a pot of beer. So you can imagine my surprise to discover while poring over the recipe that it has Cantonese roots. This version, however, pays homage to those origins with the addition of Szechuan peppercorns, a delightful touch of unexpected heat that sets it apart from the standard pub fare.

Snapper Veracruzana

For the main course, we transported ourselves away from the vibrant shores of China to the sun-drenched beaches of Mexico with a delectable Snapper Veracruzana. This dish was simply exquisite! The snapper, cooked to perfection, flaked effortlessly at the touch of a fork, while the Veracruz sauce… well, words can hardly do it justice. A symphony of flavours – ripe tomatoes, briny capers, plump olives, and a tantalising hint of chilli – it was utterly irresistible. Frankly, I could imagine this sauce gracing almost any plate. Chicken, prawns, even grilled halloumi or roasted vegetables – the possibilities are endless. It’s a testament to the magic of great ingredients, a celebration of the vibrant flavours of Mexico.

Blueberry Gelato

Gelato has a certain nostalgia for me. Travelling around Italy with some girlfriends back in the day, “gelati” was our code word for a handsome young man. “Shall we go for gelati at 3 o’clock?” would indicate both the presence of one of them and the direction the others should look to see him! I wanted this blueberry gelato to transport me to the beaches of Amalfi. and the heady summer days we spent there. Sadly, this was not to be. I would have preferred this to be more blueberry-forward, like a sorbet. I feel the milk dulled the blueberry flavour. Pretty colour but for me, this was a fail.

My Nigella Moment – BLT Salad

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that may not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in because it is too good not to share.

BLT is a classic for a reason and this salad combines those familiar flavours into something new. This was delicious and definitely something to sneak back to for a little bit more after everyone else has gone to bed!

I hope you’ve enjoyed being beside the seaside with me! I also wish you all the very best for 2025! Let’s hope it’s a wonderful year for all of us!

30
Jan
2022

The Eye of The Tiger

categories: Cocktail, Drinks, Fish, Gin, Holidays

Hello friends! This weekend people all over the world are celebrating Lunar New Year and the start of the year of the Tiger. Traditional foods for Lunar New Year include long noodles (symbolising long life and happiness) dumplings and spring rolls to bring wealth and fish to increase prosperity. Well, here at Chez Retro Food, we’re also celebrating the Year of the Tiger, but in our own special way!

Let’s get to it!

I always think that any occasion should be celebrated with a cocktail. And Lunar New Year is no exception. The Norwegian Tiger’s Milk Cocktail comes from a book called The Australian Hostess Cookbook (1969) and a chapter called “A Party on the Nullabor Plain”. Now for those of you unfamiliar with the Nullabor Plain, it is an area of some 200,000km (that would be 76, 000 sq miles for those of you who are not used to the metric system) that is both flat and largely treeless. Plain is putting it mildly.

I mean, does it not just scream party central? But I digress. If the location seems bonkers let’s further examine the cocktail.

Norwegian. Tiger’s Milk.

Nope.

The World wildlife fund reliably informs me that tigers are very versatile creatures and can live in a variety of habitats – rainforests, savannahs, grasslands and mangrove swamps. Tigers.org.za further specifies that they are most commonly found in China, Korea, Russia and Southeast Asia with Sumatra being the only island inhabited by tigers today. Not even a whisper of Norway. And, I’m no geography expert but I’m pretty sure the landscape of Norway is not rampant with savannahs. Fjords yes. Mangrove swamps? No.

(Also note the natural habitat of the tiger is not an “exotic” animal part in Oklahoma. But don’t even get me started on that one!)

Maybe if you are partying on the Nullabor Plain in 1969 a Norwegian Tiger makes sense. They took a lot of drugs back then.

Norwegian Tiger’s Milk Cocktail

Copious amounts of drugs may also explain the ingredients. Equal parts gin, vanilla ice cream and creme de cacao. It really sounds like something someone with the munchies would pull together.

It also means that whatever measurement you use, (I used 30ml of each) you get a lot of booze and not much ice cream.

I used a cherry-infused gin which came in a Gin Advent Calendar I bought at Christmas.

The Norwegian Tiger’s Milk was a LOT nicer than I thought it would be! It tasted like a slightly weird in a good way Bailey’s Irish Cream. Mine had that hint of cherry but I think without that the similarity to Baileys would be even more marked. It was also much more of an after-dinner drink than an aperitif but I’ll forgive myself that. And maybe have another after dinner! I’m not driving and there is a little bit of gin left in that tiny Advent bottle!

We are continuing the theme of Tiger’s Milk with our starter.

Tiger’s Milk Ceviche

We are heading to Mexico for our starter. Also not a natural habitat of the tiger. However, Tiger’s Milk is the name of the liquid used to “cook” the seafood in a ceviche.

