Incredible India… Lassi November 19, 2009

I have mentioned lassis to you before… I shared with you my version of a mango lassi earlier.  But after having lassis in India during my past trip there, I realized my version of lassi is not that authentic.

Lassi is a yogurt-based drink very typical to India.  It is made out of plain yogurt churned with some fruit, typically mango, but I learned that it can be done with other fruits too.  But the fruit is minimal, because all the lassis I had during this trip are white and do not take on the color of the fruit being mixed in.

Lassis are typically drunk as an appetizer before a meal…   I drank them also during the meal to help cool of my taste buds of all the spicy Indian food.  I even had it as an afternoon snack… when everyone at the hotel bar was ordering drinks after taking in the sights of the Taj Mahal, I ordered myself a lassi.  The server laughed but found it endearing and as a sign of us embracing of Indian culture.  He also thought I was Indian…

I learned there are 2 versions of lassi – salted or sweet.  I only knew the sweet versions, which was preferred by everyone I asked.  I got to try the salted version during our 1^st breakfast in Agra.  Nothing special, just imagine a liquid yogurt sprinkled with salt.  It only helped me to cool down the spiciness of the dosas and chutneys I had that morning… other than that, I will continue ordering sweet lassi.

 

Also, lassis are made with a churner, like the one you see below, instead of a blender, like I do…  I guess that was why the lassis would take a little while every time I ordered them.

So, for a more authentic version of lassi… you can still follow my recipe, just add a tiny bit of fruit, to maintain the white color of the yogurt.  and you can add some pistachios on top… to resemble the one I had at the ITC Agra Hotel… super chic indeed.

Incredible India… Chai Masala Tea November 14, 2009

This is something I learned in this past trip to India…

Every time you visit a store or for breakfast you get offered tea.  And the tea they refer to is chai masala tea.  This is a tea made already with milk and seasoned with some kind of sugar/sweetener and a blend of spices or masala. 

The masala blend for the tea is usually a spice mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, ginger and sometimes even peppercorns.

I am not the tea drinker; Annie Mariel is the tea drinker here.  And the teas I usually drink are mostly herbal (chamomile, spearmint, linden, lemongrass, etc.) to avoid the caffeine in most teas.  But I was intrigued by this chai masala I was being offered all the time. 

I loved it… it is traditionally served in these clay cups.  Not to worry, the cups are disposable and used only once.  Even when you get seconds, the cups are never reused.  I was told the cup itself gave some flavor to the tea and that even a second pouring would not taste the same as the first one.  And when I had tea in a paper cup or in a regular china cup, it did not taste the same as that original clay cup.

     

The one-time clay cups are also the preferred way to drink lassi, I later learned.  I believe these disposable clay cups are partly the reason why there’s so much dirt flying in the air all the time… Imagine all these clay cups being thrown into the curbside, they get pulverized, the dirt then flies all over the place… you can imagine the picture.

But my love affair with this tea was short-lived…  I wondered why I had not been offered this tea during my first trip if it’s so popular everywhere in India.  The reason??  It has caffeine, and in the line of vegetarianism I practice, we avoid caffeine as it is a stimulant that is not beneficial to a healthy nervous system.

But it is sooooooo good, I am on a mission now to recreate this delicious chai masala tea in a decaffeinated version.   Just stay tuned…  OK?

Spearmint Infusion June 18, 2009

I learned to drink herbal teas when I was living in NYC… I started making myself chamomile and linden teas to help me go to sleep.  Chamomile and linden are both commonly used as relaxers.   Later on, I also started to drink teas as part of natural treatments – that’s how I got to know lemongrass tea, peppermint tea, Siberian ginseng tea, cold care mixes, etc.  

