winter Archives | Page 37 of 67

I envy those living in apple growing country. To be able to walk among the rows of trees in an orchard, their boughs laden with ripe fruit, sounds utterly perfect and magical. I have to make do with what I find at the grocery store since locally our climate isn’t the greatest for apples. And this time of year, the selection is full of heirlooms and lesser known varieties with fanciful names and sometimes unusual appearances. Step aside gala, I want ginger golds, pink pearls, and northern spies.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of meeting a pink pearl apple, I would highly recommend finding one immediately. Their skin is a rather unassuming shade of pale yellow with a pinkish tint. That skin gives way to a mottled rosy flesh that is utterly beautiful. It’s so striking in color that it becomes hard to believe it’s real. And even better than the color is the taste. It’s the perfect balance of sweet and tart with floral undertones. If it’s not obvious already, I’ve fallen a little in love with this apple variety.

I decided to use my small hoard of these beauties this past weekend to make an apple pie situation. What you see in the recipe below is the result of what happened organically in the kitchen as I set my hands to work. No preconceptions and no real plans other than something akin to a pie. So here you have it, mini rose apple pies.

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Bubbly Satsuma & Mint Mocktail (vegan/gf recipe) | seasonal plant-based recipes via The Sweet Miscellany Blog

Satsuma, grapefruit, and lemon juices are combined with mint and sparkling water for a simple and energizing mocktail. This batch-made vegan and gluten free mocktail is perfect for citrus season!

Often my eyes are bigger than my stomach at the farmers market. I literally want all the things, especially if it’s more of a rare item that only has a short growing season here. Back in January, I fell victim to this continual problem when I decided a gigantic bag of satsumas was a wayyyy better choice than buying several of them individually. Two people can consume 15 pounds of citrus before they go bad, right? Uh, wrong. So wrong. At one point I think I ate 5 or 6 in one day to help put a dent in what seemed like a growing pile. I haven’t been juicing much lately because I hate the wasted leftover pulp, but in an effort to use up the last of the satsumas that were staring me in the face every time I opened the fridge, I came up with a mocktail of sorts. To the juicer!

To balance the sweetness of the satsumas, I added in my last 2 grapefruit I picked from a tree on my sister’s street and a south Texas lemon. The resulting juice still had that characteristic orangey sweetness but with a kick of tart and bitter flavors as well. To provide a nice contrast and a cooling effect, I added some mint leaves to the party. The method for the mocktail is similar to a mojito in that you muddle the mint with a bit of sweetener first and top it off with sparkling water. But, instead of liquor there’s a hefty dose of glowing fresh citrus juice. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Too bad I drank (or noisily slurped) it all up last week.

As always with any of my recipes, feel free to modify as needed. Skip the added sweetener if you want or change the citrus line-up according to what you’ve got handy. The only thing I’ll encourage you to do is seek out local citrus if you can. Local goods tend to be fresher and support your local economy directly rather than a grocery supplier or big box farm operation. And, although I don’t have any alcohol in this recipe, please feel free to add what you like. It would be particularly lovely with some lillet blanc, tequila, or rum if that’s your thing 😉

Bubbly Satsuma & Mint Mocktail

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Author: Courtney West
Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4-6 servings
Diet: Vegan

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Description

Satsuma, grapefruit, and lemon juices are combined with mint and sparkling water for a simple and energizing mocktail. This batch-made vegan and gluten free mocktail is perfect for citrus season!

Ingredients

8–10 satsumas or clementines (about 2 cups juice total)
2 small grapefruit
1 lemon
large handful of mint leaves
honey or maple syrup to sweeten, optional
2 cans plain sparkling water

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Instructions

If you prefer to use a juicer, remove the peel/pith from the citrus and juice all of it together. If you prefer to do it by hand, cut each citrus fruit in half, then juice it with a traditional reamer style juicer.

Instructions for batch-making for a group: add all of the mint to the bottom of a pitcher and muddle it until it becomes highly fragrant. Pour the citrus juice over the top and any sweetener if you like. Stir well. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of juice to glasses filled with ice and top with about 1-2 ounces of plain sparkling water.

Instructions for making a single drink at a time: Add a few mint leaves to the bottom of a glass and any sweetener if you’d like to use it. Muddle the mint until it is bruised and very fragrant. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of juice to the glass, stir well, then add ice and 1-2 ounces of plain sparkling water.

Makes enough for 4-6 drinks depending on how small or large they are.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Category: drink