Sick of Oatmeal? Try Buckwheat Groats

Since I read and wrote about Carolynn Carreños' book Bowls of Plenty, I've been a little fixated on breakfast bowls. Initially, having had no time to play around with the idea too much I took what I had--oatmeal--and livened it up with yogurt, toasted walnuts, and a dollop of honey. Then I branched out à la Trader Joe's with a canister of their Organic Multigrain Hot Cereal, a mix of rye, barley, oats, and wheat. I topped that with this tangy Bellwether Farms vanilla sheep's milk yogurt that I love, along with blueberries and honey. That's been my staple for weeks now.

But while at Whole Foods recently I was eying the grains they sell by bulk and came across buckwheat groats. Now these aren't exactly foreign to me. I grew up eating kasha (buckwheat groats) varnishkes. This is a traditional Eastern European Jewish dish that combines the toasted kasha with bowtie noodles (the practical Jewish American translation of the "varnishkes") in a heavenly mixture of onions and mushrooms sautéed in chicken fat. It has a distinctive nutty aroma from the kasha that becomes one of those childhood memories that never leaves you.

Out of that nostalgia I filled up a bag with the buckwheat groats and took it home. And kept staring at it as I tried to decide how to enjoy it. I finally concluded I'd use part of it to make a breakfast bowl.

Dutifully I soaked them overnight to help speed up the cooking process. The next morning I put the now slimy groats into a colander and rinsed them well. Then into a small saucepan they went to toast a little on the stove. Once I got that wonderful aroma I added milk (You can use water if you don't want the dairy; I like the creaminess it creates), a pinch of salt, and--get this--pumpkin pie spice. Yeah, you know that little jar you pull out once a year to make your pie (and that you really should toss because it probably no longer has any flavor)? Well, if you just bought it last fall for Thanksgiving this is a great way to get additional use out of it. After all, what better way to enjoy a porridge than by flavoring it with cinnamon, ginger, lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom? No pumpkin pie spice jar? No worries. Just toss in a half stick of cinnamon.

Okay, so the groats are mixed with milk, salt and the pumpkin pie spice. Bring the mixture to a simmer and keep stirring until the liquid mostly evaporates. Now if you read other instructions for making porridge--with oatmeal, buckwheat, or other grains--they'll probably tell you to cover the pot during this stage. My advice is don't do it. You will (especially if you have an electric stovetop) experience major bubbling over that's a drag to clean. Just keep the lid off, monitor the heat, and stir until it reaches the consistency you like.

Pour the buckwheat porridge into bowls and add a little sweetener. It could be honey, brown sugar, molasses... whatever you like. I mixed in a couple pinches of maple sugar. Then I topped it with low-fat vanilla yogurt and a handful of blueberries. You can change your toppings with the seasons--toasted nuts, berries, chopped figs, sliced bananas, toasted coconut, raisins or other dried fruit all work well.

And I have more cooked porridge to warm up for tomorrow.

Buckwheat Groats Cereal with Yogurt and Blueberries
(printable recipe)
Serves 4

1 cup buckwheat groats
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or half a cinnamon stick)
Pinch of sea salt
Sugar or other sweetener to taste
1 cup yogurt
1 cup fresh blueberries

1. Soak the buckwheat groats in a bowl of water overnight. The next morning, pour them into a colander, rinse them under cold water to remove the slimy texture, and drain.
2. Place the buckwheat groats in a saucepan on a stovetop and toast them while stirring until you can smell a nutty aroma--just a couple of minutes. Then add the milk, pumpkin pie spice, and sea salt. Stir well and let the mixture come to a simmer. Adjust the heat so it doesn't boil over and stir periodically until most of the liquid is absorbed.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in your sweetener. Spoon the cereal into bowls and top with yogurt and then berries.