But I have never been too fond of hot beverages while living in Puerto Rico… I just start sweating after drinking any hot tea, for a treatment or not.   But, when I visited Israel in 2000 , ittle did I know I would fall in love with a tea… or an infusion, I should really say.  At the end of each meal we would be offered a mint tea – a handful of spearmint leaves in hot water; mix the water up with brown sugar or honey and you have the loveliest after dinner drink.  It helps in digestion and tastes awesome.  During our visit to Israel, I would finish all our meals with a few cups of that…

But since then I have learned to be very careful when asking for a mint tea… in a Middle Eastern restaurant or otherwise.  Because tea is really a specific plant that’s dried or cured and commercial teas out there mix that plant with other herbs to make flavored teas…  Tea usually has caffeine, the main reason I do not drink coffee or chocolate.  So every time I get the craving of mint tea after eating falafels, etc.  I am usually left with the unfulfilled desire for one…  And since that trip I remember with fondness those spearmint infusions. 

Spearmint is not as widely available here in Puerto Rico and when I tried to grow it here next the beach, the leaves get too bruised by the constant heat. But now, with my CSA box, I get spearmint grown in Aibonito on a weekly basis. So I can enjoy my spearmint tea while watching my TiVo…

 

 

 SPEARMINT INFUSION

2 sprigs of spearmint

About 1 ½ cups of water

Honey or Brown Sugar to taste

 

1. In a small saucepan with a cover, bring the water to a boil.  When water is boiling (or at least shows little bubbles in the bottom of the pan), turn the stove off.  Place the spearmint sprigs in the water and cover.
2. Wait for at least 15-20 minutes for the leaves to steep in the hot water.
3. Strain the leaves from the water into a mug and season with honey, brown sugar or even agave nectar…. your preference.

 

This is great as an after-dinner drink… they serve it at Le Bernadin in NYC.  They use French presses used to make coffee to present the spearmint leaves and water… when you press on the lever, then you’re left with the liquid infused with spearmint flavor.  Yummy…

Mamey Milkshake May 30, 2009

My best friend is Angie is in Miami right now… and as soon as she told me she was going there I said: “Please, drink a Mamey Milkshake in my name…”  Because God knows I crave one every time Miami is mentioned.

Mamey is a super sweet fruit reminiscing to a papaya.  It’s brown and kind of hard looking on the outside yet is super red and sweet on the inside.  The seed in the middle resembles a mussel.  It’s a very pretty seed indeed.    Some people in Puerto Rico call it sapote.  I call it simply mamey because that’s how it’s known in Cuba and how I was taught to call this fruit.  If you say just mamey in Puerto Rico you might often get another fruit that is similar yet not the same.  Here you need to specify mamey sapote.

In Miami you can get frozen mamey pulp to make milkshakes, which makes them very accessible year-round.  Fortunately and unfortunately, here in Puerto Rico you need to make them from the fresh fruit.  And it’s an expensive fruit here… sometimes I have paid up to $6 for one mamey.  So sometimes when I visit my family in Miami I bring a few frozen bags of pulp to indulge my mamey milkshake cravings.

 

 

MAMEY MILKSHAKE

¼ of the pulp of a mamey, about 1 cup of cut fruit

About 1 ¼ cup of milk – I always eye-ball this, never measure

2 tbs of brown sugar

A pinch of sea salt

¼ tsp vanilla powder

3 -4 ice cubes

 

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until frothy.

 

A mamey milkshake is one of the ideal accompaniments to a Cuban sandwich, or course now my preferred version is the Veggie Cuban.   Other appropriate accompaniments might be: a Frutabomba Milkshake or a Malta…

Salud!!

Lemongrass Tea December 31, 2008

One of my favorite teas is lemongrass tea… it’s calming, soothing and great as an after dinner tea.  I love it seasoned with brown sugar. And now that the weather is a bit chillier, it’s great to have a nice cup before going to bed.

The lemongrass plant is very easy to grow.  It looks like those grasses that grow next to the road…  Even though I’ve seen the hard part of the grass used in Thai cooking, I use the grass blades to make the tea.  Here’s a picture to familiarize you with the plant.

