Homemade Apple Cider with Ashmead and Roxbury Apples

In my last box of goodies from Frieda's Specialty Produce, I had some apples that I'd never heard of before. So I looked them up. Both the Ashmead Kernel Apples and the Roxbury apples were a variety of Orange Pippin apple.

Which tells me about as much as I knew before. I'm really not savvy about apple varieties, to be honest. I go to the farmers market or the store and when I see an apple variety I'm not familiar with, I'll ask if it's good for eating, sauce or pie, and then I know what I can use it for.

So ... when I started reading more about these apples, the one thing they had in common was that they were good for juice or cider. The Roxbury was the sweeter of the two.

I tasted both of them, and either would be fine for eating as-is, but I was on a mission to use them for something other than my afternoon snack.

So, I thought, let's give this a whirl. Juice.

But how? I have a juicer, but the first recipes I found all called for cooking the apples, then straining. Hmmm. If I'm going to cook them, I might as well make sauce. Then I found recipes that made an uncooked juice - or, if we're being technical, a cider, since what I made wasn't clear - it included some of the finer solids from the apples.

The recipes I looked at all included a whole lot of other stuff - cinnamon, allspice, maple syrup - which sounds good, but I wondered if they were really needed. And, seriously, they're not things that have to be added to the cider as you make it. If you want maple syrup in your cider, you can add a tablespoon to your glass and just stir it in.

So, I decided to go with a minimalist version. And I was happy I did. This stuff is pretty darned amazing.

Fresh Apple Cider

4 Ashmead Kernel apples
4 Roxbury Apples
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups water
Sugar (optional)

Cut the apples in half and remove the core, stem, and any bruised or nasty bits. I didn't peel them, but you can if you prefer*. Cut the apples into chunks that your blender can accommodate. I used a Vitamix, but any decent blender should be able to obliterate some apples.

Blend the apples with water and the pinch of salt until you have a smooth mash. You'll probably need to do this in batches. Try not to add too much water. It's easier to add water if it's too strong, but if you have a weak cider, there's no remedy for that.

Strain the pulp through several layers of cheesecloth, or a clean, lint-free kitchen towel. Or use a jelly bag. Remember that you're keeping the juice and getting rid of the pulp! Let the mixture drip into a bowl. If you're impatient, you can squeeze or mash a bit, but you really want to avoid pressing too much of the solids through the bag.

Taste your cider and add sugar, if you like. Mine didn't need any. If you think it's too strong, add water now, if you like. If you'll be serving over ice, you might want to leave it as is.

As my juice sat, a thin layer of white sediment settled to the bottom of the jar. While it was edible (nothing there but apples!) it had a raw-starch taste. So once the settling was done, I simply decanted to a new container and got rid of the starchy-flavored stuff.

As for the remaining pulp, you could cook it and perhaps squeeze out more juice, or you could make apple sauce or apple butter. If that's your plan, I suggest peeling* the apples in the first step so your sauce has a better consistency, without bits of peel. Unless you like that sort of thing.

Cheers!

I regularly receive produce from Frieda's Specialty Produce for my use on the blog.

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Homemade Sour Mix

I've been making a lot of cocktails lately, so it makes sense that I'd want to make my own mixers. I have a soda siphon for making fizzy water, and I've made flavored simple syrups. But for some reason, I never thought about making a sour mix.

Which is sort of silly, since I like tart cocktails. Usually that means I'm squeezing limes for my drinks. But wen I got a copy of Summer Cocktails to review, I decided to make the sour mix recipe from the book.

But of course I had to put my own twist on it.

The standard recipe had one cup of lemon juice and one cup of lime juice, but there were options for sour mixes with more lime, with orange juice, and with grapefruit juice. I had a brand-new bag of limes and a bag of lemons, but I also had some ugli fruit from Frieda's Specialty Produce, so I decided to use one of them. Then I squeezed all the limes, and I got the rest of my two cups of citrus from squeezing lemons.

The resulting sour mix is tart and a little sweet, and it tastes fresh because it is fresh. I decided that I wanted the clearest possible cocktails, so I strained the juice before I mixed it with the sugar. If you want a thicker juice, don't bother straining.

Homemade Sour Mix
Adapted from Summer Cocktails by Maria Del Mar Sacasa

1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons finely grated citrus zest (from the citrus you've chosen to use)
1 cup water
2 cups fresh citrus juice (your choice)

Pulse the sugar and zest in a food processor until the zest is very very fine.

