Birthday sundowners on Clifton 2nd

Sweet chili prawns and ice cold mojitos on Clifton 2nd beach with 40 friends was how Anree celebrated her birthday this year. Although the Southeaster was pumping as we drove over Kloof Nek, nestled in the shadow of Lions Head it was a gorgeous wind still evening on Clifton.

We arrived about 5pm and started packing the skottles, the tables, coolers full of ice, food and drink, as well as bags and boxes of all the necessities down the 101 steps to the beach. Thankfully Carla and Hilton were there waiting for us to help with the hauling. Before long we had a table set up, pitchers of muddled mojitos on ice and prawns cooking in the skottles. Anree joked that we were all ready to open for business and instantly we had a queue of strangers from the beach lining up. We had to send them away as we were a little nervous that 20 litres of mojitos, 10kg of prawns and 8 loaves of fresh baked ciabatta bread wouldn't be enough to satisfy our guests.

In the end we had more than enough so that everyone could eat until they were stuffed and drink until their thirts were toally sated. It all actually turned out amazingly well and, despite everyone's initial reservations about being invited for dinner on a public beach, I was repeatedly asked what our recipes were. For anyone who is interested here are the recipes -

Mojitos for 40

• 5 litres rum
• 16 litres club soda
• 2 litres lime cordial
• 40 limes
  
• 240 mint leaves
• 2 kg castor sugar
• 12 bags of ice

Divide mint leaves, sugar and lime between pitchers and coolers, muddle well with a giant pestle (gently to extract the oils from the leaves without shredding them). Add the rum, club soda, lime cordial and ice. Stir well and garnish with some mint leaves and lime.

Chilli Prawns for 40

• 10 kg prawns (deveined, tails, heads and shells off)
• 10 pieces of fresh ginger (finely chopped)
• 20 cloves of garlic (peeled and finely sliced)
• 20-30 chillies
• 10 lemons
• 4 litres of olive oil
• 9 loaves of ciabatta bread

Into hot skottles pour in loads of olive oil, ginger, garlic, chillies and prawns. Fry until the prawns start to curl but are still fairly plump. Pour into plates over top of the ciabatta, to mop up the juices.
After it got too dark to stay on the beach any longer, we put on our dancing shoes and headed up to the Karma Lounge in Camps Bay and spent the rest of the night dancing and sipping cocktails on the balcony.

All in all a great evening and a memorable birthday party,