In Which Strawberries Make a Summer Drink More Refreshing…

Sweet, tart, and totally refreshing

Despite the torrential downpour that cooled off the southern suburbs on Friday afternoon, the weather continues to be scorching hot and utterly dismal to a cool weather-loving gal like myself.  (It is presently 35°C where I am at the moment.)  That said, people are resorting to everything from plain iced water to iced tea, frozen juice pops, and chunks of ice to stay cool in the blistering heat.

Iced tea and lemonade are the coolers of choice at my house: the tall blue plastic carafes in the fridge are always filled with chilled tea (instant, but refreshing nevertheless) and the tall bottle of honey-sweetened calamansi (calamondin – a local fruit, something like a cross between a lemon and a thin-skinned green orange) concentrate has become totally indispensable.  And, since my brother left a punnet of strawberries in the fridge from his last visit, I decided to take a cue from the strawberry lemonsweet recipe from the Game of Thrones-inspired food blog The Inn at the Crossroads.

Lemonsweet is, essentially, a rather medieval spin on lemonade but the flavors are allegedly more intensely lemony, even sharper than drinks made to modern lemonade recipes which tend to err on the overly sweet side.  This is due in part to the fact that most old-school recipes for lemonade call for sweetening it with honey rather than sugar or simple syrup.  The resulting drink is, thus, just subtly sweet with a wonted “in your face” vibrant lemon flavor.

For my concentrate-based lemonsweet, much of the tartness is derived from the slices of fresh strawberry floating atop the lemonade: the strawberry juice infuses the drink and adds a delicate, almost floral fragrance and gives the golden juice a slightly pinkish cast.  Poured over ice with a few berry slices on top, it makes for a very pretty and certainly soothing summer cooler.  It’s perfect enough as it is, though you may wish to add fresh mint or a sprinkle of instant salabat (ginger tea) powder to give it a bit more kick.

Summer Lemonsweet

• scant 1/2 cup calamansi concentrate with honey (I used Citrus Farms) + enough cold water to make 1 liter
  
• 1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint or 1 tablespoon salabat (ginger tea) powder (optional)

In a large pitcher, stir together the concentrate and the water until well-combined.  Stir in the strawberry slices and the mint or ginger powder (if using).  Mix well and transfer to a covered carafe.  Store in the refrigerator for about a couple hours before serving, shaking it occasionally to mix the strawberry juice into the lemonade.  Serve in glasses over ice.

Makes approximately 5 glasses.

Note:  You can also let this drink be a cocktail base.  Pour a shot of vodka over ice before pouring in the lemonsweet.  Stir well and enjoy in moderation on a hot summer evening.  ;)

In Which One’s Favorite Flavors are Enjoyed at the End of the Day…

Almond biscotti latte + lemon square

I am a sucker for most things lemon- or almond-flavored.  The former peps me up while the latter calms me down.  So just imagine how I hit the jackpot when I scored a lemon square and an almond biscotti latte over at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

The lemon square, a nice, hefty example of the species, was just the right mix of tart and sweet, the lemon curd smooth on the tongue, the shortbread base properly buttery and crumbly.  The flavors went amazingly well with the latte, a seasonal offering, that was just fragrant, nutty, and properly bittersweet.

It was just the thing I needed to wrap up yet another hectic day at work.  :)

In Which the Blogger Talks About Horchata…

Horchata!

Long-time (and, due to one of last week’s posts, recent) visitors to this blog know that I won’t say no to trying out new foods or new drinks, especially those that have either been recommended by fellow food-bloggers and friends or those that have intrigued me after reading about them online, in some magazine, or cookbook.  Horchata is one of these things.

Horchata is a Spanish beverage with Arabic roots: the earliest accounts of it in Spain date it back to the period of the Moorish Occupation (711 – 1492).  In the Valencian dialect, the name is spelled as orxata - literally, “barley water” – because it was made from the water used for soaking barley in the old days.  Later on, the process was used to extract sweet drinks from groundnuts (tigernuts), almonds, rice, and even sesame seeds.  If made with almonds, sugar, and rose water (or lemon zest) and boiled down to a thick syrup, the resulting liquid becomes what is known as orgeat and is used to flavor baked goods though it can also be diluted with water for a refreshing drink.  Horchata in the modern context, on the other hand,  is usually made with either tigernuts or rice; it is thinner, looks like milk, and is usually made with sugar and cinnamon.

In this part of the world, the only place where I’ve encountered the drink is at the Salcedo Saturday Market where a stall specializing in Mexican street food offers the stuff in two variants: plain with a shot of milk (horchata con leche) and chocolate.  I like them both: the plain one shown at the top of this post is subtly milky and is richly flavored with vanilla and a hint of cinnamon; the wee cubes of almond and coffee jelly at the bottom of the drink add to the visual and textural interest.  The chocolate, on the other hand, is somewhat gritty textured at first sip (probably because of the cacao used for flavoring the drink), but it grows on you: the grittiness gives way to a dusky, smoky chocolatiness amped by the sweet, spicy cinnamon.

