Experiments with Currants; Good and Bad

'Champagne Pink' Currants

I guess one never really knows how a thing will turn out. Even basing one recipe on another that was a success does not guarantee perfection. So here's what happened. A friend asked me to come with her to an older gentleman's house to pick vegetables from his wonderful garden. Turns out, he loves the planting and care of the garden, which is huge, but is not as interested in trying to eat all that produce. The garden is a veritable paradise; everything laid out in perfect rows, or caged to grow upwards. Everything perfectly weeded. Neat and tidy and just bursting at the seams with great produce. Aside from just vegetables, there are fruit trees and other wonderful bushes, like the "Champagne Pink" Currants.

My friend raved about the currants, and how pretty they are and how good to eat, but she said she didn't have the time to devote to picking the little things. So, when we arrived, I took it upon myself to pick currants. They are so pretty it almost hurts. They look like little pearls; palest pink. They hang on the plant like little strands of pearls, too. Just the prettiest sight ever. I spent the entire time there picking these little gems, ending up with 3½ pounds of them.

'Champagne Pink' Currant Dehydrator Jam

Okay, so what to do with them? I have made jams and jellies in past. I have also made freezer jam with Sure Jell, and made dehydrator jam when I was on a RAW food diet. Since it is wise to watch the sugar intake, I decided to take the route of making dehydrator jam. I hadn't used the dehydrator in some time, so I dusted it off and got to work. I cleaned all those tiny fruits, and in batches I whirled them in the food processor. Unfortunately the seeds are large, for such tiny fruit, and quite a distraction, so I decided to pass them through a strainer. I added in some honey for sweetness, since the fruit is tart, with the belief (wrongly) that once the fruit dehydrated down, the honey sweetness would become more apparent. Long and short, I ended up with 6 cups of puree with honey. I divided it up between two old Tupperware marinating containers; low and flat. I set them in the dehydrator at 5 PM, and let it run through the night. I pulled the containers out to stir them at 10 PM, and then again at 5 AM. They were still a little too runny at 5 AM, so I left them until about 8. I ended up with a grand total of 2½ cups worth.

'Champagne Pink' Currant-ade

I tasted my wonderful pink jam. OMG. It was so mouth-puckeringly tart. No way would most people use this. And then I thought what a terrible waste of so much work picking all that fruit, to end up with a jam that was inedible. Well, not totally, because I like it okay. But it is really tart. So, how could I use it? The first thought was that since it was a very tart medium with only a little sweetness, it might make a lemonade type drink. This was a wonderful bit of serendipity. It did taste quite like a lemonade in its tartness. I used 3 tablespoons of the jam in a 12 ounce glass of water. It had a lot of pulp that wanted to settle, but it was wonderful and refreshing.

My next thought was to make some kind of ice cream like dessert. I made a RAW Cashew Currant "Ice Cream", in quotes because it used no cream or dairy. I had soaked the cashews ahead and put them in the food processor with ½ cup of the currant jam and more honey. I added a little vanilla and ginger and processed the mixture till fine and chilled it. I put it into my old DAK Gelatissimo and oh, it was good.  Okay, 2 for 2.

Cashew Currant Ice Cream

That night I made pork chops. I have often made pork chops by setting them in a cold fry pan and heating up to medium high. I season the top with salt and pepper and once browned underneath, flip them over and season that side, adding in chopped garlic, either rosemary or sage and some Marion blackberry jam. The pork chops are just divine this way. So on the basis of that idea, I made my pork chops and used 1 tablespoon of my dehydrator currant jam on each pork chop, with sage as the herb of choice. The pork chops were just wonderful. The fruity flavor came through brightly. The whole combination was just perfect. So far that is all I have done with my too tart Champagne Pink Currant Dehydrator Jam. My next thought is to try making a frozen granita. I will see where that takes me.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Delightfully Different Beverages from Guatemala

