Virgin Mojito

I love mocktails & my all time favourite has to be the mojito. I cannot actually belive I've never attempted to make it at home until yesterday, it was such a hit that even the husband asked for seconds so i thought it had to go up on the blog

To make virgin mojito's for 6 people  you will need:

° 7up/Sprite ( I used a 2 litre bottle ).
° A good handful of fresh mint  per person .. roughly ripped up -  ( I bought 2 of the pre cut packs of mint you can get from most superstores )
° lime cordial ( I bought mine from asda next to all the dilute fruit juices)
° Ice cubes
° 1 lime per person cut into quarters

• To start if you have a pestle and mortar, lightly crush the mint leaves to release their flavour & scent. Divide equally between the 6 glasses

• Add in lime quarters into each glass, squeezing each quarter just before adding them to the glass to release their juice

• Pour in enough lime cordial into each glass  just as you would if you were making up a regular dilute squash and leave for a minimum of 5- 10 mins for the flavours to develop - I did this 20 minutes before serving and left the leaves to steep in the cordial

• When you're ready to serve, add a couple of ice cubes into each glass and top up with the 7up - give it a stir, ( I used a spoon to squash the limes a little more just before I added the 7 up ) And your mojito is ready to drink

Alternatively to make a large serving, you can add the mint, cordial & the lime to a jug & top up the jug with 7up/Sprite and serve straight fron the jug

My Dobsters mint Tea

I am definitely one that loves a good cup of tea at the end of a long hectic day, but drinking caffeine fuelled drinks in the evening isn't the way to go for a good nights sleep and there's not many herbal teas out there that i like either.  
So I made a few attempts at making fresh mint tea and couldn't quite get it right. Now my niece makes a mean cup of tea - Hence the title My Dobster's Mint tea- Dobster being my chosen term of endearment to call her by- so i got her to show me her version & this recipe is based on that with a tiny little twist 



For Dobster's Mint tea - with a twist you will need :

3 - 3 1/2 pints of water 
large bunch of fresh mint
4 inch piece cinnamon stick broken into pieces 
8-10 whole green cardamom pods cracked open
2 x pukka peppermint & liquorice teabags*
handful of mint leaves for garnishing
honey to sweeten - optional

• Pour your water and all the ingredients  except for the teabags into a large saucepan and on a high heat bring to the boil.
• When the water has reached boiling point, reduce to a low heat and leave to simmer till the water has reduced by about half.
• Add in the pukka tea bags and leave to simmer on a low heat for 10-12 minutes. Pour the tea into a teapot ( through a large tea strainer or plastic sieve to catch all the bits ) 
• Take the glasses or cups you are wanting to serve the tea in and drop a few mint leaves into the cups. Pour in the tea, sweeten with honey if wanted & serve 

* you'll find these in any superstore in the tea and coffee section 

Mango Lassi

I've made it very well known that I'm no fan of cold weather, so with the last few days of stunning weather, I've been a very happy bunny. Hot weather doesn't just mean a happy Foody Mama, it also means it's the perfect time to indulge in copious amounts of mango lassi; Let's be honest drinking lassi on a cold wet miserable day just doesn't go does it ?

For those of you that may not be familiar, lassi is the Asian take on the British smoothie. In Asian cuisine, there are a few variants, from the salted *pulls face at thought* version to fruit based ones  .. Fruit sounds more like it .. I hear you !


So I thought since it's made a rather regular appearance in our fridge over the last few days, it just had to be blogged about

This recipe will easily give you 5-6 rather generous servings and will need an electric whisk or liquidizer jug :

1x 454g tub natural yogurt
1 x 850g tin mango puree
250 ml cold water
6 tbsp sugar

• place all the ingredients into your liquidizer or in a large jug if using an electric whisk
• whisk/ blend till all the ingredients have combined together, leave to chill in the fridge
• serve in tall sundae style glasses 

That is really all there is to it. For a bit of a twist, you can always add in a few chunks of mango for a bit of texture and dive in with a spoon. For a slightly naughtier version, top up with squirty cream ! If like me you've got a weak spot for strawberries, swap the mango puree for a punnet of strawberries and wizz up in the exact same way.

I'll leave you with a rather brilliant advert for mango lassi by HSBC ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVdC9vY55Og