Just find yourself some lemongrass blades and it’s super easy to make the tea…

 

 

LEMONGRASS TEA

A small handful of lemongrass blades

2 cups of water

Brown sugar or honey to taste

 

1. In a medium pot, add water and lemongrass blades.  Cover the pot and bring to a boil.
2. After the water and lemongrass have boiled for about 5 minutes, turn off the heat and allow the tea to cool enough to drink.
3. Season with brown sugar or honey to taste

 

 

If you find lemongrass blades, you can easily freeze them to use whenever you want to make some tea.  I place them in freezer ziplock bags and keep them in the freezer and just take a few blades when you’re ready to boil them.

Beet and Lime Juice December 26, 2008

I remember the first time I tasted this beet and lime juice.  To me, it was the closest thing possible to what I remembered how Kool-aid tasted.  And it’s super easy and economical to make…  It also helps when you need to strengthen your levels of hemoglobin.

Try it…

 

BEET AND LIME JUICE

1 beet, chopped in small pieces

½ cup of freshly squeezed lime juice

¾ cup of brown sugar

Enough water to reach 1 gallon

 

1. You take the beet pieces and mix them with enough water to blend in a blender.  Blend as fast as your blender will go.  Pass the blended mixture thru a sieve.
2. Take the remainder beet from the sieve and blend again with more water.  Pass thru the sieve again and try to get as much liquid as possible.  Add the lime juice.
3. Blend the sugar with more water and pass thru the sieve also.  This will ensure there will not be any hard pieces of sugar in your juice.
4. Mix the remainder water and mix well.

Serve well chilled.

 

This juice is super easy to make, but it’s just a bit messy.  Look at my hands how they ended up.  But don’t worry, with a few hand washings, they’ll come back to normal.  This is also a great way to introduce kids to beets. 

 

                                                        

Coconut Water – The Wonder Drink October 17, 2008

I was getting ready to write a post about the wonderful cleansing effects of coconut water, based on my experience, of course.  But I also have to touch upon the fact that in NYC, coconut water is the rage…

Everywhere I went in NYC I saw coconut water – in the Chinese market in Queens, at the Food Emporium in Manhattan, at the Grand Central Market and even it was served at party I went hosted by a nutritional education program.  Apparently, it’s the hot cool drink of the moment.

It’s funny, because here in Puerto Rico, we are very familiar with coconut water.  Coconuts can be found anywhere and if you cut into one, more than likely it will have water inside.  But us, city dwellers, do not cut out own coconuts in search for their delicious, sweet water – we go to the Plaza del Mercado, the closest thing to a farmer’s market we have in PR.  At the Plaza del Mercado in Santurce, the one closest to my home, I go to the Juice stand and they sell the coconut water in ½ Gallon containers for $5, plus tax.

                                       

Coconut water is very rich in nutrients – potassium, calcium, among others.  There are many sites describing the diverse health benefits of drinking coconut water.  I have even heard that the higher the tree/plant where the fruit grows is, the more benefits it has for those who consume it… and you have seen how tall palm trees grow…

Coconut water also has a laxative effect when drank in larger quantities.  I use coconut water to cleanse my digestive system to get ready for our yoga retreats.  For these laxative properties to take effect you need to drink a ½ gallon of fresh coconut water (not the kind they sell canned or in aseptic boxes) in one sitting.  Drink it slowly, but steadily in one sitting or until you can’t drink any more.  You’ll start to feel how your intestines start moving and shaking.  I usually top it off with a Kiwi Juice to complete the cleansing effect.  Drink it when you know you’ll be able to stay home and with a bathroom nearby.  This is not the moment to decide to run errands.

If you live in NYC – I saw fresh coconut water at the Grand Central Market.  It was expensive – this little bottle was $2.99.  But I am sure that if you visit Spanish Harlem or any other neighborhood market that caters to a Latin/Hispanic community you might be able to find it cheaper and mot probably in larger containers.  Because you’ll need about 4- 5 of these little containers to get the desired cleansing effects.

I love this way of cleansing your system because you’re getting nourished while you’re cleaning.  For people with constipation problems, I would urge them to drink 16-20 ounces of coconut water on a daily basis and see what happens.  I am no doctor or medical practitioner, but I have seen the effects it has on me and believe me… you will become more regular if you drink this by the ½ gallon.

