Still flung out from Fling? Try these non-alcoholic mocktails at your next party or get together.
Lychee Martini
Ingredients:
2 parts apple juice
2 parts pear juice
1 part pineapple juice
the juice of one large can of canned lychees
Directions:
Mix ingredients in large pitcher, then refrigerate until cool. Serve chilled in a martini glass, and garnish with a canned lychee on a stick.
Passionfruit Margarita
Ingredients:
1 part passionfruit juice, sweetened (sold at Trader Joe's, but mixed with other juices)
1 part orange juice
juice of 1/2 lime
Directions:
Mix ingredients and blend with ice, then serve in margarita glasses.
Love on the Rocks
Ingredients:
1 part cranberry juice
1 part ginger ale
splash of grenadine
Directions:
Mix ingredients and serve in a martini glass. Garnish with a rock candy swizzle.
The Dragonfly
Ingredients:
1 part pineapple juice
1 part guava juice (sold at Fresh Grocer)
splash of grenadine
Directions:
Mix ingredients and serve in a tumbler glass, garnished with dried, sweetened hibiscus flower (sold at Trader Joe's).
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Mocktails
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Grande Mocha Frap? No, Thank You. I'll Have A Grande Tea.
By the end of the 1990’s Starbucks was a household name. They lined the streets in almost every major metropolitan area, supposedly offering some of the most unique coffees and lattes and espressos in a fresh, hip setting. The Starbucks brand became ubiquitous with caffeine. Chains like Saxby’s, Juan Valdez, and Seattle’s Best subsequently began sprouting up around the country trying to mimic Starbucks’ success. Ultimately, they helped make coffee the next “it” thing. Celebrities started toting cups around as their new favorite accessory and businessmen and women lined up before work for their daily fixes.
But now, in the twenty-first century, coffee and coffee drinks are no longer so desirable. People are trying to cut back their spending because of the economy, and they're watching out for the calories that all that cream and sugar carries. Instead, an ancient form of beverage that has existed for centuries seems to be taking the spotlight, maybe even becoming the next big thing. That beverage is, of course, tea.
Tea . . . is it the new coffee? Well, it’s significantly less expensive than coffee, carries almost no calories or fats and provides great benefits like antioxidants. In the health-conscious, budget-aware consumer world we live in nowadays, we want something that is cool yet cost effective yet high quality. Im most fields and products, this may be hard to find. But tea seems to have it all. It can be combined and produced in a variety of flavors, from orange to plum to ginger to chocolate, is available in large quantities, and is simple to find and make.
To emphasize this, many new century figures - pioneers of the hip - are turning to teas instead of double espressos. Digg.com founder Kevin Rose, according to a recent article by Wired.com, began spending up to a thousand dollars a month on tea for his employees. He acknowledges the benefits of the beverage and the potential it has in making people productive and energetic which, unlike the caffeine in coffee and energy drinks, is something that seldom wears out. Being a product that is natural and literally from the Earth, many people are drawn to the prospects of specialty teas. There’s no need for hundred dollar coffee makers or gallons of creamer when all you need is a tea bag, some water and maybe a teaspoon of honey.
It seems the world is quickly catching up on this. To replace the tired old coffee shops, tea bars are popping up all across the country, from the Silicon Valley to right here in Philadelphia. Tea, it appears, is fast on its way to becoming the new, healthy social lubricant. Even coffee retailers like Starbucks have picked up on the trend and now offer a wide range of teas along with the standard lattes and mochas. Here in Philadelphia, one can also find quite a few specialty shops offering nothing but organic, wholesome teas. Remedy Tea Bar (16th and Sansom Streets) owned by sisters Kristen and Courtney has become a gem in the city, providing innovative ways to make tea appealing to both skeptics and long time connoisseurs. The Hill Tea Bar (6 East Hartwell Lane) in Chestnut Hill offers a scenic English garden in which to sip your tea, in case the bustling city crowd isn’t you thing. Midtown Village’s chic T-Bar (117 S. 12th Street) serves the yuppie and hipster crowds with rare and distinct blends, as well as offers great tips and recipes for do-it-yourself drinks. And, of course, there is always the simplest option - buy a box of tea for a few bucks, brew it at home, sit back and enjoy.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Hamantaschen
photo by Kendall Haupt
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Basic Pesto Sauce
This recipe comes straight from my grandfather's collection and has its origins in Liguria, Italy.
