What can I do with Ouzo?

[lilolilmanchester]

Have acquired a bottle from a Greek guy, apparently it's his favourite brand so loathe to give to PTA tombola/drink/chuck away. Can you cook with it? What else could we do?

drink it ? is nice

Pour it down the sink before you all suffer?

clean your drains with it

OK so not very helpful - cocktails? greekfood.about.com/od/tipsnutritionmenus/a/ouzoparty_3.htm ... or from the same website:

Use ouzo to flambé dishes with sautéd shrimp, prawns, or crawfish with vegetables.
Add a couple of tablespoons to marinades for grilled shellfish or meats.
Add a teaspoon to vinaigrette dressings.
Use ouzo to sauté onions for use in pitas, salads, or as a side dish with meats.
In recipes calling for fennel or fennelseed, try using ouzo instead.

ouzo is served with cola either in premixed cans or bottles or simply mixed to the desired taste.

In other countries it is tradition to have ouzo in authentic Greek restaurants as an aperitif, served in a shot glass and deeply chilled before the meal is started. No water or ice is added but the drink is served very cold, enough to make some crystals form in the drink as it is served.

So says Wikipedia.

Mary Ann - yes, would drink it, but have done that before and know what it does to you....
AMum/Stuffit - will use it to unblock sinks/drains if can't find anything else to do with it; but thanks for doing the further research AMum, that's the kind of thing I'm looking for. Anyone actually used it for cooking themselves so I know whether it works or not? Yarghs - i can see my mixing it with cola and just necking it (woudl find it very hard to throw any kind of alcohol down the sink, whether it works as a sink deblocker or not!!!!)

I've never tried it in anything myself - can't stand anything that tastes of aniseed/liquorice/fennel etc - but I guess if you like that kind of flavour you could add it to pretty much anything in small amounts... [yuck emoticon] as far as I'm concerned though

it wasn't very helpful was it? sorry

but enjoy

It can make a very decent cream sauce for mussels.

throw it out a window.

Stuffitlama - one day, my drains and I might be very grateful for that advice!!!

carmenere - do you have a recipe please?

It is quite simple - , finely chop onion, garlic and fennel, sautee in a deep pot in butter for a few mins. Add a glass or two of white wine and a a third of a cup of ouzo/pernod. Add mussels that have been cleaned and cover. allow the mussels to steam in the liquor for about 7 minutes. Discard any that have not opened.
Take the mussels out with a slotted spoon place them in a serving dish. Reduce the liquor by half in the pot over a high heat. add a good slug of double cream and some pepper and heat through. Season with pepper but probably not salt as the liquor can be quite salty.

Pour the sauce over the mussels and serve with lots of crusty bread.

sounds gorgeous - and worth buying Ouzo for inthe first place! many thanks.

Keep it as a remedy for toothache

oh my, so what does it do to your stomach, Califrau?!

The first time I ever drank it, I was a student on inter-rail. Rumour was that if you got drunk on ouzo, you could "reactivate it" and get drunk again by having water the next morning. True, or Urban Myth? ( I tried it, drank water for breakfast and got drunk again, BUT could have been the placebo effect)

bumping for the daytime ouzo experts

save it till the weather gets really hot . Tastes so much better if you've got the right weather for it.

I think you're right SandyDenny. We had a BBQ once, on a rare scorching night when we were sat outside til midnight. We drank a whole bottle of Sambuca which we'd had about 5 years and several mini-bottles of Schnapps my Mum had brought back from a German holiday! Good thinking! Hope we get the weather.....