Put the zesty sugar and the water in a saucepan. Heat on medium, stirring, until the sugar melts. Take the pot off the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Add the fruit juice and stir to combine. Transfer to a bottle or jar for storage. You can strain it if you like, or leave it pulpy.

About the Book

I've acquired a few cocktail books, and some are for fantasizing about, and others are for making cocktails whenever I feel like it. This is the latter. It's less about hunting for exotic brands of liquor and more about having some fun with tasty combination.

There are some classics, and there are some more modern drinks. And there are variations of the drinks, so you can experiment a bit. There are classics like martinis and margaritas, and there are some new creations as well.

I have to say that I'll probably be using this book quite a bit. And I'm probably going to make the sour mix again and again, whenever I see citrus on sale.

I received the book from the publisher at no cost to me. I regularly receive produce from Frieda's Specialty Produce for my use.

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Pineapple Grapefruit-Rum Cocktail - perfect for an Easter brunch

A short time ago, I received the lastest new flavored rums from Captain Morgan - grapefruit, pineapple, and coconut.

As soon as I posted a photo of the rums on Facebook, a friend told me how great the grapefruit was. Interesting.

Of course I didn't take their word for it - I did a taste test. The grapefruit was indeed stunning. s soon as I opened the bottle, it smelled like grapefruit and the flavor was there, with a little hint of sweetness.

The pineapple was the one I expected to love, and it was really good, too. I can see a lot of interesting uses for it, even in cooking. A pineapple rum cake could be fun.

Then we come to coconut. Hmmm. I'm not a huge fan of coconut, but I tasted it, anyway. And ... it truly wasn't bad. It was actually good. It had the flavor of coconut, for sure, but it was totally drinkable.

How about that, hmmmm?

I probably won't seek it out simply because the pineapple and grapefruit would land in my basket first, but I'm definitely going to whip up some cocktails with the coconut rum. I particularly liked it mixed with the pineapple.

So then I started playing around with cocktails. this one is ridiculously simple, but it's amazingly delicious. It would be perfect for a brunch. Mix up a pitcher for a party or a barbecue.

I didn't garnish with anything, but it would be lovely with a skewer of fresh fruit, orange slices, cherries, or chunks of pineapple.

Or, you know, a paper umbrella, because those are just silly and cute.

Pineapple Grapefruit-Rum Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces Captain Morgan Grapefruit Rum
4 ounces pineapple juice* (or as needed), cold

Combine the rum and pineapple juice in a glass, garnish as desired.and serve. Yup, that's it. Two ingredients, and you're done.

Perfect for brunch, when you're busy with everything else that brunch entails.

You can add ice if you like (or if your juice isn't chilled), but I thought it was great without.

*Fresh pineapple juice is always preferred, but if you don't have a pineapple and a juicer, the frozen concentrate that comes in cans is pretty good.

There's also a pineapple-orange-banana juice that I like a lot - I think it would be great with this rum.

I receive products from the Captain Morgan family of products for my use in making cocktails.

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Irish Farewell - a cocktail

Apparently there's something called the Irish Goodbye, which, according to the folks at Smirnoff, is "a famed Irish tradition by ducking out of a party, social gathering or very bad date without bidding farewell."

I'm not Irish, but I've done that before. Not to be sneaky or impolite, but if the host of the party is busy or having a really great time, sometimes it makes more sense to quietly leave rather than disturb the host.

This is particularly true if it's a big party.

I've been in the situation where I've hunted for the host to say goodbye, and eventually I decide that I'll never win the hide-and-seek, so I leave and then contact the host the next day to say thanks for the great party.

Anyway, the folks at Smirnoff created a cocktail called the Irish Goodbye, which involves dropping a shot of Smirnoff Kissed Caramel vodka into a class of hard apple cider.

While that sounds like it could be good, I decided to spin it my way. I kept the Kissed Caramel (hey, they sent it to me, I figured I might as well use it) and I kept the apple flavor, but instead of hard apple cider, I decided to use a rustic apple juice - not the clear stuff that's all sugary, but a more substantial juice with great apple flavor.

Irish Farewell

Agave nectar or honey, as needed
Cinnamon, as needed
1 ounce Smirnoff Kissed Caramel vodka
Apple juice, as needed

Use a clean finger or a small pastry brush to coat the outer rim of the glass with a thin coat of of the agave or honey - this is just to create a sticky surface, so a light coat is all you need.

