Festive Spiced Panna Cotta
A delicious, creamy panna cotta, infused with The Curious Cabinet Festive Spiced Cocktail Tea. Top with Chocolate Bourbon Cherries for extra indulgence.
INGREDIENTS
1 tbsp gelatin
3 tbsp water
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 tbsp The Curious Cabinet Festive Spiced Tea
½ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
The Curious Cabinet Chocolate and Bourbon Cherries to garnish
METHOD
Combine gelatin and water in a small bowl and mix. Set aside.
To a saucepan over medium heat, add heavy cream, milk and tea. Once heated, remove from heat, allowing tea to steep for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally to avoid a skin from forming on the surface.
Once steeped, strain the mix into a clean saucepan, heating until 80ºC. Remove from heat and add in brown sugar, vanilla extract and gelatin water mix. Mix until the sugar and gelatin dissolves.
Allow mixture to sit and cool for 5 minutes. Stir again every few minutes to prevent a skin from forming.
Pour mixture into cups or ramekins, allowing them to cool completely to room temperature.
Cover with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge. Let them set for 4 hours or overnight.
Garnish with The Curious Cabinet Chocolate and Bourbon Cherries. Serve, and enjoy!
SHOP THE RECIPE
Mandarin and Lime Dust Recipes & Inspiration
Want to know how to diversify your mixology and cooking with our Lime and Mandarin Dust range? This blog will give you delicious cocktail garnishes, fun ways to elevate your dessert, and curious ways of serving salads and seafood.
What is Mandarin Dust / Lime Dust?
Made from the fruit strained off our best selling Mandarin Shrub Syrup and Lime Shrub Syrup, our Mandarin Dust and Lime Dust are an intriguing way to take your mixology, baking, and cooking to the next level. Not only do these zesty and magical dusts taste great, but they’re also a product that are environmentally friendly.
Created from only two ingredients - fruit and sugar - these dusts are zesty and tangy with a sweet finish. They’re most popularly used to rim the glass of cocktails/mocktails, however there are several ways you can elevate your cooking and baking with this ingredient. Keep reading to find out more!
Garnishing your drink
It is simple to use any of the dusts as a garnish on the rim of your cocktail/alcohol-free drink. Simply cut a wedge of citrus, and slide it along the rim of your glass. Then coat your glass rolling it on a plate lightly sprinkled with your chosen dust.
Mandarin Dust
Lime Dust
Margaritas: For those who aren’t a fan of a marg’s traditional salt rim, Lime Dust provides a sweet yet zesty alternative.
Shrub Elixir: Elevate a simple shrub and soda with a generous rim of Lime Dust. This will take any alcohol-free drink to the next level. See here for a video recipe
Martinis & Negronis: Tame your next classic cocktail with a rim of Mandarin Dust. The tang and sweetness of the Mandarin Dust will breathe new life into any classic cocktail.
Baking & desserts
One of our favourite ways to elevate desserts and baking, is with our magical dusts. Elevate a sophisticated dessert, or let the kids have some fun with their ice cream with a simple sprinkle.
Sprinkle over desserts
Delicious over a perfectly flamed meringue, or some delicious home cooked muffins. Check out our Key Lime Pie recipe or Chocolate and Mandarin Autumn Muffins.
A fun one for the kids!
A fun and tasty way to enjoy any of the dusts is sprinkled over ice-cream, or take it to the next level with a chocolate coated dust cone!
We recommend pairing your dust with these ice cream flavours:
Lime: white chocolate, coconut, macadamia, pistachio
Mandarin: chocolate milk/dark, coffee, vanilla, ginger
cooking
Add a level of intrigue to your cooking with these quick and easy ways to take your favourite meals to the next level.
Prawn and Avocado Salad with Mandarin
This delicious salad, featuring our Mandarin Shrub Syrup in the dressing, is a delicious example of how our range can be used for so many different things! Sprinkle with Mandarin Dust for a tangy and sweet finish, and you’ll have all of your friends begging you for this recipe.
lime dusted grilled PINEAPPLE
Courtesy of our Production Team, Nathan has pioneered this delicious way to enjoy Lime Dust!
Simply coat your pineapple rings in Lime Dust before placing them on the BBQ to grill. Once cooked place them in a burger, or even enjoy them topped with some ice cream as a dessert!
ready to get started using our dust range?
CHECK OUT THESE RECIPES USING LIME AND MANDARIN DUST
A chat with our founder - brainstorming recipe ideas
Our Founder, Pia, has been experimenting with flavours using our cocktail teas and wanted to share some ideas with you!
