Ouzo

[wellinghall]

Where are the cooks on my FList? (Looks meaningfully at chainmailmaiden).

The MiL has given us a small bottle of Ouzo. Is there any sensible way of cooking with it?

Comments

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I'm of Greek descent and I've never heard of cooking with Ouzo. (I'm not much of a cook though.) If I were you I would drink it or give it away.

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Oh, you are?

Cool :)

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Well, only half. My great-grandparents on my mother's side were immigrants. I was baptized Greek Orthodox and have been to Greece once, but that is about all I have in the way of authentic ethnic credentials.

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Hope to see you at Oxonmoot, BTW... the CTS has Plans :)

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I hope to be there too, at least for a day, but I'll be about to submit my thesis right then so I may be holed up in front of my computer. :(

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

"give it away" - Just what my mother did, to us! Having herself been given it (attempted bribery by hotel in Greece - no doubt they expect her to book a repeat visit while under the influence.

Could this bottle become the new musical windmill?

- Creatrix

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'd take it. :)

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Sounds rather like a horrible twee basket of pot-pourri and seashells my uncle gave us for Christmas one year. We gave to the school fete to be a raffle prize. It was back at the next school fete. And the next. And the next...

I don't know about ouzo. If it's anything like Pernod, don't drink it with neat Ribena.

[malaheed.livejournal.com]

From what I have heard (i.e. made up or guessed) the best way would be to drink the bottle in one go then have beans on toast. The result will be as good as it gets.

[meglorien.livejournal.com]

What's Ouzo?

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Greek firewater, in other words their equivalent of vodka, whisky, whiskey, or aquavit. It tastes aniseedy and goes cloudy when you add water. It's nice with applejuice though

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Apple juice??? Apple juice...?

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Yes, you take apples and press them so as to express a very pleasant tasting fruit juice ;-) Regarding the 'contamination' of the ouzo you do have to bear in mind muuranker's last point.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Only having drunk it in Greece, I wouldn't know. :)

[meglorien.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I seem to recall it. Our friends at the Greek TS just drink it, I think... lots of it... well, at least when there's a celebration. They told me stories of absolutely not remembering the night before after such a celebration... But the day after they did everybody seemed to be fine (though the day did start rather late).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

They sound like genuine Tolkien fans, then :-)

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

Given the current vogue for adding vodka to things, I was sure that there would be recipies out there (and since I have a bottle of ouzo that we're never going to drink, I thought I'd look. A complete meal ...

octopus and ouzo:
http://www.krinos.com/ind_recipe.php?RId=55

Watermelon and feta salad:
http://www.recipezaar.com/139460

Pan-fried shrimp with lemon and ouzo:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pan-fried-shrimp-with-lemon-and-ouzo

chicken meatballs : http://www.greek-recipe.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article183

And ouzo-poached cherries with waffles:
http://www.recipezaar.com/139444

Ouzo (Meglorien) is a Greek distilled drink, usually flavoured with aniseed, although you can get fennel ouzo, and others too, I think. It is chiefly notable for two remarkable transformations it performs.
Transformation one: it is a clear liquid, to which you add, in the glass, water. It turns into a cloudy liquid.
Transformation two: in Greece, it is a pleasant and refreshing aperatif - sipped while nibbling at nice things like feta salad, octopus and shellfish ... in Britain it transforms into something quite undrinkable.

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

You know I can see my waistline regretting that you found the internet ;-)

[brightlywoven.livejournal.com]

As Monty Python said:

'This is not a wine for drinking. This is a wine for laying down and avoiding'.

I would pass it on...

[megamole.livejournal.com]

May I suggest an ouzo-drinking party?

[chainmailmaiden]

Personally I'm not all that found of Ouzo and I'd imagine it would make everything taste of aniseed if you cooked with it. However I will have a look in my Greek cook books to see if there are any decent recipes.

Bacchus would suggest drinking it diluted with water and with lots of ice - the same way absinthe should be drunk.

[emperor]

Nah, absinthe should be drunk neat, and in unwise quantities.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Doesn't even a teasppon count as an "unwise quantity", when we're talking about absinthe?

[emperor]

No. 1/3 of a bottle is an unwise quantity.