Sprinkle the cinnamon over the coating to crate a dusty rim. If you prefer a sweet rim, you could use cinnamon sugar, or plain sugar instead.

Fill the glass with ice, then add the vodka and apple juice. Stir and serve.

Smirnoff occasionally provides me with products to make cocktails on my blog. Cheers!

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Hot Spiced & Spiked Apple Cider

For the 37 Cooks challenge sponsored by Hamilton Beach, I wanted to do some kind of hot drink. So I started looking for recipes. I looked up glogg, grog, wassail, and mulled wine. And then I wandered around looking at a whole bunch of other warm cocktails.

What I found out was - everything goes, anything goes. The ingredients for each cocktail varied so much, it was hard to tell where one started and the other ended.

What one person called wassail was pretty close to warm eggnog. What another person called grog sure looked like mulled wine. Some concoctions were knock-your-socks-off alcoholic, while others were basically hot fruit juice.

There didn't seem to be any reason to riff off of a classic recipe, because I wasn't finding anything that looked classic ... or consistent. So I started with apple cider and added flavors I knew I'd like. If I was going to add one more thing, it might be cloves, since those tended to show up a lot in the mulled/spiced drinks, but I decided to leave them out since it seemed perhaps too common among them. I figured cinnamon filled that role nicely, and it gave me a good place to use some cinnamon sticks.

The flavor of this cocktail is reminiscent of apple pie, but the star anise add an interesting twist. It's pretty danged good, if I say so myself.

Hot Spiced & Spiked Apple Cider

1/2 gallon apple cider
1 cup white wine
1 cup rum
2 cinnamon sticks
1 star anise
1 orange

Put the apple cider, wine, rum, cinnamon sticks, and star anise into your slow cooker. Use a peeler to remove the zest of the orange in thin, wide strips. Place the zest in the slow cooker, then juice the orange and add the juice as well.

Cover the slow cooker and set it to high to warm the cider. The longer you cook it, the more the flavors of the spices will infuse into the cider, but it's pretty good as soon as it warms up.

Once it's hot, you might want to turn it down to low or warm if it will be served over a long period of time - you just want it pleasantly warm for drinking, so it doesn't need to be simmering when you serve it.

Leftovers can be strained and refrigerated and served chilled. Or reheat it for more warm drinks on chilly nights.

This recipe was developed using the Hamilton Beach Set & Forget programmable slow cooker which was provided by the manufacturer through the blog group 37 Cooks.

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Juicing! Three Recipes for Tasty Juices

Do you have a juicer? What do you put in it?

I use my juicer a lot for tomatoes. but now that the tomato season is over, there are other things to be juiced. I'll admit that one of my favorites is pineapple juice, but that doesn't mean I can't play around a little bit, right?

Pink Pineapple Thing
Makes about 3 cups

Pineapples are cheap right now, with piles of them at the grocery store. It's tempting to bring home a few extras. And then ... juice!

The pink color is from fresh cranberries, enjoying their short season (you could also use frozen berries, if you bought extra and froze them). The cranberries add their tartness, which is nicely balanced by the pineapple and the apple.

While the color is primarily from the cranberries, the flavor is mostly from the pineapple, but at the same time the color fools you momentarily, evoking watermelon before the pineapple says hello to your taste buds.

The nice thing about juicing a pineapple is that you don't need to completely peel it, and you don't have to core it at all. I remove most of tough skin, but I don't worry about getting all the eyes removed, as I would if I was serving slices. And I leave the core in.

Got leftovers? While this is intended as a morning juice or afternoon pick-me-up, it would be completely at home in a cocktail glass.

1 pineapple
12 ounces fresh cranberries
1 apple

Prep the fruit according to your juicer manufacturer's directions, and juice all of the fruits. Serve chilled.

Very Orange Thing
Makes about 1 pint

I usually juice oranges with a squeezer or a reamer, but I decided that since I was tormenting fruits and vegetables, anyway, it made sense to use the electric juicer, and I was very pleased with the results.

I peeled two of the oranges to get eliminate the bitter pith, but I left one unpeeled. This allowed the orange oil from the peel to make its way into the juice.

Meanwhile, carrots added sweetness and body to the drink, and making it heartier than a citrus-only beverage.