Catch up with Pia, our Founder, as she tells you about her brainstorming process when coming up with different cooking ideas using our products. She shares with you some ideas with our latest Cocktail Tea range, and sets a challenge to come up with two new recipes!
Below, Pia also provides some links to her favourite recipe book inspirations. These are some of her go-tos for flavour pairings and ideas.
The Flavour Thesaurus https://amzn.to/47INbA7
The Cook's Companion (Stephanie Alexander) https://amzn.to/3SmykXz
Ottolenghi Flavour https://amzn.to/423pocK
COOK (Karen Martini) https://amzn.to/3RZONQ9
shop the COCKTAIL TEAS
FOR MORE RECIPES INSPIRED BY OUR COCKTAIL TEAS CLICK BELOW
Key Lime Pie
You know you want to! Thanks to our truly amazing photographer, @MandyCouzens for not only coming up with this amazing image, but also creating this delicious pie! Here is how she did it. We’ve listed it in two sections - the base & filling, and then the meringue.
BASE & FILLING
(Recipe sourced from here.)
INGREDIENTS
200g wheatmeal or Granita biscuits
1/4 cup ground almonds
1 tbsp caster sugar
100g butter, melted
4 eggs, lightly beaten
395g can condensed milk
2/3 cup (160ml) cream
Zest and juice of 4 limes
METHOD
Preheat oven to 170°C. Line base of a 20cm springform tin with baking paper.
Process biscuits until fine crumbs. Add almonds , sugar and butter , process until combined. Press mixture firmly into the base and 3cm up sides of tin. Refrigerate.
Whisk eggs , milk , cream , lime rind and juice until smooth. Pour into biscuit crust.
Place on tray and bake for 40-45 mins or until set. Cool. Top with Meringue (recipe below).
MERINGUE
INGREDIENTS
225ml egg whites (about 6 eggs)
1½ cups (330g) Caster Sugar
1 tbsp cornflour (corn starch)
1½ tsps white vinegar
METHOD
Place the eggwhite in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk on high speed until soft peaks form.
Add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until each addition is dissolved before adding more++.
Once all the sugar has been added, scrape down the sides of the bowl and whisk for a further 10–15 minutes or until the mixture is thick and glossy+++.
Place the cornflour and vinegar in a small bowl and mix until smooth.
Add the cornflour mixture to the eggwhite mixture and whisk for 30 seconds or until well combined++++.
Spoon meringue over pie, swirling decoratively. Use a kitchen torch to toast meringue, if desired.
Top with thinly sliced lime wheels and a sprinkling of Lime Dust.
Enjoye!
+ Making meringue is a science. Be sure to measure your ingredients carefully, including the eggwhites as egg sizes do vary. Fresh, room temperature eggs work best – when whisked they’ll become fluffy and voluminous, plus they’re more stable during baking.
++ Be patient when gradually adding the sugar to the eggwhite. Each tablespoon of sugar should be dissolved before the next is added.
+++ Take care not to overwhisk the meringue mixture – it’s ready when it’s thick, glossy, smooth and there are no more sugar granules. You can check this by rubbing a little mixture between your thumb and forefinger.
++++ See the recipes that follow for how to bake this meringue mixture.
TIP
It’s best to avoid making meringue on humid days. Excess humidity can cause meringue to sink during or after baking.
CURIOUS Swirl Pound Cake
Add an extra level of intrigue in your next tea cake with this sweet twist on a classic morning or afternoon tea treat. This is our intriguing twist on Ashees CookBook Recipe.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup Butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp yoghurt
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp The Curious Cabinet Rhubarb and Strawberry Jam or Strawberry and Pepper Berry Jam
few drops of strawberry essence (optional)
METHOD
Preheat the oven @180 c for 10 minutes.
Sieve together flour,salt,baking powder and keep aside
Beat together butter and sugar till soft then add in eggs ,vanilla essence,yoghurt and beat till creamy. Add in flour mix and combine well.
Take about 1/4 cup of batter and The Curious Cabinet Rhubarb and Strawberry Jam or Strawberry and Pepper Berry Jam, and essence (if using) mix well...
Add the batter alternatively on to the greased baking tin and swirl with a knife and bake @180 c for 50-60 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Jam Tarts
A curious twist on jam tarts, with our favourite Women’s Weekly recipe.
Try this with our range of jams and preserves.
INGREDIENTS
2 cup plain flour
1/4 cup icing sugar, plus 1 tablespoon extra for dusting
185g cold unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp iced water
1/2 cup The Curious Cabinet Strawberry and Pepper Berry Jam
1/2 cup The Curious Cabinet Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam
1/2 cup The Curious Cabinet Rhubarb and Ginger Conserve
METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 220°C.
