Blackberry Lemonade

I recently brought the dwarf citrus trees into the house from the garden for the winter.  This had a two-fold benefit, the first is that in the warmer environment they started to blossom again.  The second was that it allowed my easy access to picking the lemons that have now become ripe. With a few fresh lemons at hand, I returned to the tried and true lemonade as the most immediate use for them. This recipe uses the lemons to their full glory, and it was also a wonderful platform for the frozen blackberries I had in the freezer from the end of the summer.

Ingredients:

• Lemon Juice 1 cup freshly squeezed
• Blackberries 1 cup frozen
• Sugar 1 cup or Stevia 1/4 cup
• Water 3 1/2 to 4 cups (to taste)

Method:

Allow the berries to thaw and place them into a food processor with a quarter cup of water. Juice the lemons to get the cup of juice removing any seeds, but retaining pulp.  Blitz the berries until well liquefied, then strain out the seeds.  Place the strained berries, lemon juice, and sweetener into a large pan and bring to a low simmer. When sweetener is fully dissolved, and mixture is well warmed, pour into a jug or pitcher with the remaining cold water.  Chill and serve over ice.

Padre

 

Blackberry Iced Tea

It is blackberry season, and this abundant tasty fruit is a great compliment to many drinks such as lemonade and tea.  This recipe uses pre-brewed tea (see Sun Tea)*and freshly crushed berries to make a cooling drink.

Ingredients:

• Blackberries 1 cup
• Tea 1 litre
• Sugar 3/4 cup or Stevia 4 Tbs (or to taste)

Method:

Crush the berries and 1/4 of the sweetener in a food processor, or with a fork in a medium bowl. Place a wire mesh strainer over a jug or pitcher and strain out the seeds, but allowing as much juice through as possible. Pour half of the tea over the crushed berry material in the strainer, and allow liquid to strain through. Add the remaining sweetener to the unused tea and stir well.  Add the sweetened tea to the pitcher.  Chill and serve over ice.

* If you don’t have time to make sun tea, a quick (but I find slightly more bitter) approach is to place 300 ml of water into a sauce pan and bring to boil. Remove from the heat, and add 2 to 3 tea bags. Allow to steep for about 4 minutes, then remove the tea bags, and add to 700 ml or so of cold water.

For a slightly different take on this recipe only fill the glasses 3/4 full with the blackberry tea, and top up with sparkling lemonade (Sprite, 7 Up, etc ** sugar free works fine).

Paste

 

 

Sun Tea (Mini Tip)

It is unusual that the summer weather has kept on so long here in the UK. And while most Brits seem to prefer traditionally brewed hot tea, there is a place in weather such as this to make iced tea.  One of the methods for brewing large quantities of this is to make “sun tea.”  This uses the bright sunny days to make a cooling drink to deal with the heat.

It requires a large glass jar (2 litres works really well) and just a few tea bags.

Ingredients:

• Water 2 litres
• Tea Bags (of your choice) 4

Method:

Fill the jar to near the brim with tap water, and place the tea bags into the water with the strings outside the jar.  Close the lid to hold the strings in place, and place is a sunny position (garden table, etc) for about 4 hours.

When the tea is of a good colour, remove the bags and sweeten to taste.  Serve with a slice of citrus over ice.

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Vitamina de Abacate (Brazilian Avocado Smoothie)

As the hot summer continues, so do the drinks recipes. Here is a Brazilian inspired drink which uses avocado as the fruit of choice. While sweet avocado is not the first thing on many people’s list, it is in fact very nice. It is thick and creamy, and yummy to boot.

Ingredients:

• Avocado 1 small ripe
• Lime 1
• Milk or Coconut Milk 500 ml
• Stevia 1 -2 Tbs to taste
• Ice 1 to 2 cubes

Method:

Remove stone from the avocado and spoon flesh into a blender. Juice the lime and add the juice to the avocado.  Add the remaining ingredients and blitz till smooth.  Serve in a glass.

For an alternative recipe try:

• Avocado 1 small ripe
• Fresh Cream 3 Tbs
• Milk or Coconut Milk 500 ml
• Stevia 1 -2 Tbs to taste
• Ice 1 to 2 cubes

Method:

Remove stone from the avocado and spoon flesh into a blender. Add the cream, milk, and sweetener and blitz till smooth.  Add Ice and blitz again until thick. Serve in a glass.

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Lime Rickey

This is a simple recipe for a tasty, refreshing drink. There are many sweet lime recipes in the realm of cocktails/mocktails, but this one “The Rickey,” was created in Washington D.C. in the 1880s.  It originated at Shoomaker’s Bar and was named after the political lobbyist Joe Rickey.  The alcohol version, made with bourbon or gin, may or may not be sweetened, but the mocktail version compensates for the lack of liquor flavour by using sugar syrup.

Ingredients:

• Limes 4
• Simple Syrup 100 ml
• Soda Water  300 ml
• Ice

Method:

Juice the limes, and add the juice to the simple syrup.  Stir and pour over a few ice cubes in a pair medium glasses.  Top off with soda water.

I usually make this in a single large glass which means it is sweeter and slightly more limey as the full 300 milliliters isn’t used.

Both versions are quite nice though.