Whichever you choose to order, you’re in for a refreshing treat.  For some odd reason, I find it more restorative than, say, plain water or some sugary soda especially on a scorching day.

In Which the Blogger Attempts to Replicate a Dirty Chai Latte Sans an Espresso Machine and Then Some…

More than coffee, more than tea…

“Have you ever had a dirty chai latte?” my new friend, The Antipodean, asked me recently while we were online and talking about a story I pitched to a publisher a couple weeks ago.

“A what?” I asked.  Oh, I’ve encountered the term before: mostly from back-issues of Delicious-UK and Delicious-Australia, but no one has explained it to my satisfaction.

“You mean, you don’t get those where you are?” The Antipodean exclaimed.  ”Um, how do I put it?  Well, you get a mug of chai and you drop a shot of espresso into it.”

Okay, I got the picture at that point.  It would probably be most similar to a yuanyang – a popular beverage at Hong Kong’s cha chaan tngs (tea shops / cafes) which mixes three parts brewed coffee with seven parts HK-style milk tea.  This one, however, is spicier due to the cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, white pepper, and cloves used to flavor the tea.

It’s one of those “secret menu” offerings at both Starbucks and the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: order a chai latte and tell your barista to drop an espresso shot into it.  The end result: a creamy, smooth, spicy, bittersweet drink that goes down amazingly well and is perfect for soothing frazzled nerves in the middle of a work-day even while keeping you alert enough to finish what needs to be done.

When I first had one, I went and reported directly to The Antipodean; he was pleased that I liked it.  Then I told him I planned to try making one at home.  This caused him to stare at me in disbelief.

“You have an espresso machine, yes?” he asked.

“Nope,” I declared in full confidence.

“You don’t?!  Then, how…?”

“Watch, kid; watch and learn…”

Believe me when I say he just stared at me and was close to going into hysterics…

In a fit of [temporary] madness, I added pinches of cinnamon, pepper, cloves, ginger, and cardamom to a quarter-cup of milk before tossing in instant coffee and instant milk tea.  Add hot water, et voila – what would pretty much pass for a cheap-arse dirty chai latte at home.  It was a touch sweeter and the coffee seemed to overpower the tea, but I found it most fortifying a few mornings ago when the weather turned stormy despite the impending summer heat.

“You’re fearless,” The Antipodean conceded, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

“Nope,” I replied.  ”I just like a good challenge is all.”

In Which One’s Afternoon Nosh is a Vivid Green on an ORDINARY Thursday…

Everything’s green…

I don’t know about the rest of you, but today is just an ordinary Thursday for me.  Not for me the whole rigmarole of flowers, candy, and dinners out.  The only use I have for flowers – and, even then, I limit them to roses, jasmine, and lavender – is for making flavored vodka.  Candy is a no-no for me at the moment because I’m still recovering from a very nasty bout of the flu so my throat isn’t really up for anything sweet.  And, much as I’d like to dine out today, I’m not a fan of having to compete with simpering couples – legal ones or otherwise – for a table anywhere.  Besides, how can I enjoy my food when I’m tempted every five minutes to tell the girl at the next table that the pimply-faced would-be-Lothario who took her out to dinner is blatantly lying to her and is making calf’s-eyes at all the other belles in the room?

So let me say it again: today is just an ordinary Thursday.  I have opted to stay indoors and nurse my cold this afternoon with a tall, frosty matcha latte from Starbucks.  This one is made with soy milk rather than my usual low-fat cow’s milk and has the added cachet of having a shot of almond syrup to balance out the bitter-sweetness of the green tea.

And, with my vividly green latte, I have an equally green recent discovery for munching.

Now THAT, my friends, is a CRISP.

Starbucks in the Philippines is currently the only place where you can get Real Handcooked Crisps, super-crunchy potato chips with quirky, funky, and tasty flavors from The Tayto Group in Northamptonshire, England.  The ham-and-English-mustard crisps are scrumptious and taste more of proper smoky bacon than they do of ham (which, in my opinion, is a very good thing).  But it’s the jalapeno-flavored ones that have won their way into my heart.

These crisps have a fresh, almost fruity pepperiness to them.  The taste starts out mild, then it gains strength with every crisp you pop into your mouth – and believe me when I say that you will keep munching no matter how fiery things get – and the only thing that can douse the flames is, of course, the tumbler of creamy green tea close at hand.

Ah, yes; it’s perfect, perfect for an ordinary Thursday.  ;)