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That Smart & Final Extra

Like many neighborhoods around San Diego, my community, Tierrasanta, has been living for months with the discomfort brought on by the Haggen debacle. We started out with an Albertsons, which, by my reading of posts on the community website NextDoor, was generally beloved. Then it became Haggen--and was fairly quickly despised. And then, of course, Haggen went bankrupt. In the auction that followed Tierrasanta became slated for a Smart & Final Extra, which was also highly debated on NextDoor. While we waited for that store to open, we were left with a tiny Vons with its equally tiny parking lot and an even smaller local market called Primo Foods.

Now I've never been a huge supermarket fan, so the absence of Albertsons/Haggen didn't affect me too much. I tend to roam between Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and farmers markets. But I carefully watched the very emotional discourse on NextDoor, as neighbors argued alternately that the presence of Smart & Final Extra would sink local property values, that with its bulk foods wasn't an appropriate store for a residential community, and that it was amazing, fabulous, wonderful as experienced by others who had shopped at them in other cities or read about their plans.

Smart & Final Extra opened in Tierrasanta on March 9 and I stopped by. I had no expectations. I'd been to the regular Smart & Final in Clairemont only a few times over the years. It would never have occurred to me to shop there for regular grocery items. I had read a promising piece about the Coronado Extra that opened recently, so perhaps it would be a good thing and Tierrasanta wasn't being dissed because we didn't get a Gelson's, something neighbors were a bit upset about.

Smart & Final describes the chain as a "warehouse-like supermarket chain for produce, meats & packaged foods, plus discounts on bulk items." What I found was your basic commodity-stocked  market.

Yes, there's a produce department and a small organic department within that.

The signs clearly read that they buy from local growers. I took that to heart when I picked up some cluster tomatoes. After all, they were sitting on a bin that shouted local. But when I looked at the labels, it showed that the tomatoes were from Mexico. Yeah, you could argue that Mexico is local, but c'mon.

On the other hand, one of the shockers in the produce department given its limited real estate, was that fresh garbanzo beans, usually found at Mexican markets, were for sale. Yeah, they're from Mexico, too.

My pendulum kept swinging back and forth like this as I went through Smart & Final Extra. No deli counter, butcher, or fresh bakery. I suddenly had an urge for Thomas' English Muffins so I cruised by the bread aisle (also hoping against hope that perhaps they would also carry Bread & Cie products like many local markets). The bread aisle was fully commoditized and had that distinctive bread-in-plastic-bags aroma. Yes, they had the muffins, but only the original variety, not the sourdough I wanted. But if you want Original Thomas' English Muffins, they have stacks and stacks of them--enough for the whole neighborhood!

I was happy and relieved to see they carry the organic milk I like and that they have organic, cage-free eggs.

And Bob's Red Mill products.

But how much shredded or cubed cheddar does a family need all at once?

Hurray! They sell Meyer's products!

And also 50-pound containers with a variety of lards and shortenings. I guess Tierrasantans can't have too much donut fry shortening.

Or too much red food coloring. Or iodized salt packets.

I did end up picking up some things--milk, eggs, the garbanzo beans, onions, some sad old garlic heads, the English muffins. When I went to check out I saw that each register aisle was named for a Tierrasanta street. Strange but I suppose it will make community shoppers smile. Unfortunately, it felt like the most local thing about the market.

My sense is that the store and its products will evolve as it settles in and locals make their needs and desires heard. However, I find it to be a chain confused about its identity and ours. I can certainly see that large families would need some products in bulk. But this is a residential community with few local businesses that require a gallon of food coloring or 50 pounds of beef shortening. So, the "warehouse without membership" tagline is overselling things quite a lot. It's no Costco. I think the residents here would be better served with produce that really is from local farmers, a butcher and deli counter with quality products, a bakery--or at least fresh baked goods from local bakeries, and less emphasis on commodity products in general.

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Einkorn, Pea, and Mandarin Orange Salad

And the fun with ancient grains continues!

Einkorn is a grain I first heard about from my friend Maria Speck, the author of a wonderful book, Ancient Grains for Modern Meals. Her new book, Simply Ancient Grains, will be published next month. Einkorn is such a unique name that I figured it was some sort of exotic grain. But, in fact, it was much more familiar than I'd expected. It's a species of wheat that is truly ancient, in its cultivated state dating back over 10,000 years ago to archeological sites in southern Turkey. In grain form, it is essentially a wheat berry--something I've been cooking with for years.

