Showing posts with label Hibiscus Flower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hibiscus Flower. Show all posts

11/24/13

Fresh Cherries and Hibiscus Holiday Sauce Recipe

Fresh Cherries and Hibiscus Holiday Sauce Recipe, a twist on a classic. Cherries and Hibiscus take the center stage this holiday . Sweet, Tart and Crisp as cranberries, cherries are available all year long and the hibiscus gives this sauce an unexpected but delicious touch #holidayfood #sidedishes #cherries #hibiscus
Hola Amigos: Today I'm mixing it a little bit and sharing with you a twist on side dish eaten by all throughout the holiday season, Cranberry Sauce. This year since I'm not hosting any of the holidays for family and friends, just my guys I get creative freedom when it comes to dishes and do things outside the can.
Fresh Cherries and Hibiscus Holiday Sauce Recipe, If you love cherries why not having them all year long, this vibrantly red sweet and tart sauce is as bursting with flavor and it's done in just a few minutes. #holidayfood #cherries #hibiscus #sidedishes
We only serve or eat cranberry sauce of juice when we have guests or we are sick, lol. This time of the year coincides with summer in my country so we instead of cranberry juice we have Hibiscus Cooler or "Saril" very popular drink around the holidays there. As refreshing and vibrant colored as Cranberry Juice Cocktail only a bit spicy since we add ginger to the infusion! Anyway, it is this Hibiscus Cooler concentrate infusion what I have used to prepare the base of this sauce.

It's not only good by itself, but goes great with ice cream, cake, pancakes anywhere where you use sauce you could use my plain Hibiscus Sauce.

To make it more festive and to resemble the whole cranberry sauce thing, I made a little cherry reduction with some sweet Moscato and mixed it all up!

The result made me skip dinner because I just got a bowl of my favorite ice cream and pour this still warm over it and at it all! Oh my guys! this stuff is addictive!
Fresh Cherries and Hibiscus Holiday Sauce Recipe, Sweet Tart Delicious just no cranberries but cherries and exotic hibiscus! Give this sauce a try this holiday and it will become one of your favorite side dishes! #holidayfood #sidedish #cherries #hibiscus

You can taste the sweetness and tartness of the hibiscus with notes of ginger and a bit of the Moscato on every cherry bite! yumm
Fresh Cherries and hibiscus Holiday Sauce, an alternative to the good ol' Cranberries is this delicious sweet and tart sauce. Vibrantly red and crisp in taste, give this new dish a try this holiday season! #holidayfood #cherrysauce #hibiscus #sidedish

I made enough of the hibiscus sauce to use for future recipes and this particular combination makes about 1 1/2 cup of goodness to have with your turkey or ham.
Thank you so much for visiting the blog today! I hope you enjoy this recipe a little bit our of the ordinary but delicious and easy to make. Remember my friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,
Lizy
Cherry and Hibiscus Holiday Sauce
Ingredients
For the Hibiscus Infusion and Sauce
1 Cup Hibiscus Flowers
6 Cups Water
1 Inch piece Ginger, peeled
1/2 Cup Corn Syrup
8 TBSP Sugar
1/4 Cup Fresh Orange Juice
2 TBSP Cornstarch
Directions:
In a large saucepan, bring 6 cups water to a rapid boil. Add hibiscus flowers, remove from heat and cover with a lid for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Using a large colander, separate the infusion from the flowers, but do not discard the flowers. They will be use to prepare something delicious soon.
Add 2 cups of the infusion, ginger, corn syrup and sugar to saucepan on medium high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Combine orange juice and cornstarch and add it to the infusion mix, continue cooking until the mix begins to boil, reduce heat at cook for abut 5 more minutes until the sauce coats a spoon. It will thicken a bit more as it cools.Remove and discard  ginger piece and  remove the sauce  from heat.
For the Cherries
1 Cup Fresh Cherries (could be frozen too), pitted
4 TBSP Moscato wine
1/2 tsp Orange Zest
In a small hot saucepan, add wine, cook for about 1 minute until the alcohol evaporates. Add cherries and orange zest. Cook until  the wine reduces to almost nothing, about 8 minutes. 
Add Hibiscus sauce to the fresh cherries, mix until everything is well blended. Serve and Enjoy!

