Category: Beverages

Tomato Juice

Tomato Drink from Fresh Tomatos

Some tomatoes are sweeter than others, depending on their ripeness and the variety of tomato. Use the ripest tomatoes you can. Added sugar will balance the natural acidity of the tomatoes, use more or less to taste. Tabasco hot sauce is also to taste, depending on your desired level of spiciness.  This is similar to V8 drink.

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds very ripe garden tomatoes, cored, roughly chopped
  • 1 1/4 C chopped celery with leaves
  • 1/3 C chopped onion
  • 2 TBL sugar (to taste)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Pinch black pepper
  • A couple shakes of Tabasco sauce, about 6-8 drops (to taste)

Method

  1. Put all ingredients into a large non-reactive pot (use stainless steel, not aluminum).
  2. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until mixture is completely soupy, about 25 minutes.
  3. Run mixture through a food mill (or force through a sieve or chinoise strainer)
  4. Cool completely.
  5. Store covered and chilled.  Stir before serving.
    If you pour into emptied water bottles, you can shake before drinking.
  6. Keep for up to 1 week in the refrigerator

From Tomato Paste

  • 1 can 6 oz tomato paste
  • 3 cans (18 oz) cold water – used to rinse can
  • 1/2 tsp Worcestershire
  • 1/2 tsp ± lime juice
  • scant cayenne
  • scant celery salt
  • scant salt
  • scant olive oil
  • scant liquid smoke

See my copy-cat recipe for Mr. & Mrs. T – Rich & Spicy Bloody Mary Mix for a bolder drink

From Tomato Sauce

  • 16 oz can tomato sauce
  • 16 oz water from rinsed can
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire
  • 1 tsp ± lime juice
  • 1/2 tsp ± cayenne
  • 1/2 tsp ± celery salt
  • 1/2 tsp ± salt
  • 1/2 tsp olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp liquid smoke

Turkish Coffee

Turkish Coffee is more of a process than a product.

INGREDIENTS

  • Authentic Turkish Coffee (or very finely ground coffee)

STEP BY STEP

  1. Pour in cold water in the coffee pot.
    – You should use one cup of cold water for each cup you are making and then add an extra half cup “for the pot”.
  2. Add a level teaspoonful of the ground Turkish coffee per cup in the water while the water is cold and stir.
    – The amount of coffee may be varied to taste, but do not forget, there will be a thick layer of coffee grounds left at the bottom of your cup for properly made Turkish coffee.
  3. Heat the pot as slowly as you can. The slower the heat the better it is. Ideally allow 15 to 20 minutes to come to a near boil.
    – Make sure you watch it to prevent overflowing when the coffee boils.
  4. When the water boils pour some (not all) of the coffee equally between the cups, filling each cup about a quarter to a third of the way.
    – This will make sure that everybody gets a fair share of the foam forming on top of the pot, without which coffee loses much of its taste.
  5. Now is the time to add sugar into each cup if you wish.
  6. Continue heating until coffee boils again (which will be very short now that it has already boiled). Then distribute the rest of the coffee between the cups.
  7. Since there is no filtering of coffee at any time during this process, you should wait for a few minutes before drinking your delicious Turkish coffee while the coffee grounds settle at the bottom of the cup.

MORE INFO

Centuries ago, when people devoted more time to attend to the demands of their earthly pleasures and less time to the demands of business and corporate life, coffee making developed some rituals that exist in ‘lite’ versions in our days. In old times, connoisseurs expected their coffee to be heated slowly over charcoal embers for 15 to 20 minutes, the copper coffee pot being frequently taken away from the fire to prevent overheating.

A connoisseur can easily tell the difference between a properly made Turkish coffee and one prepared the way cheap restaurants would do, basically boiling the coffee quickly, degrading thus the taste and producing little if any froth that needs to cover the cup of coffee.

Although to this day there are still a few people who either do or at least know the days when coffee was heated on charcoal, for all practical purposes modern electric or gas stove tops became the heating equipment of choice. To make proper Turkish coffee you need Turkish coffee beans, a Turkish coffee pot (“cezve”), and Turkish coffee cups (“fincan”), and optionally, if you want to grind the beans, a Turkish coffee grinder (“kahve degirmeni”). Note that Turkish coffee requires extra fine ground coffee which some electrical grinders fail to produce.

Velvet Fruit Nectar

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 CU apricot nectar
  • 1/2 CU peach nectar
  • 1/2 CU strawberry nectar

STEP BY STEP

  1. If you have a juicer, juice the ingredients, then mix and serve.
  2. If you have only a blender, you can liquefy the ingredients, and add 1/4 CU of orange juice.