As one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat--along with emmer--it can survive in the poorest, dryest of soils. But it faded from popularity. Now it appears to be coming back, thanks to its health properties, which includes a higher percentage of proteins than modern red grains and higher levels of fat, phosphorus, potassium, and beta-carotine.

It also tastes really good. It has a sweet nutty flavor and a marvelously chewy texture, making it terrific for grain salads/sides, stuffing, and cereal. It can also be ground into a flour for baking.

Einkorn is not all that difficult to find. I bought a package (Jovial) at Whole Foods in La Jolla, but you can also find it easily online from a variety of producers and retailers.

Now some people suggest soaking einkorn berries overnight before cooking since the berries are hard and can take a long time to cook. I've never actually bothered with soaking wheat berries and haven't had a problem. But I thought I'd see if it made much difference in the cooking process. What does happen, of course, is that they expand as they soften and absorb the water.

For the Jovial brand of einkorn wheat berries, the instructions say to bring 3 cups of water to a rolling boil and add 1 1/2 cups of einkorn, then simmer on low for 30 to 35 minutes. So, what you have is, like rice, a 2-to-1 ratio of water to grain and much shorter cooking time than with regular wheat berries (my experience is that it takes closer to an hour). There was no mention of pre-soaking. With my soaked berries, the time was cut by perhaps five minutes because all the water had been absorbed. So, make of this what you will.

I tried the einkorn in two preparations. First I made a salad filled with citrus and dried figs, sugar snap peas, toasted walnuts, and garbanzo beans. I had cooked up 1 cup of dry einkorn and used 3/4 of that for the salad. The rest I saved for breakfast the following day. I added a little more water to the cooked einkorn, stirred it up, then heated it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. I transferred it to a bowl, added a bit of butter, maple syrup, and more toasted walnuts, along with a splash of milk. It was divine. Einkorn just absorbs any flavor you pair it with and serves it back to you in a nutty, chewy mouthful.

If you're intrigued by the commercial emergence of yet another cool ancient grain, give einkorn a try. And this salad, easy to make, is perfect for a late winter side dish.


Einkorn, Pea, and Mandarin Orange Salad
(printable recipe)

Serves 6

3/4 cup dry einkorn wheat berries

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot bulb, peeled and minced
1/2 cup fresh shelled sugar snap peas
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
6 dried figs, chopped
1/2 cup garbanzo beans
2 mandarin oranges, zested and peeled

3 tablespoons high-quality extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
zest from above

1. Prepare einkorn according to directions on package.
2. While einkorn is simmering, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in saute pan. Add shallots and saute for about one minute. Add the peas and saute for another minute or two to warm. Stir in half the zest and remove from heat. Add to a medium size bowl.
3. Add the walnuts, figs, garbanzo beans, and mandarin orange sections. Be sure to remove as much of the fiberous string from the sections as possible.

4. Whisk together the three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, the sherry vinegar, salt and pepper, and remaining zest. Taste and adjust seasonings.
5. When the einkorn has cooked, remove it from the heat and let it come to room temperature. Stir it up to separate the grains and let the steam escape.
6. Add the cooled einkorn to the rest of the ingredients in the bowl. Add the dressing and mix well. Serve.

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Returning to Ancient Grains with Sorghum

I'm a SoCal gal. So, when I hear the word sorghum, my head immediately pulls up an image of Gone with the Wind. Isn't it some kind of Southern molasses?

Well, yes and no. One type, sweet sorghum, is a tall cereal grain that has, in fact, served as the source of an inexpensive syrup and as feed in the form of the whole plant for animals. But in the U.S. a second, shorter variety is grown for animal feed. And ethanol. And, get this, fencing, pet food, building material, and floral arrangements. Its great quality is that it's drought tolerant (anyone growing it in California?) and very hardy. In fact, it requires a third less water to grow than corn. And that's why, in thirsty parts of the U.S., sorghum is making a comeback. According to United Sorghum Checkoff, in 2013 8.06 million acres of sorghum were planted in the U.S.--primarily in Kansas, Texas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Colorado on dryland areas.