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Chilled Cocoa Horchata

Here is a tasty chocolate treat.  It blends chilled cocoa drink and horchata to make a sweet summer drink.  The two components can be made and stored (briefly) and blended at the time of serving.  If made in advance, be sure to give a good stir to keep it from separating.

Horchata Component:

This bit is a minor variation on the Horchata recipe I have previously posted.

Ingredients:

• Uncooked While Rice 1 cup
• Almonds handful
• Water 750 ml
• Vanilla Essence 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground Cinnamon 1/2 tsp 
• Stevia 2 rounded Tbs (or to taste) or 1/3 cup sugar

Method:

Pour the rice, almonds, and water into a blender and blitz until rice just begins to break up. Let set at room temperature for about 3 hours. Strain out the nut pieces and rice solids, and mix the liquid with the cinnamon, sweetener, vanilla.  Place in a closed container and chill.

Cocoa Component:

Ingredients:

• Milk 500 ml
• Chocolate Bar 70%+ 100 g
• Pure Cocoa Powder 1 tsp
• Stevia 1 tsp or Sugar 1 heaped Tbs

Method:

In a small sauce pan put a large splash of milk, and then bring to medium heat. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and add to the pan.  As it begins to melt, add the milk slowly stirring constantly. When all of the milk is added, sprinkle in the cocoa and sweetener.  Continue to stir well, then allow to cool.

Cocoa Horchata

Ingredients:

• Horchata Mixture (as above)
• Cocoa Mixture (as above)
• Ground Cinnamon to garnish
• Ice

Method:

This part is easy.  Pour the horchata and cocoa together in to a large pitcher and stir well.  Fill glasses about 1/4 full with ice, and then top off with the mixture.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve.

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Strawberry Splash

Here is a variation of the Strawberry Ginger Splash which is sweeter, and more berry flavoured. It uses raspberry flavoured/infused sparking water instead of ginger ale, and has a higher quantity of fruit as well. I made a double sized batch (2 times the recipe below) the other night when we had some friends around, and the jug sized version was well received, so the proportions in the recipe really work.

Ingredients:

• Raspberry Water 1 litre
• Fresh Strawberries 20
• Stevia 1 Tbs
• Ice 2 cups
• Lemon Juice splash

Method:

Wash and prepare the strawberries into a blender and add 500 ml of the flavoured water and sweetener.  Blitz until fruit is evenly blended.  Add the ice and blitz until evenly mixed. Pour fruit mixture into a large glass 2/3 full, then top with additional raspberry water.

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Iced Cinnamon Cream Tea

This thick and cool drink was blended as an indulgence when the idea of a creamy tea was desirable, but the mercury was breaking 30 C.  The resulting recipe was therefore born.

Ingredients:

• Water 400 ml
• Cinnamon Tea Bag 1 or Chai Tea Bag 1
• Ground Cinnamon 1 tsp rounded
• Double Cream 200 ml
• Stevia 2 Tbs
• Ice 2 cups

Method:

Bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan, then stir in the sweetener and cinnamon.  Stir until dissolved. Reduce the heat, and then steep the tea bag in the mixture for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the teabag, and cover the pan and allow to cool.

When the mixture is room temperature add the ice to a blender, and pour the tea over the ice.  Add the cream and blitz for one minute.  Serve is large glass.

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Honey Apricot Smoothie

I got some really lovely free-stone apricots from a local farm shop recently, and was trying to think of a summer drink to make with them. As morning smoothies are a great day starter, I went that route and the taste of honey being a great compliment to the fruit came up with the following recipe.

Ingredients:

• Apricots 4 ripe
• Honey 2 Tbs
• Milk or Rice Milk 300 ml
• Ice 4-5 cubes
• Sweetener 1 tsp (optional)
• Ground Cinnamon 1/2 tsp (optional)

Method:

Halve the apricots and remove the stones. Place these and the milk into a blender. I recommend that you stick to dairy milk or rice milk as the recipe has some delicate flavours which can be lost with soy, or coconut. Blitz until the fruit is well broken up, then add the honey and a little sweetener (if used) and the ice, then blend until smooth. Either add the cinnamon for a final blitz or just sprinkle it on top of the glass when served. I have tried both and find the garnish approach better for keeping the apricot flavour of the main drink.

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Dairy-Free Purple Cow (3 of 3: The Purple Plow)

Here is the third installment of the Purple Cow theme.  This drink the Purple Plough (Plow) is dairy free, and as such is more plough than cow.  It has much of the same approach of the previous two recipes, but as it contains no cream or ice cream is a little less thick.  To compensate for this ice is used as a “thickening” measure, though it does require a rather quick consumption or the benefit is lost.

Ingredients:

• Purple Grape Juice 250 ml (Welsh’s, etc)
• Soy or Coconut Milk 250 ml
• Vanilla Syrup 1 Tbs
• Ice Cubes 4 or 5

Method:

Place the ice in a blender and add the milk, juice, and syrup. Blend on medium until the ice has made the mixture mildly “slushy” and then serve. I have experimented with adding a tsp of coconut oil to the mixture to aid the thickening, with a mixed result.  On once occasion it didn’t blend well, and while it did the second try it did make the coconut taste a little too distinct (especially when coupled with coconut milk) lessening the impact of the grape and vanilla flavours.  It is something you might like to play with, and it remains a fun drink, with a childhood nostalgia to it.

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