BERRY WEEK: Berry Sangria

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Mads

Hello internet friends,

As you might have already guessed, my favorite group of bloggers has teamed up again to bring you Berry Week! I love doing these theme weeks because it spurs on my creativity in using ingredients for something new. This week I decided to make berry sangria!

I’ve posted several berry recipes in the past, but this “recipe” is one of the easiest and by far the booziest. I put recipe in quotes because it’s mostly dumping ingredients into a pitcher. Ain’t nobody got time for a more complicated cocktail recipe. The most complicated recipe we used in college was “D the B”, in other words, drink the booze.

I had the best time acting as a mixologist for berry sangria because each variation needed its own ~~glass~~ taste test. *hiccup* In the extensive taste testing, I discovered Triple Sec is the secret ingredient and cannot be omitted. Also, there are many different schools of thought on sangria, but my own personal beliefs are that wine should never be diluted with soda. Ever. Amen.

You will need:

1 pint strawberries
1 pint blueberries
1 pint raspberries
1 orange
1 lemon
2 bottles chilled white wine, preferably Riesling (I used Firestone)
1/2 cup Triple Sec
1/4 cup sugar

Thoroughly wash all berries. Slice orange and lemon into rings.

In a large pitcher (or a small pitcher + awkward Tupperware container like me) stir together wine, Triple Sec, and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Toss in the fruit and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. The long chill time allows all of the booze to soak into the berries.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can easily halve it if your party is small. The OTHER great thing about this recipe is that it tastes delicious. The other OTHER great thing about this recipe is that you get to eat a ton of booze berries at the bottom of your glass.

What’s your favorite use of summer berries?

-Mads

P.s. Check out all of tasty ways you can use summer berries with these fantastic recipes:

Monday: Comfortably Domestic-Fresh Strawberry Pie / La Petite Pancake-Berry Sangria
Tuesday: Inside NanaBread’s Head-Annie’s Blackberry Cake / From My Sweet Heart-Summer Berry Terrine with Mascarpone Whipped Cream
Wednesday: Climbing Grier Mountain-Vanilla Gelato with Peach-Blueberry Compote & Honey Whipped Cream / Tenaciously Yours-Strawberry Smash
Thursday: Country Cleaver-Strawberry Basil Sorbet Bellini / The Girly Girl Cooks-Strawberry-Rhubarb Stuffed French Toast
Friday: Buffy and George-Black Raspberry & Cherry Pie with a Gluten-Free Crust / My Kvetchin’ Kitchen-Berry Earl Grey Cocktail / The Grommom-Berry Crisp
Saturday: Munchin’ in the Mitten-Cherry Clafoutis / Decadent Philistines Save the World-Raspberry Marshmallows (served two ways)

Beer Week is hiccup here!

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Mads

Hello beer lovers, beer drinkers, and beer stinkers,

Some local Californian brews I drank *for testing purposes only*

I’m here to tell you that Beer Week is in full swing on the internet! My bloggy friends have teamed up for another week full of delicious beer-filled recipes and brewery tour guides. From maple ale ice cream to Oktoberfest shenanigans to pumpkin beer bread, this week of beer truly has it all.

I decided to try another home deep-frying adventure because everything tastes better deep-fried. Let’s be honest. So I made Beer Battered Shrimp Tacos with a roasted poblano slaw.

Roasted Poblano Slaw Buddies

I grabbed what was on hand to make a sauce for the slaw. I had no idea how it would taste, but the end result was a creamy slaw with a bite of garlic and hints of the savory roasted pepper. YUM!

Creamy poblano sauce

Slaw:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

2-3 Tbsp. lime juice (throw some zest in if you’re feeling frisky)

1 small clove garlic

5 Tbsp. cilantro

1 roasted poblano pepper–skinned and seeded

Combine in food processor until creamy. Add to cabbage until desired consistency. I kept mine on the creamy side to pair it with the crunch of the shrimp.

After you grill/roast the poblano, simply tent the pepper in foil for about 5 minutes until the skin has steamed. Then it is much easier to scrape off the skin with a knife.

Next up were the shrimpies! Make sure your shrimp are peeled and deveined. Sometimes the butcher will do this for you, but it doesn’t take too much skill to do it at home.

Pat those shrimpies dry with a paper towel before you start this shenanigans. I almost added a picture of this step, but I discovered that pictures of raw shrimp are really unappetizing. I’ll spare you the gory details.