Originating from northeastern Africa, where it's been growing for at least 4,000 years, sorghum spread to the rest of Africa, as well as India and China. It's thought to have been introduced to North America in cargo ships that carried African slaves.

While corn is still king in the U.S., farmers are experiencing greater demand for sorghum and not just because of water scarcity. Because it's an ancient grain and a gluten-free grain, increasingly people are showing a culinary interest in it. It's ground into flour for baking but I have been enjoying the whole grains themselves--which look like pale little ballbearings with a black dot in center.

Sorghum is not difficult to find in San Diego. I found Bob's Red Mill packages of it at Whole Foods. Like any whole grain it's endlessly versatile. Boil it like rice and enjoy it as a side dish. Create risotto with it. Make a hot cereal with it. Or, you can even pop it like popcorn.

I kept it simple just to try it out. The water to grain ratio with sorghum is 3 to 1 and it takes close to an hour to cook. The grains plump up, but they still are small and have a chewy consistency.

I first ate the cooked sorghum with a tomato-based chicken stew. Then I turned the leftovers into a sorghum and cherry tomato salad, basically rummaging through my refrigerator to use ingredients like sliced kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, diced red onion, garbanzo beans, parsley from my garden, currants, and toasted pine nuts. I tossed all of it together in a light vinaigrette I made. Day one it was a solid B. The textures were good--some crunch, some chew. The flavors were, too--sweet, herbaceous, briny, salty, garlicky (from the vinaigrette). But day two it all came together. So, make this a day in advance so the flavors can really meld.

I also heard that sorghum can be popped and thought that sounded like a hoot. So, I pulled out a tall pot and gave it a try. I'd read instructions that you can put the grains in a pot and cover it, shaking the pot over high heat until all the kernels are transformed. But these little guys are so tiny I wasn't convinced I'd hear what was happening inside. They just didn't seem robust enough. And, based on that I also didn't think they jump too high. So, I just used an open pot that was very tall.

My first go round wasn't successful. I added too much olive oil in and they drowned. Just turned brown. So, I emptied the pot, used just the slightest amount of oil to a quarter cup of sorghum and tried again with higher heat. By now the pot was quite hot and the action started immediately. And stirring with a wooden spoon seemed more useful than shaking the pot. The grains won't all pop but even the orphans can be enjoyed without worry of cracking your teeth.

What to do with them? Other than snacking, of course. They make a great garnish. The popped kernels are petite and delicate looking. Use them to top a creamy soup or a platter of roasted vegetables. Add them to a salad. Make little sweet balls (a la popcorn balls) to garnish a dessert. They're just fun!

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Zen Monkey for Breakfast on the Run

I'm most definitely an oatmeal girl, but when the temps start to rise it's not quite as appealing to stand over a hot stove cooking it up (no, I don't microwave it). My summer weekday go-to breakfast is often a half cup of Trader Joe's maple pecan granola mixed with berries and Greek yogurt. So, when I was invited to try this new breakfast offering called Zen Monkey, which is a blend of equal parts oats, yogurt, and fruit, well, we were pretty much mostly there in my morning comfort zone.


So, what are we talking about here? There are three flavors: strawberry, apple cinnamon, and blueberry. Chunks of the fruit are blended with plain nonfat yogurt, agave nectar, and oatmeal soaked in apple juice. The result is a very authentic flavor with a texture that may take some getting used to. You don't get the crunch of my granola combo but it's not the same as a bowl of oatmeal either. To be honest, it's sort of goopy, but it absolutely grows on you.

Made in L.A., where it got its start at the L.A. Farmers Market, the labeling shows that the container is actually two servings, but even if you eat the entire thing, depending on the flavor, you'll still only be out only 260 calories and 3 grams of fat. You'll also have consumed 5 grams of fiber.