Prep Time   20 minutes                           Cook Time 13 minutes                            Serves 2 Cups

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3/21/13

Very Berry Hibiscus Cooler

Very Berry Hibiscus Cooler, just like the one at the expensive coffee shop but even better, make more than 8 servings for only $3!
Hola Amigos! Almost the weekend..wow...can't believe how fast this week is going by! Good! the faster it goes the sooner we get to have nice afternoons in the yard, delicious brunch dates with family and friends and fun outdoor activities.
Speaking of Brunch with family and friends...this drink or cooler would be PERFECT for such occasion.
Where I'm from we have "Saril" (Sorrel, Hibiscus or Agua de Jamaica) mainly around Christmas time since it's when our summer season begins and all through the first months of the year when this little shrub is in full bloom  and we pick it's flowers right from our backyard's plants and  spend a couple of hours being careful not to get one of the prickly transparent thorns of the seed pod in our fingers! Ouch...those tiny little things are similar to the ones you find in cacti flowers!!!
Very Berry Hibiscus Cooler, just like the one at the expensive coffee shop for only a fraction of the price!

Note : The hibiscus flower for tea  is not that pretty bloom you find in Hawaii
The hibiscus flower you make tea and coolers with is a little shrub. I really don't know if you could make an infusion with the flowery type.

Here in the US, or at least in the state I live in, I haven't been able to find Fresh saril or hibiscus flowers just  the dried ones...which are just perfect for the drink or tea and   the ones Lipton sells previously bagged  or the coolers sold at Starbucks. Now let me tell you friends, I paid $3 for a 12 ounce Very Berry Hibiscus Cooler, and it was 6 oz of ice and maybe, maybe,..6 oz of some sort of light, transparent syrupy drink with what I think were berries of some sort floating around. I almost returned the thing and asked for my money back!


Instead I came home and made my version from scratch in 20 minutes and wrote this impromptu post  in hopes to benefit the wallets of any of my readers.
You won't be disappointed and from now on this will be the only way you will have your Hibiscus Cooler, I promise!
 Very Berry Hibiscus Cooler
(Starbucks Copy Kat)

1 Cup dried Hibiscus Flowers
1 inch piece ginger root (or more to taste)
3/4 sugar (or more to taste)

4 Cups of Water
1 Cup frozen berries
2 cups water

In a big pot and high heat add 4 cups of water until it boils, add the hibiscus flowers, ginger and sugar, bring to a boil again, reduce temperature to low and let it simmer, covered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool down to room temperature.
Once it's cooled strain the infusion, discarding flowers and ginger
In your blender, add 2 cups of water and 1 cup of berries, hit pulse  repeatedly until they're chopped in little pieces .
You will need a large pitcher now to integrate the infusion with your berry blend.
Listo,
Serve it chilled with ice and enjoy!

As with any tea or infusion if you find that you need to add a little more water or sugar to make it suitable to your taste, please feel free to do so.
Can you tell the difference? I got 1 1/2 QT of Hibiscus cooler and all for $3!!! The same price of just 12 ounces and oh! so much better!!!! (the flowers were only 1.99 and the fruit $1 at the dollar store)

Hibiscus flowers and therefore it's infusion is rich in Vitamin C and has been known to lower high blood pressure as well.

Just the delicious taste of it is worth the 15 minutes brewing time...watch an episode of your favorite show, at the end a delicious drink will be waiting for you!

I think my version looks a lot better in this cup...what do you think?


Thank You for visiting the blog today, and remember dear friends, everything tastes better (and it's a lot cheaper) with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,
Lizy

Sharing my delicious Tropical Cooler at these Fabulous Parties:
Married Filing Jointly
The Plaid and Paisley Kitchen
Hun...What's for Dinner
Pint Sized Baker
Love Grows Wild
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