Try it… and let me know what effects it had on you.  Plus, you’ll be all the rage… how cool is that?

My New Favorite Juice – Pomegranate Juice October 9, 2008

I recently discovered pomegranate juice.  I hadn’t tried it before because the POM bottles were so outrageously expensive in my local supermarket store – almost $9 for a small bottle.  Thanks to my trusted COSTCO, now I can get delicious pomegranate juice at a more reasonable price.

I like pomegranate juice for several reasons…

• It’s deliciously sweet and tart at the same time. It reminds me a bit of cranberry juice.
• It’s has antioxidant properties.
• It’s great to drink by itself or to mix into fruit smoothies.
• It’s super refreshing in the summer heat.

But, just like yoga… this is something you need to experience.  If you have not had pomegranate juice, I urge you to try it.

My next step… doing something with the actual fruit.  They look so pretty and jewel-like…

Kiwi Juice October 3, 2008

I have often mentioned that I subscribe to the belief that our food should be our nourishment as well as our medicine.  And I know this is a COOKING blog, but our “regularity” is very much a part of cooking and eating, particularly for our well-being.  It is recommended and advisable to “go to the bathroom” as many times as you eat… meaning that if you had breakfast, lunch and dinner, at least you should have gone to the bathroom to eliminate 3 times in one day.  If you are going fewer times than the amount of meals in a day, you’re considered constipated.

A way to help keep your regularity, while ingesting healthy foods, is by drinking laxative fruit juices… juices made from scratch, preferably without any sweeteners and with as little water as possible.  If you have a juicer is even better.  My kitchen is too small, so I do it in a blender, which most of you probably have already at home.

My potion is Kiwi Juice.  Thank God, I do not have regularity issues, but when I want to “clean my digestive system”,  this is the way I do it…

 

 

 

KIWI JUICE

6-8 kiwi fruit, peeled and cut in quarters

About 1 cup of water

 

Kiwi juice usually scratches your throat so to minimize this, I try to use only seedless pulp for the juice.  If you do not mind the scratchiness, then go ahead and use the pulp whole.

1. Place the kiwi pulp in the blender…
2. I do it 2 ways…  if you do not mind the seeds – cut the kiwi in half and squeeze the pulp out into the blender jar.  You’ll be left with only the skin in your hand.  If you want to eliminate the seeds – cut both ends of the kiwi fruit.  Using a serrated vegetable peeler, peel away the skin.  Using now a paring knife, cut the kiwi in half and cut carefully around the seeds, trying to avoid them as much as possible.  Then dump into the blender jar.
3. Add water and blend well.
4. Drink it as quickly as possible in one sitting.

 

Other people I know use apple juice, pear juice or even melon juice…  I also swear by coconut water.  I’ll tell you about it some other time.  But the key here, to use this as a juice therapy is to extract the juice pure and drink it immediately.  This is not the type of juice you water down or keep in the fridge for days.  For it to work, you do it in the moment.

Good luck and I wish you a very regular day… everyday.

Antioxidant Shake September 19, 2008

Berries are the fruits with one of the highest contents of antioxidants.  Antioxidants are the substances that  help our body fight the effects of aging.  So, if you want to stay young and pretty, we need to consume foods with a high antioxidant content.

According to various sources, the foods with the most antioxidant content are:

• Berries - blueberries, blackberries, strawberries
• Broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Red Grapes
• Garlic
• Spinach
• Carrots
• Soy
• Whole Grains
• Tea

When I looked at the list I was pleased because I eat all of these foods on a pretty constant basis.  So I am well on my way to maintain my youthful appearance – hopefully!!

I want to share with you another one of my fruit smoothies that is chock-full of berries – perfect as a breakfast drink or as a late night treat too.