Now the PR spin on this is that it's the California rendition of a cereal, invented by Swiss physician Maximillian Bircher-Benner--the Birchermuesli having become a popular Swiss and German breakfast treat. That's all well and good, but this isn't muesli, nor does it have to be. The oatmeal works and gives busy people a way to eat a nutritious, well-balanced breakfast that also tastes pretty darn good.

You can find Zen Monkey at Southern California Whole Foods markets for $2.99 per 8-ounce container.

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The Gingered Pear: Seasonal Fruity Cocktails at Your Fingertips

Over the holidays I did a little holiday cocktail round up from ingredients the nice folks at the Hillcrest Whole Foods gave me to try. One company in particular made an impression on me with their tangy Apple Fennel Shrub. That would be Del Mar-based The Gingered Pear. They reached out to me later to thank me for including them in the piece and before I knew it, we'd made a date for me to come over and get a cocktail lesson, using their shrubs and syrups.

The duo who own the business, Colette Bolitho and Jennifer Woodmansee, are friends who met several years ago through their young children. They discovered they both had a passion for food and cooking. And cocktails. One thing led to another and five years later they launched their business, creating seasonal shrubs and syrups from produce as local as possible, including Stehly Farms and Specialty Produce's farm program.

The flavors are made up of some unconventional combinations, including carrot orange, tangerine lavender, and Meyer lemon bay leaf. Their inspiration is a favorite inspiration of mine, The Flavor Bible, and they find the book gives them just enough of a jumping off point to come up with just not flavors for their products but unique cocktails and mocktails.

This spring, The Gingered Pear is featuring Strawberry Rosemary shrub, Apple Fennel shrub, Meyer Lemon Bay Leaf syrup, and Tangerine Lavender syrup.

When I got to Jennifer's house (the pair actually do their mixing and bottling at a commercial kitchen but we decided to meet at Jennifer's house), the kitchen counters were overflowing with glasses and fruit, piles of herbs, a large green herb salad, a platter of cheese, crackers, and these insane prosciutto mustard puff pastry rollups. And, of course, all sorts of liquor and mixers. In other words, heaven.

Shrubs, of course, are a flavoring comprised of fruit, sugar, and vinegar. Heat up the sugar and vinegar until the sugar dissolves and pour over the fruit. Let it stand until the fruit flavor infuses the liquid. Syrups are similar, sans the vinegar--combine sugar and water and heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes syrupy. Add your flavors, simmer, and stir periodically, heating until the fruit or herbs soften. Remove from the heat and let cool. Then strain the syrup through a fine sieve.

Easy, huh? Well, yes. But we don't always have time to do everything from scratch, which is why I'm drawn to these tasty mixtures from The Gingered Pear. They're fresh and hand-made, and perfect not just for cocktails but also to pour over desserts or, in the case of the shrubs, over a salad or even to lightly pickle vegetables. Colette recently poured the Strawberry Rosemary shrub over sliced red onion and radishes to pickle them.

Colette pours the Apple Fennel shrub over an herbaceous green salad.

But, let's talk cocktails and mocktails. How about the Apple Fennel shrub combined with cucumber, mint, vodka, and sparkling sake? A Meyer Lemon Bay Leaf mocktail with tonic water, shaken with a fresno chile? Tangerine Lavender syrup with champagne as a twist on a traditional mimosa? Or a Meyer Lemon Lillet Rose cocktail? Let's just say this visit was a very happy start to my day.

I've got two recipes for you from The Gingered Pear that just speak to spring:

Tangerine Tequila Cocktail
From The Gingered Pear
Makes 1 cocktail

1.5 ounces Tangerine Lavender syrup
1/2 - 1 ounce tequila
Club soda to taste
Fresh Cilantro
Tangerine slices
Hurricane glass or margarita glass

Rub a cut tangerine on rim of glass, then dip the glass in salt.