When I lived in Guatemala, I became enamored of a variety of delicious beverages commonly found anywhere down there. Whether in a restaurant, visiting or at home, the sheer variety of unusual things to drink astounded me. Three in particular are ones I want to write about here. One is a hibiscus drink made from the Roselle hibiscus, Hibiscus sabdariffa, or "Rosa de Jamaica" as it was called in Guatemala. Another is called Horchata and is made with raw rice, cinnamon and sugar. Beverages similar are served in many countries, but making it fresh, it is so delicious. The third is tamarind. Tamarind is known all over the world and is probably used more in cooking than as a beverage. It is used in Indian chutneys, African dishes, Caribbean foods. As a beverage, it is easy to  make and a wonderful alternative to lemonade. 

Discover the flavors of these three delicious and healthful beverages. Seek out the ingredients and see what you may have been missing.

Rice and Almond Beverage

This is a very refreshing drink made from mainly rice. In Guatemala it is called "Horchata". The rice is simply soaked, not cooked, and with the addition of a few other ingredients, it is great on a hot day. It is lovely for a party, if alcohol is not a choice for some. I once served it at a baby shower.

The benefits of this beverage is the fact that one is extracting the goodness and nutrition from almonds, rice and sesame seeds. If only water is used for the liquid, there are no extra calories from the milk. Almonds are low in calories in comparison to many other nuts and good for you. Sesame seeds are quite high in calcium.

Horchata

Horchata

Makes about 4½ cups

4½ tablespoons uncooked rice
3 tablespoons raw almonds
3 inches "true" cinnamon (look in Mexican
markets, or Mexican section of the grocery)
3 tablespoons cantaloupe seeds (dry and save), optional
4 tablespoons sesame seeds (raw, unhulled)
6 cups water (or 3 c. water, 3 c. milk)
¼ - ½ cup sugar, as desired

Soak the rice in water to cover for at least 4 hours. Rice remains uncooked. Wash it well and put into a blender container along with the almonds, cinnamon, melon seeds, sesame seeds, sugar, and about ½ of the liquid called for. Blend till everything is very finely ground. Strain the liquid into a pitcher and add the remaining liquid, stirring well. Chill before serving. Serve over ice, if desired.

NOTES: This recipe calls for melon seeds. I have never seen a recipe call for melon seeds before, but they are easy enough to harvest from a nice cantaloupe, when cutting and slicing. Rinse the seeds well, pulling out any bits of melon that cling. Allow them to dry out completely before storing in an airtight jar.

Sweeten to taste, starting with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and add more as needed as per your preference. The Horchata beverage may be sweetened with honey, agave syrup, Stevia or any other sweetener preferred.

Roselle Hibiscus and Beverage

Roselle Hibiscus calyxes

Roselle: Hibiscus sabdariffa is a species of Hibiscus native from India to Malaysia, growing best in tropical and sub-tropical regions up to about 3,000 feet and requires good rainfall.

It is an annual, erect, bushy sub shrub that can grow to 8 feet tall, with mostly smooth and usually red stems. Leaves are alternate, about 3 to 5 inches long with reddish veins. The flowers are 3 – 5 inches in diameter, pale yellow or buff colored with a dark red spot at the base of each petal. The flowers mature to have a stout fleshy calyx at the base, fleshy and bright red as the fruit matures over about 6 months. The leaves are used in some countries like a spicy version of spinach. The fleshy calyxes can be chopped and cooked with sugar, yielding a condiment much like cranberry sauce.

The beverage as made in Guatemala, is made from the calyxes of the Hibiscus sabdariffa plant, often called Roselle Hibiscus (as in "hibiscus tea"). They are deep red and fleshy when fresh. Once dried, the calyxes are packaged and found in many health food stores. They may be ordered online or Mexican groceries often carry them, as they are common in Central America. In Guatemala these are called Rosa de Jamaica, or Jamaican Rose. The hibiscus plant bears small, pale yellowish-white hibiscus flowers, with a deep red center. The plant is not grown for the small flowers, but for the fleshy calyxes. These calyxes can be eaten raw in salads, but in Guatemala they are most often found dried, and used steeped in hot water to make a healthy beverage which can be served hot or over ice.