This was soooo good! I love raw fish and this was zingy with citrus and fiery with chilli and crunchy with tortilla chips and loaded with fresh veg and herbs! This is the kind of dish I could eat every day.

And it’s so pretty too! Look at all those colours!

I used salmon for my fish because I could not get the kingfish specified in the recipe. I also threw in some tiny tom berry tomatoes for extra colour and as mentioned subbed in some crunchy tortilla chips for the tortillas.

The recipe for the Tiger’s Milk Ceviche comes from the Matt Preston Cookbook – Yummy Easy Quick Around The World.

Tiger’s Milk – Hangover Cure?

Tiger’s milk is supposedly a hangover cure par excellence. Maybe for the morning after a few too many Norwegian Tiger’s Milks? However, I’ve been hungover once (maybe twice) in my life 😂 and I’m going, to be honest with you. When I am in that very precarious and fragile state, given the choice of Uber Eatsing a Big Mac and a very large coke and downing some salmon soaking citrus liquid? I’ll take those two all-beef patties etc any day of the week!

Would you drink the tiger’s milk?

Later this week I’ll share the rest of our tiger-themed celebrations!

31
Oct
2021

Murder on the Orient Espresso Martini

categories: Books, Cocktail, Coffee, Dining With The Dame, Kahlua, Poirot, Vodka

Given my love of Aggie, cocktails and puns was there ever a world where I was not going to make a Murder on The Orient Espresso Martini? And yes, in my head I call her Aggie. I am sure Dame Agatha is turning in her grave at the thought! But, once I started I could not stop! Just like you might not be able to stop at just one of these delicious Espresso Martinis!

I have always been a bit wary of an Espresso Martini as I thought the caffeine would keep me awake. Also, the last coffee flavoured cocktail I made was from Cantina and was disgusting. It convinced me that I did not like coffee flavoured cocktails. I now think that the awfulness of that cocktail was probably more due to the many problems with that book rather than an aversion to coffee cocktails per se. I really enjoyed the Espresso Martini!!! Drinking it felt very luxuriant and sophisticated which ties in nicely with the glamour and opulence of the Orient Express.

Poirot might have sipped one instead of the luminous green cocktail he drinks in the film had they been invented back then!

Express Martini History

London bartender Dick Bradsell created the Espresso Martini in the 1980s. He mixed it up for a young model who asked him for something to “wake me up and f**k me up” Rumour has it that the model was Kate Moss but this is unconfirmed!

It would however dovetail very nicely into my narrative as Kate Moss famously dated Johnny Depp in the 1990s. And he played Ratchett in the Kenneth Brannagh version of Murder on the Orient Express!

This brings us back to doh-oh-oh!

(Don’tcha love it when something works out so neatly!)

Espresso Martini – The Recipe

I used the recipe from 365 Days of Cocktails by Difford’s Guide. The recipe on their website has a very intriguing sounding dash of salt solution in it which I really want to try!

Here’s the recipe I used:

Espresso Martini Recipe — via 365 Days of Cocktails

The November book if you are reading along will be “Three Act Tragedy” which was actually written before Murder on the Orient Express but which I skipped in order to do the collab with Jenny. Whilst it is not as well known as Murder it is a cracker of a read and unlike a few recent books is jammed full of food references.

Have a wonderful week and happy reading!

02
Jan
2021

Evita – The Cocktail

categories: Cocktail, Midori, Name Plates, New Year, New Year's Resolutions, Vodka

Welcome to 2021 people of the internet! What will this year bring I wonder? I’m tempted to say that it can only be better than 2020, However, that seems a bit too much like waving a red flag in front of a particularly vindictive bull that tells me to hold it’s beer even as it is pawing the ground and getting ready to charge. So, let’s swiftly change the subject….hmmm…speaking of alcohol….this is the Evita!

The Evita was my cocktail of choice for NYE and a very good choice it was. It has the fruity sweet-sour flavour that I love. And the colours – acid lime green with a flash of orange from the garnish are like a neon version of the more traditional deep green and red of Christmas. Kind of festive edgy if you will. Or 1970’s chic if you won’t.

Evita – The Cocktail

The Evita cocktail contains vodka, melon liqueur, lime and orange juice. You can find the recipe here. There is another cocktail called the Eva Peron which has very different ingredients so make sure you get the right one if you want to make it. Which you should because it is a delightful little tipple!

Evita – The Woman

Truth be told until I started researching for this cocktail did not know all that much about Eva Peron aka Evita. This is what I knew:

She was the wife of the Argentinian president
There was a musical written about her which includes the song Don’t Cry for me Argentina
Madonna played her in the film version of the musical
She was very glamourous and wore gorgeous clothes
I cannot write the name Eva Peron without first writing the name Eva Person and having to correct it.