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add tangerine lavender syrup, tequila, and cilantro. Shake it well, until frosty.

Strain contents of the shaker into salt-rimmed glass. Top with club soda. Garnish with slices of tangerine.

Strawberry Shrub Cocktail
From The Gingered Pear
Makes 2 cocktails

3 ounces Strawberry Rosemary Shrub
2 ounces gin or vodka (optional)
6 ounces club soda (or to taste)
2 to 3 dashes orange bitters to taste (optional)
Sprigs of rosemary
Thin slices of orange

Fill cocktail shaker half full of ice. Add shrub, gin or vodka, and orange bitters if desired. Shake to combine the ingredients.

Strain into two 8-ounce glasses filled with ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with rosemary, orange, and a couple of blackberries.

Notice all those garnishes? The ladies explain that it's the power of the garnishes that prepare you for what you're going to taste.

The Gingered Pear's products can be found at all four San Diego Whole Foods markets as well as Seaside Market, and Del Mar Wine Company.


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Elli Quark Comes to San Diego

I know. It's January and every food publication and every food writer is pushing healthy eating and weight loss New Year's resolutions. Blah, blah, blah.

And here I am, with timing oh so perfect, touting a new yogurt I've been enjoying over the holidays. Forgive me, but the truth is that the product is only now just showing up in San Diego--at area Whole Foods. Besides, would you have listened to me over the holidays when what you were craving was eggnog and buche de noel and all the cookies from the holiday exchanges you participate in? Nope.

So, here we are in January and, well, I don't need to give a lecture. Suffice it to say that if yogurt is now on your  menu for breakfast or for making green smoothies you might want to give this new kid--in fact, a local kid--a try. It's called Elli Quark.

Now this yogurt is modeled after German quark, a simple product made by warming soured milk and then straining it. It's traditionally used in sandwiches and salads, to make cheesecake and blintzes, dumplings, and blended with sour cream to make dips.

I would just call this yogurt. And it's quite good. Founder Preya Patel Bhakta developed it in Irvine with the idea of creating a healthy and nutritious alternative to Greek yogurt. There are five flavors--plain, strawberry, lemon, pineapple, and red velvet.

Here's what works for me, particularly as someone with T2 diabetes: it's low in calories, has twice the amount of protein compared to traditional yogurt, no added sodium, no fat, and--this is huge for me--no added sugar. The sweetening comes from stevia. That means I can actually enjoy a flavored yogurt without worrying about the carb count.

So, the hefty six-ounce container of strawberry Elli I mixed with a few tablespoons of Grape Nuts this morning had only 80 calories and 10 grams of carbs (plus the cereal).

I've been adding the yogurt to vegetable smoothies, putting the plain version on small baked potatoes, and enjoying it as dessert. It's not as thick as traditional quark or Greek yogurt, but smart folks know that thickening yogurt is as simple as straining it through cheesecloth for several hours to get rid of excess liquid.

Elli Quark is already at Whole Foods markets in Northern California and in Rocky Mountain states, but it's just arrived in San Diego and there are plans to expand to other stores.

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Mixed Drinks for the Holidays

I always tell people I'm not much of a drinker--and I'm not--but that doesn't keep me from having the occasional glass of wine or champagne or a cocktail. I enjoy them, but on a small scale. So I'm usually resistant to pitches involving cocktails or their ingredients. But my friend Carolyn Kates at Whole Foods Hillcrest insisted I try some products they had in and when I spoke to her colleague, wine specialist Desiree Turchan, who also gave me some recipes, I was sold.

And since I go for chocolate even more than alcohol, I've also included a new find here that you can curl up with in front of a fire.

So, let's get drinking!

To keep up with all the caviar I enjoyed last week, I needed to have friends come over and help me sample. What else to serve with caviar but some bubbly. I pulled out a bottle of prosecco, but instead of just serving it plain, I dropped in some beautiful wild hibiscus flowers in syrup. This is, in fact, what the label on the small jar calls them. Made in Australia, they are, indeed, wild hibiscus flowers marinating in a simple sugar water syrup which unfurl once they hit the liquid.