Rosa de Jamaica

These calyxes are high in vitamin C. They are high in citric acid, tartaric acid and malic acid as well as flavonoids such as cyanidin, giving them their deep red color. Most countries that cultivate and use these calyxes also consider them medicinal. Some believe the tea can help with coughs. Some studies have been done claiming that drinking the tea helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol. In Guatemala it is considered a hangover remedy. Since the tea helps break down complex sugars and starches, there may be some basis in fact. As the calyxes brew a tea high in Vitamin C, it is good to drink to fight off colds and strengthen the immune system.

Rosa de Jamaica

Makes 1 quart

1/3 to ½ cup dried Rosa de Jamaica
4 cups boiling water
¼ cup sugar, more, or less to taste

Place the dried Rosa de Jamaica calyxes into the boiling water and allow to steep for 20 minutes or so. Strain and sweeten to taste. Chill and enjoy.

Tamarind Beverage

Tamarind Pods and inner fruit

Tamarind, or Tamarindus indica, is known throughout the world and is possibly used in cooking more often than as a beverage. While not actually a spice, this sweet tart fruit is used like a spice to flavor foods all around the world. Its flavor is a component of Worcestershire sauce. It is commonly used in Indian chutney. Tamarind is native to tropical Africa, and also grows abundantly in India but has spread around the world. The name tamarind comes from the Indian words Tamar Hindi, meaning Indian Date. The tamarind was introduced into Mexico and the Caribbean sometime around the 16th century. The tamarind tree can grow to a height of around 80 feet in its preferred climate. The tree appears feathery, with tiny leaflets down each side of the stems. These leaflets close up at night. The fruit grows as brown pods. They have a brown, brittle shell, rusty brown, sticky pulp and may contain from 1 to 12 large, flat, glossy brown seeds. The pulp is very fibrous. The flavor is quite sour and tart, making it excellent for use as a refreshing beverage, much as lemons for lemonade. Tamarind is used to make a most refreshing and thirst quenching beverage in Guatemala, Mexico and other areas of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Tamarind is both sweet and sour at the same time. It is a potent flavor, best used somewhat sparingly unless you are quite accustomed. It is a wonderful addition to any sweet and sour dishes, and is an ingredient in Worcestershire sauce. In Southeast Asian cooking, it is a flavor often combined with such other ingredients as garlic, dried shrimp, coconut and chilies. Pad Thai is one commonly known Thai dish using tamarind.

In India, it is used to make delicious chutney, as well as a Tamarind Rice or South Indian Fish Curry. In the Caribbean islands it is often used in cooking seafood. Small amounts of tamarind paste are used in sauces for dishes containing cassava, chickpeas, potatoes or rice with greens. It can be used to make sweet and sour sauces, mixed into recipes with both sugar and pepper, mixed into barbecue sauces, made into beverages, desserts and candies. One common use for tamarind is in sauces, which gives control of the amount used.

Tamarind is a good source of antioxidants, containing carotenes, vitamin C, flavonoids and B vitamins. They protect against vitamin C deficiency. Tamarind is good for digestion. It can be made into a gargle for sore throat. It is said to lower cholesterol and promote a healthy heart. It is very high in potassium and provides a great supply of calcium, unusual in a fruit.

Tamarind can be found in its pods at some international markets, or in compressed cakes or in concentrate or paste form. For this recipe, use either whole pods or the compressed cake version.
 

Tamarind Beverage - Agua de Tamarindo

Agua de Tamarindo

Makes 1 or 2 quarts

1/2 pound tamarind pods or cake
1 - 2 quarts of water, as needed
sugar or sweetener, to taste

Peel pods, cracking off the brittle shells, if whole. Soak the fruit or compressed cake in at least 1 quart of water for about 2 hours to soften. With scrupulously clean hands, break apart the pulp, freeing it into the water. Strain the mixture and add more water if desired. Less water makes a more concentrated beverage. Add sugar or other sweetener as needed.