 

 

ANTIOXIDANT SHAKE

5-6 strawberries

2 handfuls of blueberries

8oz pomegranate juice

¼ cup of yogurt or kefir

2 tbs agave nectar

5-6 ice cubes

1. Mix everything in a blender and enjoy.

 

I love the berry flavor of this shake.  I also make it sometimes with pineapple juice and the taste is just as good.  I do not strain it, as the seeds tend to go to the bottom of the glass, but I would strain it if you add raspberries – their seeds are just to big and they feel grainy when drinking.

Mango Lassi August 18, 2008

When my mom turned vegetarian, one of the ways she maneuvered into getting me to like vegetarian cooking was to encourage me to take vegetarian cooking classes.   I never disliked cooking, yet it was something done in my house to appease your hunger, not something we had a passion for.

I learned to make whole grain rice, textured soy protein, some sort of potato pastelón, a basic cake recipe without using eggs and as a beverage I remember extra clearly, Mango Lassi.  I remember expressly because I had never mixed mango with yogurt before and it tasted DIVINE!!! 

Maybe the divine part was because Lassi comes from India – the land of deities and divinity.  It’s traditionally made with mangoes, which are plentiful in India, but it can certainly be made with any other fruit.  Lassi is nothing more than a fruit shake made with yogurt and ice.  I read there are versions with rosewater, pistachios, and other spices.  The funny thing is that I went to India 4 years ago;  I never had a lassi – plenty of mango juice, but no lassi.

My version of lassi is simple and very refreshing.  What I like about lassis is they’re great to prepare the digestive system to receive food.  It very well is the active cultures in the yogurt, or that it’s a way to consume fruits BEFORE food instead of as a dessert.  But no matter the reason, they’re just delicious any time of day, particularly in the summer heat.

 

 

 

MANGO LASSI

1 mango, peeled and diced

1 cup of plain yogurt

2 tbs agave nectar

3-4 ice cubes

¼ cup of water, to thin out the mixture if it’s too thick for the blender to process

 

1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender.  Blend it at the highest speed for about 1-2 minutes to make sure the mango fibers are broken very well.

 

Enjoy as an appetizer, as a snack or as a great breakfast shake.

Strawberry Lemonade August 11, 2008

August, by far, has been the hottest month in the Summer.  So to cool off I have developed a nice repertoire of refreshing drinks that will keep me cool.

To give a nice sweet twist to your regular lemonade…  add some fresh strawberries.

 

 

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE

The juice of 2 lemons – I prefer criollo lemons

About 1 ½ cups of water – this may vary according to the amount of juice your lemons yield

2 strawberries, hulled and quartered

2 tbs agave nectar

3-4 cubes of ice

 

1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender. 
2. Enjoy under a shady palm tree.

Citrus Punch August 1, 2008

This was a non-alcoholic drink I did for the Les Francophones get-together.  I wanted to have something light and refreshing if someone needed a break from the French wine they brought over…

 

 

CITRUS PUNCH

1 container of frozen passion fruit juice, thawed

2  12oz bottles of pineapple juice

1 cup of orange juice

1 bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider

1 cup of lime-flavored Perrier

 

 

1. Mix all the ingredients in a pitcher and chill in the refrigerator until your guests arrive.

Ode to the Tropical Cream Supreme July 24, 2008

When I was in high school, there was an Orange Julius in Isla Verde…  we would go every Sunday afternoon, after going to the beach the whole day, to cool off with a Tropical Cream Supreme.  This was THE BEST drink over at the Orange Julius.  It tasted like summer, sand and sun all rolled up into a delicious shake.   

I liked these shakes so much that my then boyfriend would buy and bring them to me almost every night when I was home-bound with the chicken pox.  I even bought once a Hawaiian Tropic suntan oil because it smelled just like a Tropical Cream Supreme.  It was almost an obsession… I know.