2 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts (may be substituted with sweet walnuts or shelled almonds)
2 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
a pinch of salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste
Blend all ingredients until a paste-like consistency is achieved. If fresh basil is unattainable, use 2 cups fresh parsley, plus 2 tablespoons dried basil. The condiment can be stored by covering with olive oil and refrigerating for future use.
Variations: use of different types of grated cheeses; orange or lemon rind; 1-2 tablespoons of heavy cream; eliminating garlic, including ricotta; adding a few anchovies
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Saturday Blog Lovin' - Quintuple Chocolate Brownies
Blog: Nosh and Tell
These quintuple chocolate brownies are not for the timid. The recipe, from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours, includes cocoa powder, unsweetened chocolate, semisweet chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. I'll never settle for single chocolate brownies again.
Note: Click here to see the original post.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sazon Restaurant
Over, the weekend, I supplemented my diet of fried oreos and Ben & Jerry's with some Venezuelan food from Sazon.
Don't let the location fool you. It's located on 10th and Spring Garden (near a certain copy center in which certain cards can be obtained), but the hearty, delicious, and inexpensive food make it well worth the trek.
I ordered a cafe mocha, motivated by a rave review. I was surprised at the richness of the flavor and the perfect mingling of coffee and chocolate. For an appetizer, I had tequenos, which resembled mozzarella sticks--minus the excessive grease. My dinner, an arepa (a corn flour patty) stuffed with black beans and cheese, was simple but very satisfying. For dessert, I enjoyed a tres leches cake that that was a tad over-frosted for my taste, but otherwise delicious.
The service was prompt and helpful, and the restaurant overall was very cozy, warm and inviting. It was my first foray into Venezuelan food, and it certainly won't be my last.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Better Free Samples Than Whole Foods!
It's almost that time of the year again! Get ready for delicious farmers market food this spring. Here's an account from an awesome trip last May:
I arrived at the Headhouse Farmer's Market at 2nd and Pine at a few minutes till 10, the scheduled starting time. Vendors were open for browsing, but wouldn't sell until the official starting bell was rung at 10:00 on the dot. It was a transformation; as soon as the bell rang, samples appeared, vendors started explaining their products to interested customers, and the number of people browsing seemed to multiply.
Goods ranged from the usual leafy greens to potted plants to baked goods to prepared foods. Samples were numerous, not to mention delicious. Highlights included Betty's Tasty Buttons, showcasing Lemon Curd and other sweet dipping/topping sauces, and Wild Flour Bakery's rosemary garlic bread and chocolate chip cookies.
Grass-fed beef and pastured eggs seemed to be the norm, as did organically farmed produce. I was overjoyed.
Personal purchases consisted of a block of (grass-fed!) sharp cheddar from Hillacres Pride, a small tub of whipped shea butter from Demarah as a belated birthday present for my mom, a (gigantic) blueberry scone for myself from Wild Flour as well as two chocolate chip cookies for my students (I was, of course, on my way to work) from the same. That's not to mention the absurd quantity of free samples of which I partook.
Unfortunately the semester is winding down and I am swamped with work so I couldn't warrant buying tons of fresh produce for fear of having to let it rot in my fridge, but if you have more time than I, I would strongly urge you to spend a lovely Sunday morning taking a (looong) stroll down to 2nd and Pine and checking out this gem of a farmer's market.
Headhouse Farmer's Market
South 2nd Street, between Pine and Lombard
Sundays beginning May 3, 10 am - 2 pm
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
New Schedule!
Hi Penn Appetit Blog Readers,
If you've read our blog before, you may have noticed our weekly schedule of topics, including Weird Food Wednesday and Friday Blog Lovin'. Well, I'm happy to say that, as we grow in readers and contributors, we're moving on to a new schedule, starting today!
Visit us each Monday to see a beautiful food photo from the Penn Appetit Photo Staff, learn something new about food every Tuesday, and read about all sorts of topics on Wednesdays, when anything goes. Thursday and Friday will be "Eat Out" days, with profiles and reviews of restaurants, gourmet stores, coffee shops, and more all over Philadelphia, and occasionally beyond it as well. Saturdays will now feature our popular "Blog Lovin'" posts, and a new recipe will be posted every Sunday.
