affinity cocktail

Affinity: a natural liking for or attraction to a person, thing, idea, … cocktail.
This drink proves that scotch has a special friendship with vermouth and bitters. The cherry isn’t compulsory but it adds a little something – I think it’s flamboyance, but we all need some of that from time to time.

30 ml scotch
30 ml sweet vermouth
30 ml dry vermouth
3 drops angostura bitters
twist of lemon peel
1 maraschino cherry

Put the bitters and cherry into a chilled martini glass.
In a cocktail mixing glass, pour scotch and vermouths over ice, stir to chill.
Strain into the glass and garnish with lemon peel.

date and banana pudding loaf cake

I originally got this is a recipe from my dear friend, modernwomansociety.wordpress.com, but I have added bananas as inspired by frugalfeeding.wordpress.com, the result was something much closer to a caramel [vegan] pudding than a loaf or cake – totally delicious!

¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 tablespoon margarine (or melted butter if you prefer)
1 pinch salt
1 cup boiling water
1 ¾ cups self raising flour
3 small overripe bananas (optional – if you leave them out, you’ll have a vegan date loaf, bake time is 30 mins)

Preheat oven to 180c
Combine sugar, dates, bicarb, margarine and salt in a bowl.
Then pour 1 cup boiling water over the above, stir and leave to cool. The mixture will become lighter and foamy.
Add flour and bananas then mix until combined and similar to a batter consistency.
Pour into a greased (I used light olive oil spray) and lined loaf tin and bake for 40 mins* in a moderate oven until a skewer comes out clean-ish (the banana will make it like a pudding so don’t over cook it).

* During baking I thought individual puddings would be great, perhaps pour the batter into patty-cases in a muffin tin and reduce the bake time. I haven’t tried this yet myself so I’ll add a cook time retrospectively – unless someone else tries first and lets us all know?!

Serve it warm with honey, ice cream, cream and/or yoghurt – whatever grabs you. Or just a dab of butter is great too.

 

a perfect pair of martinis

I’ve been doing a lot of research into this post… in fact, I’ve been doing a lot of cocktail research in general so stay tuned for some perfected classics!

About the vodka Martini, James Bond drinks one, we also like ours with a vodka base. What I’ve learned is that my resident Bond likes his very dry, while I like mine a little sweeter. So below are three Martinis: The Perfect, The Dry and The Slightly Sweeter. How do you like yours?

The Perfect
30 ml vodka
15 ml bianco vermouth
15 ml dry vermouth
ice
garnish

The Dry
30 ml vodka
30 ml dry vermouth
ice
garnish

The Slightly Sweeter
30 ml vodka
30 ml bianco vermouth
15 ml dry vermouth
ice
garnish

Ice a martini glass to chill for a few minutes.
Then place the ice into a cocktail shaker or glass jug.
Pour over the ice, vodka and vermouth (to the quantity that suits your buds), stir with a (clean) bamboo chopstick.
Dress the glass with a *garnish.
Strain the Martini into the glass.

*The garnish:
The (traditional) olive must be good quality and green
Try a twist of lemon rind in The Dry
Try a twist of lime rind in The Slightly Sweeter