But that was then…  and suddenly, without even looking for it, I once again reunited with one of my high school loves – The Tropical Cream Supreme.  Let me show you how…

 

ODE TO THE TROPICAL CREAM SUPREME

1 banana

3 strawberries

1 cup orange juice

½ cup plain soymilk

3 tbs agave nectar

1 tbs bee pollen

3 ice cubes

 

1. Mix everything in a blender and enjoy it watching the sunset after a hot day at the beach. (sigh!)

 

The bee pollen is something I added on my own.  It was not included in the original shake, however it added certain sweetness and energy-boosting qualities very much in tune with my current lifestyle.  Try it… it’s available at most natural food stores.

SS Smoothie July 10, 2008

As you may have noticed, I’ve been making myself a lot of fruit shakes and smoothies lately, especially during the preparations for my yoga retreats.  I need to go thru days of preparations where I eat only salads, fruits and juices.  So when we have to prepare, fruit shakes are a great way to go.  Plus, it’s more appealing to me than eating one fruit at a time.

So the BB Shake does not feel too lonely with the quirky name… here comes the SS Smoothie.  This one has strawberries and spinach.  And again, the fruit flavors are sooooo awesome; you can’t taste nor see the spinach in the final product.   This shake is also very good friends of the Stealth Shake.  As you can see, after two attempts of incorporating spinach into my shakes, none of them have turned out green yet.  

 

 

THE SS SMOOTHIE

3 strawberries, quartered

A handful of fresh baby spinach

1 cup of pomegranate juice

A big squirt of agave nectar

3 cubes of ice

A bit of water , if the smoothie is too thick

 

1. Mix everything in your blender…  and enjoy.

Here’s a picture of the spinach and strawberries before blending – trying to give you proof that indeed there’s spinach in the mix and that I did not make it up.  Another lesson… Madelyn, needs to get a glass jar for the blender so the blog pictures can look better.  Same goes for the plastic cup I used to drink it.

BB Shake July 5, 2008

We definitely need to integrate more fruits and vegetables in our diets.   I’ve heard the saying that we need to eat “the rainbow” – eat food from all the colors of the rainbow throughout the day.

Let me give you an idea for purple… the BB Shake.  I am sorry if I am turning into Rachael Ray naming the inventions I create in the kitchen.  To be honest, I do it so I can keep track of them.  Because if I’d name everything only by the main ingredients it contains, the picture folder names would be ultra long.

No matter how I name it or you want to call it, this shake is GOOD!!!  The B’s come from the Banana and the Blueberries in the recipe.  So it’s basically a Banana Blueberry Shake.  You can make it vegan or not… just play around with the ingredients and enjoy a great breakfast drink full of antioxidants and potassium.

 

 

 

THE BB SHAKE

1 banana

1 handful of blueberries

¾ cup of pineapple juice

½ cup of yogurt or kefir – I use the plain kind, but vanilla would also work nicely

A big squirt of agave nectar

2-3 cubes of ice

 

1. Mix everything in a blender.

 

If you rather not consume anything dairy… this shake works equally well without the yogurt/kefir.  If the shake is too think, add a bit of water or extra juice and it should loosen up.

Stealth Shake June 26, 2008

I’ve been reading a lot about Green Shakes on the media lately… shakes that include a special, very nutritious ingredient to boost the nutritional value of the shake you’re drinking.

I was intrigued to know how this concoction would taste and I decided to give it a try…  I added all the ingredients I saw in a TV segment, but I was hesitant.  So before I turned on the blender, I added some berries to make sure the taste would be appealing to me.

The result…  The Stealth Shake.  All the nutrition of the green ingredient and all the fruity taste.  A very successful experiment indeed.

 

 

STEALTH SHAKE

1 banana, peeled and sliced

1 handful of fresh baby spinach

1 handful of blueberries, washed

2 strawberries, hulled and quartered

1 cup of pineapple juice

A squirt of agave nectar

2-3 ice cubes

 

1. Mix everything in a blender for a few minutes and enjoy!!!

 

Can you see the spinach??  And believe me – you’ll not be able to taste it either!!!!  It tasted super fruity and delicious.  A shake filled with antioxidants, this is a great way to include spinach into someone’s diet without them even know it… 

Papaya Juice April 11, 2008

I learned once you should try not to drink any liquids when eating.  In an ideal world, one should wait about 15-20 minutes AFTER having eaten to drink any type of liquid, especially water.  The thing is that when we drink while eating we dilute the stomach’s gastric juices and make it harder for our stomach to do its job.    Drinking while eating might very well be the reason why some of us feel full and bloated after eating, even after eating something light and healthy.