This new format creates greater flexibility for our writers and spaces out the content more evenly over the week. It will allow us to improve our coverage of countless aspects of food around Penn and beyond, and should provide a more pleasurable reading experience for you as well. Thank you for helping us grow our readership so substantially over the last year, and we look forward to providing many exciting, interesting, and appetizing posts well into the future!
Alex
Blog Editor
Milk of the Irish, or: How I Learned Everything I Never Thought I Wanted to Know About Whiskey
The tables were spread with an aesthetic arrangement of six whiskeys ranging in hue from light amber to deep honey, and complicated flavor diagrams and timelines lay in front of us. After an extensive description of whiskey's history, production, and politics - Ireland and Kentucky, pot stills and column stills, moonshine and prohibition - we got down to the tasting. We were informed, not without a definite sense of superiority, that whiskey possesses orders of magnitude more flavor profiles than wine - when you smell whiskey (learned: don't swirl or you're alcohol will evaporate) you are smelling 1000s of smells. The motions are similar to those of wine; don't swirl, but hold by the bottom and tip the glass back over your mouth and nose and inhale to catch all the smells, then taste, and perhaps circulate - all sides, tongue, throat - and aerate your sip on the palate, swallow, and judge. What kinds of smells are there? Depth of flavor? Does the flavor linger or just disappear? (Learned: Finish is important!) How do you know what you're tasting and if it's 'good' or not?
Whiskey #1: Irish Whiskey; yeasty, toasty, floral, sweet, smooth, clean, fades off the palate, weak, unassuming Learned: women smell more things than men, they can taste more and pick up more flavor notes.
Whiskey #2: Single Malt Scotch (Glenlivet; Dad would be proud); light, sweet, simple, strong but clean finish Learned: The Glenlivet distillery used to be protected by armed guards / 100% pot still distillation therefore no two batches are alike - single malts are variable and seasonal / water is critical to the flavor profile: the limestone in the Scottish highlands give Glenlivet it's prized flavor.
Whiskey #3: Blended bourbon (Crown Royal); sweet, gentle molasses - a blend of bourbon, single malt, and grain alcohols Learned: not all Canadian whiskeys are rye / Crown Royal was blended for the queen. Bourbon takes three years to make.
Whiskey #4: Single Malt Blend (Johnny Walker/Chivas Regal); sour, smoky, peppery, harsh, bite lingers. Learned: the longer a whiskey is barrel-aged the more concentrated - higher proof - it becomes / the greater the proof, the higher the tax
Whiskey #5: Single Malt (Bruichladdich); iodine, tangy, spicy, not so sweet, salty, salt caramel, ocean, smells like nausea. Learned: Before WWII there was no Single Malt to speak of in the U.S. It came from Europe. It tastes like the ocean because the distillery is on the ocean; environment influences flavor!
Whiskey #6: Bourbon (corn) (Wild Turkey); butterscotch, cinnamon, cloves, caramel corn, robust, 100 proof. Learned: Bourbon needs a higher proof because it needs more flavor. All whiskeys and red wines have acetone in them.
(Surprise!) Whiskey #7: Single Malt (Bushmills 21); tangerine, caramel, citrusy, fruity, strong beginning, smooth end. Learned: That burn? Not alcohol, but rye. Single malt is over 1000 years old, distillation originated in the Middle East (alembic) and eventually got to Scotland via monks (and presumably some other people).
The following statements are up for debate but were the gospel by which the class was taught:
Do not add ice or water: whiskey has to be full proof or else you're robbing it of its soul.
Whiskey is artisanal; it reflects a particular tradition, history, and place, and is one of the last true artisanal spirits.
There is not a bad whsikey in the world; there are some that are better than others.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Chicken Curry Salad
The curry powder in this recipe adds a kick to traditional plain chicken salad. The salad is incredibly quick and easy to make, and can be stored in the fridge to be enjoyed over the course of a few days.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 pounds boneless skinless cooked chicken breast, diced
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 cup halved red grapes
1/2 cup chopped celery
Salt and ground black pepper
Directions:
In a large bowl, stir together the yogurt, mayonnaise and curry powder. Fold in the chicken, grapes and celery and mix well. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve as a sandwich on bread or as a salad over a bed of lettuce. photo by Lydia Gau