Ginger is a very strong flavor, so don't get carried away with it. If you don't get enough ginger flavor, you can add more, but once it's there, you can't take it out. I wanted the ginger to be a back note in this, so I was conservative.

Interestingly, I liked this better after it rested for a while in the refrigerator and the flavors mingled a little, but it was also very good when I first made it.

6 carrots, scrubbed or peeled
3 oranges, 1 unpeeled
1 piece of ginger, about 1/8 inch thick, 1/2 to 3/4 inch diameter

Prep the fruit according to your juicer manufacturer's directions, and juice all of the fruits. Serve chilled.

Green Thing
Makes about 3 cups

I'm not really into the super-green juices that taste like fresh lawn, but that doesn't mean I don't like green. This drink is a definitely green, and very refreshing. You can peel the cucumber, or not, depending on your preference and the type of cucumber you buy. If you don't peel the cucumber, the drink will be much more green than if you don't peel.

The lemon makes an appearance here to add some brightness, and this is the only one of the juices where I thought salt was needed. Without it, the cucumber flavor got lost and the juice tasted flat. A small pinch of salt made a huge difference.

I expected the fennel flavor to be stronger than it was. The predominant flavor here is the cucumber, with a little brightness from the lemon and a mingle of the rest of the other vegetables. If you're into garnishes, a dollop of Greek-style yogurt would be very appropriate here, with a fennel-frond stalk or a celery stalk as a stir-stick. Which makes a lot of sense, since my inspiration for this juice was tziatziki sauce.

2 large cucumbers
1 bulb fennel
1/4 lemon, peeled
1 stalk celery
1/4 green bell pepper
Pinch of salt.

Prep the vegetables according to your juicer manufacturer's directions, and juice all of the vegetables. Serve chilled.

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Gadgets: Magimix Food Processor

Let's face it, food processors have been around since caveman days. Okay, maybe not that long, but they've been around long enough that they're no longer new and exciting. And in all those years, the function hasn't changed much, which is why I never felt the need to review one. We all know what they do.

But when I heard about the Magimix food processor and its juicer attachment, I thought it was worth a closer look.

When it comes to kitchen appliances, people will sometimes ask whether they need a blender, juicer, or food processor, as though they all do the same thing. A juicer is a completely different beast than the other two. It mashes or shreds the food and separates the pulp from the juice.

While blenders and food processors have similar spinning blades, if your goal is smoothies and milk shakes, you'll get much better results from a blender than from a food processor.

Carrot-orange juice made with the juicer attachment.

The Magimix I tested came with a plastic insert that was to be used for blender-like operations. I gave it a try, and basically it causes the liquid to get thrown around a bit, just like what happens inside a blender.

I blitzed some ice and made some smoothies and shakes, and the result was just like I'd get from my blender.

But the thing that really intrigued me was the add-on juicer attachment. It fits into the bowl of the food processor and works like a centrifugal juicer, shredding and separating juice from pulp.

The major difference between this and a standalone juicer is that the juice and pulp don't eject from the food processor - the juice remains in the bowl of the processor, and the pulp stays inside the juicer attachment.

So, if you're going to make vast quantities of juice, you'll need to stop occasionally and empty the food processor bowl.

And, depending on how fibrous or pulpy your fruits and vegetables are, you might also need to remove the pulp that accumulates.

If you already have a food processor, it wouldn’t make sense to buy this just for the juicing feature, but if you’re shopping for a food processor and you want to do some juicing as well, this will save you some counter real estate.

Bonus is that while some juicers are seriously noisy, this is only as loud as a typical food processor while it’s juicing.

I received this item from the manufacturer for review. Words and opinions are my own.

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Home Made Tomato Juice

You know that tomato juice you get in bottles and cans? Do you know that it's a cooked-tomato product? Yup, it is.

How cooked it is depends on a lot of things. Like, who makes it.

I spent some enlightening moments reading labels of canned tomato products one day, and there were some surprising things.

For example, some canned tomato sauces are made from tomato paste. Think about that for a minute. Or two. Or, maybe if you've never made your own tomato paste, I should explain it.

It all starts from tomatoes. I like to run them through my juicer. That gets rid of seeds and gnarly bits of skin and leaves me with juice and pureed pulp.