Chill or pour over ice to serve.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Tea or Tisane?

Everyone knows what tea is, right?  Tea, technically, comes from the leaves of one plant: camellia sinensis. Anything other than the leaves from this plant is not actually tea, although “tea” is often used as a catchall word to include all the different herbal beverages used these days. 

Legend has it that tea was discovered long ago in China quite by accident.  Some leaves from a nearby plant blew into a cup of hot water; a nice brown colored beverage resulted, was found to have a refreshing taste, and tea was born.  However it was discovered, tea is very refreshing, whether it is black, green, oolong or white.  Tea has been proven in more recent times to have wonderful health benefits.  We have all heard of antioxidants in tea, helping to fight free radicals that can cause harm to the body.  Tea is far lower in caffeine than coffee.  It is refreshing, whether used hot or cold. 

Golden Tippy Black Tea, brewed

There are various types of tea, all beginning with the same leaves.  Black tea is created by bruising or crushing the green leaves to expose them to oxidation and allowing them to ferment, then rolling the leaves and drying.  This produces a beautifully colored beverage and has the strongest flavor of all the varieties of tea.  Oolong tea (pronounced ‘OH-long’) is oxidized and fermented the same as black tea, but only for about half the amount of time and the resulting product is a lighter, more reddish beverage with a flavor all its own, somewhere in strength between black tea and green tea.  For green tea, the leaves are heated immediately, stopping the fermentation process entirely, then dried and rolled.  It produces a lovely light colored beverage, and is said to have the most health benefits.  The processing of white tea is similar to that of green tea, but only the unopened buds of the leaves are used.  It has the same health properties as green tea, but the flavor is the lightest and most delicate.

Golden Tippy Black Tea Leaves

Good quality tea is a wonderful beverage.  Whole rolled or twisted leaves are the best quality; the smaller the leaf, the higher the quality of the tea.  The top grades are called Flowery, Golden Flowery or Tippy.  Seconds, termed “Choppy,” are the leaves that have broken into smaller pieces.  They brew a great tea, and are usually less expensive.  The smallest particles leftover from the tea process, called “Fannings”, are what is used in tea bags.  It brews tea of course, but once tasting a tea brewed from a wonderful full leaf Darjeeling Black Tea, for example, it is hard to return to a tea bag for optimal flavor. 

“Orange Pekoe” (rhymes with “gecko”) is a western terminology applied to a grade of black tea; the word orange in the name has nothing to do with flavor, but could be a reference to the Dutch House of Orange using the name Orange as an implied “seal” of some sort.  Pekoe may be a westernized interpretation for a Chinese word meaning “white hairs”, referring to the fine white down on the tea leaves.

So, what are herbal beverages called?  Herbal beverages are called tisanes, and may be prepared by different methods; usually infusion or decoction.  It is incorrect to apply the term “tea” to anything infused or decocted, although tea is actually infused.  Infusion is the preparation method of choice for leaves, flowers or buds; plant matter that will release its properties easily into a drinkable beverage.  Placed into heated or boiled water and allowed to steep, the herbs release their goodness into the water, and then are strained out.  Decoction is the method used for harder or denser plant materials, such as roots or barks that take longer to release their flavors or health benefits.  With a decoction, the plant materials are brought to a boil, simmered gently for 15 minutes or more allowing the liquid to reduce, and then straining.

No matter which you prefer, tea or tisane, for pure enjoyment or for health benefits, look for the best quality.  Discover your favorites among the different types of loose teas.  Taste the different herbal tisanes and discover new flavors.  Above all, enjoy! 

My passion is to teach people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and help pass along my love and joy of food, both simple and exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, trying new things weekly. Join me at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook and Pinterest.