Lemonade

Lemonade

Lemonade is the taste of summer. This sweet and sour refreshing drink is not just for kids. We have a Meyer Lemon bush in our yard, it surpluses me the lemons for most of the year, but it might run out this year if I keep making lemonade. 

I had the best  lemonade on my very first trip to San Francisco. We were sitting at a restaurant in Sausalito on a terraces over the water, a sunny January day, overlooking San Francisco - it was perfection. I spend this afternoon on my terrace reading and sipping lemonade.  

Here is my version of the perfect summer drink.

1 pitcher full 

Ingredients:

Simple syrup:

• ½ cup (1 dl) water
• ½ cup (1 dl) sugar

Lemonade:

• 3-5 lemons, the juice of (I used Meyer lemons)
• 3-4 cups water for diluting
• ice cubes

Direction:

Make the simple syrup first, by heating the water and sugar, while stirring until the sugar dissolves completely. Let the syrup cool down.

Juice the lemons. Pour lemon juice into a pitcher with water some simple syrup and ice cubes. Add more water and syrup to the lemonade to your taste

Enjoy.

Hot Chocolates

Hot chocolates

On a lazy sunday afternoon I stumbled over a tweet from madsymfonien with a hot chocolate with marshmallows and liquorice. It looked so good, and I had just bought marshmallows the other day, so I had to try to make it.

My hot chocolate was made from ⅓ milk chocolate, ⅔ dark chocolate and whole milk. I added three different sprinkles on top.

The first had freeze-dried  blackcurrant, which added a nice tangy flavory to the sweet chocolate. The second crushed Raw Liquorice Drops, giving the chocolate a nice liquorice aftertaste, without being overpowering.The third had a very light dust of Ghost Pepper, which added a hotness to the chocolate without being to hot. Actually this one was the best chili hot chocolate I have ever had. 

Mulled Wine - Gløgg

Mulled Wine - Gløgg

December 9th and time for another christmas treat. What could be good for a Monday? What about wine? Wine it is - mulled wine.

Mulled wine aka gløgg is the scandinavian version of mulled wine, and has been a christmas tradition for over a hundred years.

Back home with my parents we always had store bought gløgg and I loved it. I didn't know better. When we moved to California, I had to figure out to make my own gløgg extract. This is what I came up with after testing for a few years. 

It's a sweet spicy mix not too strong in alcohol. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Ingredients:

Extract:

• 750 ml water (3 cups)

• 4 tablespoons sugar

• 1 orange, zest and juice (add the juice after the extract has been strained)

• 1 lemon, zest

• 2 sticks of cinnamon

• 2 star anis

• 5 green cardamom capsules

• 10-12 whole cloves

• 7-10 whole allspice berries

Gløgg:

• 1 bottle red wine (Use a good red wine, it makes a better gløgg)

• extract (to taste)

• almonds, slivers

• raisins (soaked in port wine or a stronger liquor)

Directions:

Put the ingredients for the extract in a saucepan, let it simmer for about 5-10 minutes. Strain the spices and zests. Add the orange juice to the extract.

Gløgg:

Soak the raisins in port wine or a stronger liquor as snaps or cognac. 

Heat red wine and extract to 160-176℉ (70-80℃). Add the raisins and almond slivers. 

Serve in a nice mug.

Enjoy

Mulled Cider - Varm Krydret Cider

Mulled Cider

December 5th the cold weather is here to stay, and we need something to keep us warm.

Hot mulled cider, this lovely drink was all new to me 6 years ago. I thought that mulled wine aka glögg/gløgg/glühwein was a German/scandinavian thing. And adding warm spices to a non-alcholic drink, that was new to me, I'm sad to say. 😳

First time I had it was at a William-Sonoma store, and boy the got me hooked on that stuff. I love this when when winter approaches, and you need at hot strong drink to keep you warm. 

It has become a tradition to make hot mulled cider when we are having ebelskiver the weeks up to christmas. And to bee honest, I have the cider simmering on my stove almost every day. This fills my house with the sweet smell of christmas and it makes me very happy. 

Ingredients:

• 2 quarts good apple cider

• 1 orange, zest of half

• 2 sticks of cinnamon

• 5-10 whole cloves

• 5-10 whole allspice berries

• 1-2 star anis

• 3 green cardamom capsules

You could also buy a mulling spice mix, but I prefer mixing my own.

Directions:

Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan and heat the cider to a simmer. Turn down the heat, and let the spices steep in the cider for 5-10 minutes. Reheat the cider. Pour the cider through a sift into cups and serve immediately.

The Danish Version:

Varm Krydret Cider

Ingredienser:

• 2 liter god æblecider

• ½ appelsin, skallen fra

• 2 kanelstænger

• 5-10 hele nelliker

• 5-10 hele allehånde

• 1-2 stjerneanis

• 3 grønne kardemomme

Kom alle ingredienserne i en gryde og varm det op til kogepunktet. Skru ned for varmen og lad krydderierne trække i cideren i 5-10 minutter. Varm cideren op og si krydderierne fra. Server cideren med det samme.