Be sure to eat the flower once you've drained the champagne flute. They're sweet and crunchy with a floral flavor!

Now, one of my issues currently with drinking much alcohol is that it has a high carb count. So imagine my surprise in learning about a new product called Bon Affair. Created by Solana Beach resident Jayla Siciliano, Bon Affair is a wine spritzer that comes in two varieties Sauvignon Blanc and Syrah.

Now why a wine spritzer--and why this one when you can easily create your own? Well, 100 calories and 3 grams of carbs for an 8-ounce serving is a good start. Woo hoo! Let's party! These spritzers are made with California wine, and according to the company contain electrolytes, purified carbonated water, and natural flavors and extracts--no added sugar. And, oh so important, it tastes great. Not sweet; just sparkly and crisp. Here's a glass of the Sauv Blanc with the hibiscus flower in it.

Another flavor we added to our sparkling wines was a new shrub from The Gingered Pear. Shrubs, of course, are blends of flavored vinegar syrup. This Del Mar-based business uses cold pressing to allow the fruit to maintain its true flavor. They're succeeding. Their shrubs were named the best new product at the Hillcrest Whole Foods in 2013.

The flavor I tried was pomegranate ginger. We tasted it in the Bon Affair Sauv Blanc and in the prosecco and it was a hit. The fear was that it would be too sweet and/or overpower the bubbly. It did neither. It was wonderfully tart and acidic, adding a nice punch to the sparkles.

Then there was the bottle of Bar Keep organic bitters. The bitters are a collaboration between Greenbar Collective and U.S. bartenders. Flavors include apple, Chinese, fennel, and lavender. I took home the Marshall Altier (a New York mixologist) apple and a recipe for a fruit salad using the bitters from Desiree. Using these bitters to make a dressing for a simple fruit salad makes complete sense. With the flavors of caramelized apple and baking spices, a few dashes are perfect for a dessert. I riffed on it a bit, including half a pear and a mix of dried fruit instead of currants. But this is a perfectly riffable dish.

Fruit Salad with Apple Bitters
from Desiree Turchan
(printable recipe)

Makes 3 or 4 servings

1 pink lady apple, diced
2 fuyu persimmons, peeled and diced
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon grapeseed oil
5 dashes apple bitters

Dice the fruit and add to bowl. Whisk together the cinnamon, honey, oil, and bitters. Toss dressing with fruit.

Thanks to the apple and cinnamon, it reminds me of a Passover harosets. It's sweet and crunchy and oh so aromatic.

But, of course, you'll want a cocktail recipe, too. I got one from Desiree that uses the Chinese bitters.

Chinese Mule
from Desiree Turchan

2 ounces bourbon
1 ounce apple fennel shrub
6 to 8 dashes Chinese bitters
2 to 4 ounces ginger beer

Mix the first three ingredients together, shake, and strain. Top with ginger beer.

Okay, so how about you adult nondrinkers? Or those adults who just love hot chocolate? A Massachusetts company called Taza has created intriguing chocolate flavors reminiscent of Ibarra Mexican chocolate. They are even molded and packaged in the familiar disc format. The stone-ground, organic chocolate is the brainchild of founder Alex Whitmore, who while traveling through Oaxaca, Mexico, became so inspired by the chocolate and chocolate-making methodology that he decided to open his own factory in Massachusetts. The company practices ethical cacao sourcing and established a third-party Direct Trade Cacao Certification program. But none of this matters unless the flavors are good. And, they are. They make about a dozen flavors. I picked up the Guajillo Chili and Spiked Eggnog packages and made hot cocoa with each.

I'm sold on these two at least. Now these are very sophisticated flavors (others include coffee, ginger, salted almond, orange, and salt and pepper). So they aren't really for young kids. But adults will love this chocolate, which can also be used for baking or just eating out of hand. The site has lots of recipe suggestions.

With so many options for celebrating the holidays, I doubt you'll go thirsty.




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