And then, if I want tomato sauce, I cook it until it's the consistency of tomato sauce. Not so difficult. I just simmer until it's reduced enough. If I want tomato paste, I keep cooking it until it thickens to the consistency of tomato paste. What happens is that the liquid evaporates from the sauce and at the same time the tomatoes get more and more and more of a cooked flavor. Tomato paste is a little tricky because when it gets that thick it wants to burn. So usually I stop when I've got a nice sauce.

From a manufacturing point of view, it sort of makes sense to make tomato paste first, since it's more concentrated. Then, when sauce is needed, water is added to bring it back to the consistency of tomato sauce. Maybe the paste people store the paste until sauce is needed. Or maybe they ship paste to the sauce facilities. All I know is that some of the sauces listed tomato paste and water as ingredients. Some included flavorings as well, like onion powder, but that's besides the point.

The point is that if you have a tomato sauce made from tomato paste, the sauce will have a more-cooked flavor than a sauce that's reduced to just to the sauce consistency and then canned. If I want that deeper flavor, I use paste. I'm looking for something else when I open a can of sauce.

Not every tomato sauce was made from tomato paste. Not all had flavorings. Ya gotta read the labels.

What's even weirder is that when I went on my tomato-product-label-reading binge I found some tomato juices that were made from paste.

But ... but ... shouldn't tomato juice be the least-cooked product?

I think tomato juice needs a little cooking. But I don't think it needs to be turned into paste and then rehydrated. So when I make it, I cook it just enough to get it to the right consistency. And then I add just a touch of salt.

The beauty about making your own tomato juice is that you can make as much as you want. Make a quart or make a cup. Or make a couple gallons. Of course, this is something you want to make when tomatoes are cheap and good, but every once in a while there are good tomatoes, even in the dead of winter.

Or, think about this until summer, when tomatoes are at their peak.

Tomato Juice

Tomatoes
Salt

Prepare the tomatoes:

• I find that the easiest thing to do is wash them and inspect for bad spots and cut those out, then core them and run them through my juicer.
• If you don't have a juicer, there are other options. Blanch and peel them, then core them and blitz them in your blender. Then strain out the seeds.
• Or instead of blending in a blender, use a stick blender. Then strain out the seeds.
• Or, blanch, peel and core the tomatoes, chop them, and toss them in a pot. Cook until softened, then run through a food mill.
• Or, I'm sure there are other methods as well. You want to get to a point where you have clean tomato pulp and juice, without seeds and skin.

Cook the tomato juice: Put the tomato puree in a saucepan and simmer, stirring as needed, until enough liquid has evaporated so you have a product that's the thickness of tomato juice.

Depending on your original method for getting the puree, you might want to smooth it out a little with a stick blender. Taste, and add salt as needed.

Transfer to a bottle or jug and refrigerate.

If you want to can your tomato juice, check a canning book for guidelines. 

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Gadgets: HUROM Premium Slow Juicer/Smoothie Maker

This product probably wins an award for the longest name ever: the HUROM Premium Slow Juicer/Smoothie Maker ($399.95).

I reviewed a slow-speed juicer a year ago, and the juicing function on this one is similar. Rather than rapidly shredding the fruits and vegetables, this crushes them. It's a lot quieter than a high-speed juicer, and easier to clean because it doesn't have the sharp shredding teeth.

The difference between this and the previous juicer is that this one has a few extra features: a juice cap and a pulp control lever. The pulp control lever lets the user control how much pulp is ejected from the juicer, which controls how much of that pulp ends up in the juice. It's a nice feature, and since you can adjust it as the machine runs, in theory you could make a mixed juice with more mango pulp but less berry pulp, if that's what you're after.

The juice cap keeps the juice in the juicer until the cap is opened. At first, it seemed like an odd feature. Why would you want to keep the juice inside the juicer? But then I tried a version of one of the smoothie recipes that included a banana and some almond milk and some berries.

With the juice cap closed, the fruit blended nicely and I ended up with a smoothie much like one I'd get from a blender. Well, that was interesting.

After trying a few juicers over the past few years, I have to say that I prefer the slow-speed models over the high-speed, and this is a fine example of a slow-speed juicer.

Although I was skeptical about using this for making smoothies it worked better than I expected, and I liked the pulp control lever as well. Whether those features are enough to get rid of my current juicer and buy this - well, probably not. But if I didn't have a juicer and I was shopping for a new one, the added features in this model would certainly move it up the list.

The product was supplied for the purpose of a review on Serious Eats; this was previously published on Serious Eats.

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