Legless – desserts to get you in the spirit – Kylie Banning
Get Legless for your next party
Robyn Lewis
Legless, desserts to get you in the spirit by Kylie Banning
It’s that time of year when the work brain shuts down and thoughts turn to parties, entertaining, and stocking up the grog cupboard before the fat man in the red suit arrives.
Reaching into said cupboard you might find, say: a half-bottle of peach liqueur you never really knew what to do with, an untouched bottle of something green (provenance unknown), last summer’s leftover Campari, some Grand Marnier given by a houseguest, and of course the usual suspects, rum, tequila, gin and – oh my, behind the brandy (for the Christmas pudding/hard sauce, of course) your ex’s green ginger wine that you always detested but forgot to throw out.
Well, now you can get Legless.
Not in the horizontally paralytic manner, of course, but head for your bookshop’s burgeoning cookbook shelves and zone in on a book with a hot magenta cover, decorated with black velvet paisley curlicues – a look that would put a bordello decorator to shame and will leap out at you like a… never mind. But no need to hide furtively in the corner while you flick through these pages.
Legless is a book devoted to desserts made with alcohol – a book I didn’t know I needed until I saw it and the aha! moment arrived. Author Kylie Banning – obviously something of a party girl – says that the desserts in Legless contain that extra special ingredient that will inject excitement and festivity into your party.
That’s right – it’s alcohol! If you are as bored with chocolate mud cake and fruit flans as I am, or want a lighter alternative to cheese or simply to do some easy entertaining over the festive season without spending hours in the kitchen, then this is the book for you. Not to mention the promise of a nice, tidy liqueur cabinet (to be PC) and finally using up Great-Aunt Elsie’s crème-de-menthe.
It must have been fate that Legless opened to grapefruit and Campari sorbet – visions of a pudding-free Boxing Day filled my head. Campari and grapefruit is a marriage made in heaven – why hadn’t I thought of freezing it before?
Then I found a whole section of jelly shots, and I was hooked. My long-forgotten jelly-making skills are now finely honed as my young daughter’s tastes have advanced from her pureed fruit stage, so this is the next logical step – some adult jellies for us while she remains transfixed with ‘raspberry’ and ‘lime’.
Indeed jellies – once loved by the English of the not-so-Victorian era, as Heston Blumenthal and his vibrating green Absinthe jelly will testify (maybe he got the idea from Legless?!) – are making something of a comeback. Plus gelatine is good for you, and they sure are easy to make and serve in shot glasses.
Just add Cointreau, Crème de Cassis – yes, here’s one with Champagne! – peaches, more Campari (kisses to Kylie!), vodka, tequila….. you name it, it seems you can make a fruit jelly with it. How easy is this? What fun awaits!
Then there are mousse shots, marinated fruits, crepes with sauces that you’ve never tasted before, trifles with a huge makeover, even pavlovas with spirited creams and cheesecakes for those with hyperactive metabolisms.
Everything can be made in advance and the author assures that you don’t need to be a masterchef to achieve perfection. The sorbets really get me in, too – like Mr Creosote’s wafer, or teetering on the splitting point of brandy butter, just how much alcohol CAN I add before it fails to freeze, I wonder?!
Of course unless you are providing overnight accommodation for your guests, you may have to make a teetotallers’ version for the drivers (and for the children, of course). However, with Legless in hand you’ll be guaranteed to raise the decibel level of even the most staid dinner gathering, put an extra sparkle into your next poolside party or cocktail night, or – who knows – even have them dancing on the tables!
And then you can restock that cupboard and start all over again – for with desserts like these, why stop at Christmas?
Legless – desserts to get you in the spirit is published by New Holland, Australia (hb, new edition 2009, original 2005) RRP A$24.95. Winepros Archive and VisitVineyards.com Members and subscribers can get Legless from our book partners Seekbooks at 12.5% discount of RRP (postage extra).
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