Beer Battered Shrimp:

1 cup Flour

1/4 cup Cornstarch

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Cayenne

1 tsp Season-All Season Salt

1 tsp Pepper

1 cup Panko (I also added 1/2 cup Wheat Germ for extra crunch)–set aside for dunking later

Mix ingredients through pepper together in one medium bowl. Set aside.

Mix panko and wheat germ (optional) in another bowl. Set aside.

Dunking bowls

Dunk each shrimp in the flour bowl only and shake off excess flour. Set the shrimpies aside.

Then choose the beer of the day. I went with a light wheaty beer because I really don’t like hops. Who’s with me? I also thought it was cute that the bottle had a shark on it…I wanted to stick with a nautical theme. 🙂

Great White Beer from Lost Coast Brewery

Add about 1/2 a bottle of beer to the flour mixture. Add a little at a time. You want the batter to resemble a thick pancake batter.

Drink the other half. This step is important!

Then set up an assembly line. Dunk the shrimp into the beer batter. Shake off the excess. Then roll the shrimp around in the panko. Shake off the excess.

Dip it, dunk it, drop it, rock it, roll it, grab it.

Once your oil reaches at least 375 degrees, add about 6 shrimp to the pan at a time. Cook for 3 minutes or until golden brown, flipping partway through.

Such an exciting moment to capture on film!

Place cooked shrimp on a paper towel-lined plate to remove extra oil.

Assemble the tacos!!!!

Slaw + shrimp + salsa = Pure unadulterated heaven

This dinner was rated an 11/10 from the whole family. I get that the whole family is only myself and Jonathan, but we said we would make this again in a heartbeat. There were no leftovers. I about passed out in the first bite. Make these.

What’s your favorite thing to make/eat with beer?

-Mads

Check out the other fabulous Beer Week posts here:

Inside NanaBread’s Head–Dark Chocolate Espresso Stout Cake

Comfortably Domestic–Brewer Biography and Black & Tan Brownies

Tenaciously Yours–Oktoberfest Prost!

Munching in the Mitten–Pumpkin Beer Bread

From My Sweet Heart–Beer Pretzel Caramels & Beer Orange Caramel Sauce

Climbing Grier Mountain–Pale Ale Shrimp Po’ Boy

Country Cleaver–Schnitzel and Dumplings

Decadent Phillistines Save the World–Spicy German Mustard, Ale-Soaked Sweet Potato Oven Fries, Maple-Ale Ice Cream

Peach Bellini

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Mads

Hey hey folks,

It’s Cocktail Week on the internet! And by the internet, I mean the few incredible blogging women who have decided to join me on this quest to quench The Thirst.

I recently got married…where have you been?!? The wedding prep, bachelorette night, bridal showers, wedding night, etc. have naturally been brimming to the top with champagne. I also recently discovered that champagne is a MUCH better cure-all than ice cream.

The point is, we’ve had a bottle of Freixenet Cordon Negro on tap since January. Think nothing of it.

But sometimes that bottle of champagne needs a little facelift.

This recipe is perfect for ladies brunching, cheers-ing newlyweds, commiserating a friend’s breakup…you name it!

Step 1: Create a simple syrup by heating up equal parts sugar and water. Cool this off in the fridge before you blend your cocktail.

Step 2: Peel yo peach!

If you are using a huge batch of peaches, it’s best to do the boiling pot method of peeling. However, since I’m the only one drinking the Bellini at the moment, I can peel a single peach with a potato peeler faster than I can boil water.

Magic!

Step 3: Pop that peach into the blender and pulse to a pulp! (Yay alliteration!)

Pulse that peach!

It will resemble baby food, but don’t even trip.

Step 4: Mix champagne, peach puree, and simple syrup. Serve and enjoy!

As always, in the words of Barefoot Contessa, “How easy is that?”

I really loved this cocktail. It’s like an elevated mimosa and all of your guests will be impressed. 🙂

Peach Bellini

You will need:

6 peaches

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1 bottle champagne (Prosecco and sparkling white wine also taste fabulous)

Heat water and sugar on stove until sugar has dissolved. Cool in fridge until ready to serve.

Peel peaches and blend into pulp.

Combine peach pulp, champagne, and simple syrup into pitcher and serve. Or pour a splash of each ingredient into champagne glasses to serve one at a time (this is my preferred method because everyone likes a different ratio of booze to fruit).

-Mads

P.S. I’m getting tipsy off of all of the bubbly floating around in blog land. Check out some of the other zippy drinks my friends have whipped up:

Raging Aztec Frappe (includes a KitchenAid giveaway!)

Peach Pie Prosecco Palmer

Raspberry Thyme Tom Collins

Traverse City Cherry Mojitos

Blueberry Smash Cocktail