Lychee Mint Slushie
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 0 minutes
Makes 4 drinks
- 600g/1.3lbs tin lychees in juice
- 100g/3.5ozs caster or superfine sugar
- 1/2 bunch fresh mint
- 2 cups crushed ice
Step 1 - Place all ingredients (except 4 lychees and some mint for decoration) in a blender or Thermomix. Blend on high speed (30 seconds, speed #7 for Thermomix) until it becomes a slushie texture. Pour into 4 cups and add a lychee and mint sprig on top. Serve immediately.
Personal Note
We have two fridges here, one as my main fridge and the other one as my back up and drinks fridge. I always keep a couple of tins of lychees in the second fridge for when it gets too hot. We always have mint as Mr NQN grows it in the garden and honestly there is no better way to cool off on a sweltering summer day than with this slushie. The first time I made this was when my friend Valentina gave me some bunches of herbs - if you grow mint you know how overwhelming it can be but nowadays I use it all up to the point where Mr NQN has told me that we need to leave the mint for a few weeks haha.
To be totally honest I spend no time in the garden. Mr NQN asks me what I want him to grow and he grows it and then he goes out to pick it. Our garden is a bit of a jungle and to my eyes, completely wild and treacherous. There is so much nature there that I find it overwhelming. I know you're supposed to completely love being in nature but the bugs and the plants that tickle you when you walk past (my absolute horror) are just not my vibe. I'd love a more manicured garden. I thought I was the only one but my cleaning lady brought it up. "I don't know how you can cope with it. It's wild," she said shaking her head looking out the window at the garden. "Yes!! Right? I'm not crazy am I?" I said. I didn't have the heart to tell her that Mr NQN had literally just tidied up the garden and was feeling rather proud of it. After all Mr NQN is a guy from a hippy family from the Northern NSW's alternative regions and to him it actually looked very neat.
Although he has lived in Sydney for many years now you can't take the country out of the boy. We were on a weekend away on the South Coast and a group had lit a fire in the neighbouring house. We were both relaxing in the lounge room after dinner when we noticed it. "Do you want to go and say g'day to them?" he said to me.
"What? WHAT? You mean walk over to those complete strangers and interrupt them?" I said, surprised. To me that was a crazy idea perhaps because I grew up in the city where we mind our own business. But to country boy Mr NQN it seemed a natural idea to go over to some strangers and have a chat to them. And he calls himself a introvert too!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried a lychee mint slushie? And would you say hello to the people in that case?