What I did not know:

María Eva Duarte met Colonel Juan Peron in 1944 and married him in 1945. He became President of Argentina in 1946
During his presidency, Eva, who became known commonly as Evita worked tirelessly to help the poor people of Argentina and to give women full suffrage.
She spoke publicly on labour rights and ran the Ministries for health and labour.
She set up a charitable foundation dedicated to social justice and helping sick and poor Argentinians
And set up an all-female political party.
In 1951 she announced her candidacy for the nomination of Vice President of Argentina, an act that was hugely popular with poor and working-class people.
She was forced to withdraw her nomination because of failing health.
Eva Peron died of cancer in 1952. She was 33 years old.

The Inspiration

What an amazing woman and what an absolute inspiration! Also, what great timing because this is the time of year when I, (and many other people around the world) are setting goals and making resolutions for the New Year.

Learning about this wonderful woman’s life really made me rethink the goals I had started to set – instead of the usual save more, spend less, drink less, exercise more goals maybe this year I will try to live with some of Eva’s grace and devotion to her cause and conviction. Why not make this the year of being strong, vocal and politically active for the causes I care about. And if I can also have all the glamour and wear some pretty dresses that is a bonus!

So, my friends, let’s all raise a toast to Eva Peron. May she inspire us to live our best lives in 2021!

Have a wonderful week and year ahead!

27
Jul
2019

Rhinestone Cowgirl – For Cowboy Day

categories: Bourbon, Cocktail

Welcome back to Cowboy Day part 2. This one is most definitely not for children so let’s assume the little darlings are tucked up in bed, the cows have been lassoed, the horses fed and watered, the little doggies have been got along and the sun is well and truly over the yardarm. All this means that it’s time to crack open a bottle of Kentucky’s finest and whip up a cocktail…Howdy cowdy, it’s the Rhinestone Cowgirl!

One of the many joys of blogging…apart from drinking bourbon cocktails at 2 pm ‘cos it’s your “job” are the people you meet.

I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of my blogging chums in real life (Hey Jenny and Battenburg Belle, hope you are having a super Cowboy Day celebration); then there are some like the wonderful Greg who organises this cookalong and Yinzerella who runs Pieathalon who I may never meet IRL but who are much-adored pals.

Then there are the people that you “meet” while researching a topic who are just too amazing not to talk about! I had thought that Mrs Elizabeth Wilton who made the Beetle Pie might be my most favourite person ever. But then, while googling about for pictures of Dolly Parton and wondering if I should have made Dumplin’s for my Cowboy Day fare, I encountered the original Rhinestone Cowgirl….ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a rowdy Cowdy hoot and a holler for Bobbie Nudie!

Who? You might be asking right about now. Particularly, if, like me, you initially read her name as Boobie Nudie ( definitely now my new porn name)! Well, there’s quite the clue in the photograph above. The guy standing next to Elvis is Nudie Cohn. He made that Gold Lamé suit. He was also Bobbie Nudie’s husband.

These two began a company called Nudie Rodeo Tailors which has an absolute cavalcade of famous patrons. Elvis, Roy Rogers, Cher, Elton John, Robert Redford, The Beatles, John Wayne, Dolly Parton and countless others – all dressed by the Nudies!

And, as you can also see from the above, Bobbie Nudie remained a glamourous Rhinestone Cowgirl well into her later years!

Here are just a few cuts from the Nudie tailor’s back catalogue

For more celebrities in Nudie Suits you can click here.

Here’s a couple more of shots my girl Bobbie:

And, here’s the recipe for the Rhinestone Cowgirl. Why not make one up and then let’s sit a spell, because we’re about to get gossipy!

Rhinestone Cowgirl (Difford’s Guide)

The Nudie Tailors label is iconic just within itself Here it is:

And rumour has it that our girl Bobbie is the model for the naked cowgirl on the label!

Huh….maybe she was Boobie Nudie after all!

Sadly, Bobbie Nudie passed away in 2006 at 92 years,

Her obituary in the New York Times showed her at 92 in a floor-length beaded skirt, a bandanna around her neck, a rifle in her hand and her walker at the ready. In announcing her death, The Times called her “the purveyor of glitter.”

Truewestmagazine.com

What a fashion inspiration for all of us!! I love her so much!!!!! 😍😍😍

Thanks as ever to Greg for organising the Cowboy Day Cookalong and inviting me to celebrate with you! You are a true gem in a world of rhinestones!!

Happy Cowboy Day all, and if you do raise a glass today, please raise a toast to the wonderful Bobbie Nudie!