But there is hope for those of us how sometimes find it hard to eat without a drink besides our plate… we could drink fruit juices that contain enzymes and will actually help us digest the food more easily rather than slow our stomach in its tracks… these juices are:

• Apple Juice
• Pinneaple Juice
• Papaya Juice

And the way to ensure we are indeed taking in these enzymes is by making the juices from scratch.  And it’s easier than you might think…

 

PAPAYA JUICE

½ of a medium-sized papaya – peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

About 3 cups of water

¼ cup brown sugar – more or less depending how sweet your papaya is

 

1. Place the papaya pieces, sugar and water in a blender.  Blend until all is well combined and smooth.  The juice should be light in texture.  If you feel it’s like a fruit puree, feel free to add more water little by little.
2. Pass the juice through a sieve to make sure you get rid of any grittiness in the brown sugar.
3. Refrigerate well.   Drink the juice chilled, within 1-2 days. 

If the juice remains longer than 1-2 days in the fridge, it will still be good, but it could gel on you… just blend again with a bit extra water to thin out again.

Aniette’s Bull April 3, 2008

 Aniette has been my friend for many years now… since high school, now that I think about it.  We might not be in contact very frequently, but when we get together is like time has not passed by.  We have been with each other thru many good and not so good times and I am very grateful and fortunate to call her my friend…  Aniette is the original creator of the Sweet Red Pepper Dip - she was the one who showed me how to make it after a long guessing session trying to decipher what was the dip made off.  Aniette is also fluent in French… ever since high school she was reading full novels in French.  I invited her to our little French-speaking soiree, but she was planning a romantic weekend with her husband, so I could not really coax her into coming to my house to just speak French… no contest there.

But even though she was not here in person, she was with us in spirit… because the signature drink I served up at our French get-together was also inspired by Aniette – I had a version of this “bull” at a get-together we had at Chez Aniette a few months back.  I almost drank the whole pitcher by myself…  I was blown away by how delicious it tasted.

Why call it a “bull”??  I don’t know… Don’t shoot the messenger here, but in Puerto Rico we call a punch, like the kind served at the high school parties you see in the movies, a “bull”, pronounced “bul” – short U and short L.  And a punch bowl is called a “bulera”.  Hey… I don’t make this stuff up.  Besides, this will be a fun anecdote to tell around the “bulera” the next time you’re invited to a party, no??

This is an adaptation of Aniette’s original recipe, because I could not find all the ingredients I wanted for the original version… but the alternate was a hit as well, and so, I still give Aniette full credit.

ANIETTE’S BULL

1 can frozen passion fruit juice concentrate

16oz of guava juice

8oz of grape juice

8 oz of orange juice

1 bottle of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider – non-alcoholic

1. Allow the frozen concentrate to thaw out a bit in the fridge.
2. Mix all the ingredients in a pitcher.
3. Serve chilled over ice.

Frutabomba Milkshake February 1, 2008

Until I was in high school, the I knew the fruit you know as papaya only by its Cuban name – Frutabomba.  

 My dad taught me how to make frutabomba milkshakes, a true Cuban drink delicacy.  It’s smooth, creamy and the perfect accompaniment to a Cuban sandwich (made the vegetarian way, of course) or even a TuNo Salad Sandwich.   I had it this morning for breakfast.

 

FRUTABOMBA MILKSHAKE

1/4 medium-sized frutabomba (papaya), peeled and seeded

1 cup milk or soy-milk

1 1/2 tbs brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder

pinch of salt

3-4 ice cubes

1. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Enjoy immediately.

Do not omit the salt… it’s the secret ingredient that makes the milkshake taste awesome.  You could substitute the milk for yogurt or kefir, but the taste will not be the same.