2. Process flour, icing sugar and butter until crumbly. With motor operating, add egg yolk and enough of the water to make ingredients come together. Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead gently until smooth. Roll half the pastry between sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick. Repeat with remaining pastry. Place on trays and refrigerate 30 minutes.
3. Grease three 12-hole (1-tablespoon/20ml) shallow round-based patty pans.
4. Using a 6cm round cutter, cut 18 rounds from each piece of pastry; re-roll pastry scraps as necessary. Press pastry rounds into pan holes. Prick pastry cases well with a fork. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
5. Bake pastry cases about 5 minutes. Drop slightly rounded teaspoons of jam into pastry cases.
6. Bake tarts about 10 minutes; cool. Dust with extra sifted icing sugar before serving.
Chocolate Cherry Brownies
We’re thrilled to have our Choc-Bourbon Cherries featured in STORY Cocktails’ Chocolate Cherry Brownies recipe. These delicious brownies are tailored to be matched with their platinum winning Martinez.
Here is the recipe:
INGREDIENTS
125g butter
150g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
60g The Curious Cabinet’s Choc-Bourbon Cherries
60g roasted pecans (optional)
1 cup caster sugar
60g cocoa powder
75g plain flower
¾ tsp baking powder
3 large free-range eggs
50g Cherry Ripe block chocolate (optional)
METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 180°. Line a 20cm square baking tin (or the equivalent) with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water).
3. Roughly chop the pecans and mix them with the cherries into the melted chocolate. Remove from heat.
4. In another bowl, add the sugar, then sift in the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder. Add to the melted chocolate mixture and stir until well combined.
5. Beat the eggs and mix in. Roughly chop and stir through the extra dark chocolate (if using).
6. Transfer the mixture to the tin, then bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. You want them a little gooey in the middle.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to fully cool in the tray, before cutting into squares.
For a sophisticated, after dinner treat, serve with a chilled glass of STORY Cocktails Martinez.
Chocolate & Mandarin Autumn Muffins
A riff on the classic choc/orange combination, these chocolate & mandarin muffins are a curiously delicious treat. The perfect treat for Autumn.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
¾ cup chocolate chips
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup fresh mandarin juice
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup chocolate chips
METHOD
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
Combine flour, sugar, 3/4 cup chocolate chips, cocoa powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Whisk egg, yogurt, milk, vanilla, and vegetable oil in another bowl until smooth; pour into chocolate mixture and stir until batter is just blended. Fill prepared muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips.
Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
Sprinkle generously with The Curious Cabinet Mandarin Dust.
CREDIT: We tweaked this original recipe by LONESTAR1 to create this delicious treat.
Prawn and Avocado salad with Mandarin
INGREDIENTS
1 cos or butter lettuce
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
1 punnet cherry tomatoes , halved
2 large avocado, halved and roughly chopped
600g cooked king or tiger prawns, shelled
DRESSING
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 Mandarin Shrub Syrup
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp dijon or wholegrain mustard
Salt & Pepper to taste
METHOD
In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, Mandarin Shrub Syrup, mustard, salt and cracked pepper. Set aside.
In a large bowl toss salad leaves, dill, avocado, tomatoes, red onions.
Just before serving, add prawns and dressing, toss, and place onto a serving platter/bowl.
Drizzle with a few dollops of mayonnaise & sprinkle with mandarin dust.
Enjoy!
Scones and Jam
Our family loves freshly baked scones with lots of jam and cream as an indulgent morning or afternoon tea. How about yours?
Here’s our favourite recipe by the Country Women’s Association. We’ve tried lots of recipes, and this is now our go-to.
INGREDIENTS
4 cups Self Raising Flour
300ml of cream
300 ml Milk
Pinch of Salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Jam for serving, we suggest our Rhubarb & Strawberry Jam, Rhubarb and Ginger Jam, Strawberry & Pepperberry Jam or Chocolate & Bourbon Cherries.
METHOD
Sift flour (very important), add other dry ingredients, add cream and milk to dry ingredients and mix to make a soft dough using a knife not a spoon. Place on a lightly floured board and pat out to a thickness of about 2.5cm. Cut with a floured scone cutter. Do not twist the cutter when removing, straight up and down is the go! Push left over dough together and lightly knead are cut remaining scones until all dough is used. Place on a lined baking tray and bake in a hot oven (225 degrees fan forced) for about 12-15 minutes until they are golden on the bottom and top. Serve with lashings of jam and whipped cream! Enjoy
** This recipe can be altered to be gluten free by replacing the Self Raising Flour with Gluten Free SR Flour AND 1 teaspoon of Xantham gum. Add dry ingredients as above.