Saturday Slacking and Martini Madness

So. It's a long weekend and the unanimous vote is to stay at home and do nothing. Well... it's not really possible to do nothing, so it was pretty much chill, eat, drink and be merry.

Sounded like the best plan  all week!

Started with breakfast - wholemeal pancakes with honey and homemade jam.

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 egg

enough water to make a batter which is not too thin but not too thick

whisk all together

leave to rest for a couple of minutes and dollop on to a heated non stick pan with extra virgin olive oil (instead of butter - although butter would be a very tasty option!)

serve with honey and jam (like the apricot jam or the remainder of last year's plum jam!)

AND don't forget the coffee please. :)

Lunch was Tasmanian oysters as entree (with a bunch of tasty condiments),  homegrown green tomato salsa and grilled fresh sardines (with rice!).

Now, notice the beer on the side - Dry Dock - the recent Dan Murphy's purchase which was on special - but honestly, would not buy that again (sorry, just personal taste!). Average house beer on a really warm day, and... that's pretty much it though. (Not for guests!)

Anyway - the green tomato salsa had 2 variants for this afternoon. One was with the flat cilantro and the other was with parsley and verjuice (the acidic juice of green grapes - have only heard it from Maggie Beer and found it at Coles!). I was requested to remember the recipe (an instantaneous Saturday afternoon salsa recipe) so before I forget, I shall write it down...

 really proud of these little babies - fresh from the backyard!

they don't look perfect but i guess that's what makes it special!

Saturday's Fresh Green Tomato Salsa
2 green tomatoes, diced
2 small sprigs each of parsley, mint and thyme, minced
dash of extra virgin olive oil and verjuice
1 green bird's eye chili, minced
Toss all ingredients together with salt and pepper to taste.
(Happy to report that all herbs are from the herb patch!)

Dinner was mussels flavoured with the (leftover) tomato salsa, extra virgin olive oil and vermouth, sprinkled with minced fresh parsley.

Speaking of vermouth.... nothing like mixing vermouth with either vodka or gin to make the classic Martini. So the whole afternoon was pretty much Martini Madness.

The base for the drinks below are mostly from 45ml vodka and 15ml french vermouth (for one serving) unless otherwise specified!

And these were shaken (not stirred) with vermouth rinsed ice in your usual shaker.

I can't really say it's a classic, because a classic would have been made with gin

 I used vodka (only because we got Gordon's and MAN that can burn!) and it was tough to choose

between and olive and a lemon peel garnish

but affiliation to home grown things won!

so twisted lemon peel it was

(at least for the first round!)

the second round was a bit of a rebellious martini

instead of lemon peel, i used a kaffir lime (also homegrown) 

and muddled 2  leaves from a sugar plant with vodka for a hint of sweetness

(ran out of ice at this stage - the bottom part of this glass is supposed to have ice to keep the top part cool!)

round 3 was a almost a classic except for the vodka still. and now the olives take their turn!

now this one I think is a winner

45ml vodka + 30ml vermouth

and the garnish made a lot of difference

a dried chili, speared with olives and a twist of fresh lemon peel

the longer you take to drink it

the hotter it gets

:)

chocnut martini

same martini mix but with dry vermouth (de Bortolli)

chocnut is a sweet treat that Filipino kids would be most familiar with!

this is in memory of the drink with the same name that I had in one of my favorite places back home

There could be one or two more martinis coming up but maybe that would have to be posted later..... !