 

Vegetable Cocktail

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 C celery juice
  • 1/4 C carrot juice
  • 1/4 C tomato juice
  • 1/4 C parsley juice
  • 1/4 C radish juice
  • 1/4 C cucumber juice

STEP BY STEP

  • If you have a juicer, juice the ingredients, then mix and serve.
  • If you have only a blender, this recipe will not come out very well.

 

Jim Morgan’s Limoncello

lemoncelloJames L. Morgan wrote: “Here. I’d never written it down before, I just make it. Here it is with the precise amounts I normally use.

INGREDIENTS

  • Zest of 30 lemon peels
  • 1.75 L bottle of Vodka
  • 5.25 C sugar
  • 1.5 QT water

STEP BY STEP

  1. Put the zest in a 4 qt or larger glass jar with a tight fitting lid
  2. Add Vodka and stir
  3. Close the jar and put it in a dark place at room temperature for 40 days
  4. After 40 days, in a sauce pan, stir the sugar and water together
  5. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes
  6. Cover the pan and remove from heat
  7. Let the sugar syrup cool completely in the pan
  8. Add the sugar syrup to the lemon-Vodka mixture
  9. Stir well to combine
  10. Cover and let sit for a few more days
  11. Remove completed Limoncello from the cabinet
  12. Strain the mixture and discard the lemon zest
  13. Pour into clean bottles with caps or decorative corked bottles
  14. Store the bottles in the pantry, but put the bottle you are using in the freezer until ready to pour
  15. Serve very cold

Arizona Punch

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 can frozen orange juice
  • 1 cup pineapple juice
  • 2 TBL maraschino cherry juice
  • 8-12 ice cubes
  • 1 quarts ginger ale

STEP BY STEP

  1. Mix first three ingredients using a blender
  2. Pour the mixture over ice cubes
  3. Add ginger ale

Serves 4-6 people

Grandpa’s Grandpa’s Applejack

This recipe is over 100 years old.  It is a recipe that was handed down to my father, by his father, and then later to me.  This recipe was created about fifty years before the FDA, so comes with no guarantees.  Use it at your own risk.  All I can say is that I drank it and survived.  It also contains some antiquated terms, so I’ve made modern substitutions and translations in my notes.

demijohnINGREDIENTS for HARD CIDER

  • 1 Imperial Gallon Demijohn – ( See Grandpa’s note 5 )
  • 4 liters Apple juice – ( See Grandpa’s note 1 )
  • 50 g sugar ( about 3 TBL )
  • 1 small handful of papaya green – ( See Grandpa’s note 2 )
  • 1 large handful raisins  – ( See Grandpa’s note 3 )
  • Wine yeast ( See Grandpa’s note 4 )

STEP BY STEP

  1. Pour 1 quart of apple juice into a demijohn – ( See Grandpa’s note 5 )
  2. Dissolve sugar in 1/4 C boiling water
  3. After the water cools, add the sugar mixture to the demijohn
  4. Add your papaya green – ( See Grandpa’s note 2 )
  5. The next morning, add another quart of apple juice
  6. Repeat Step 5 over the next two days ( see Step 7 )
    NOTE:  All the juice could be added on day 1 but this gradual process possibly gives more flavour.
  7. On the fourth day fill the container leaving an inch of head room in the bottle.applejack
  8. On day five, the cider should be racked into a clean demijohn, leaving the papaya green and rubbish or “lees” at the bottom of the demijohn.  Discard them – (See Grandpa’s note 6 )
  9. Store the demijohn in a cool dark place for about a fortnight to allow more sediment to settle out before bottling. – ( See Grandpa’s note 7 )
  10. See Grandpa’s note 8 for making Applejack out of Hard Cider
  11. canning-jarsSiphon off the clear liquid into 1/2 quart bottles with 1 tsp sugar added per bottle.
    Kerr canning jars also work well.  Keep warm for a few days for the bottles to get “fat” with the secondary fermentation.
  12. Store somewhere cool for at least a month before sampling.
  13. See Grandpa’s note 10 to finish up.

GRANDPA’S NOTES

  1. Your apple cider should have no added chemicals or preservatives or sugar.  Absolutely cannot be pasteurized.  Avoid anything with “drink” in the name – even better, get your cider from a farmer’s market or local apple orchard.
  2. The layer of green just under the skin of a papaya contains peptic enzyme.  You can also get 5 gm (1 tsp) of  it from Amazon BY CLICKING HERE
  3. You need a yeast nutrient 2.5 g (1/2 tsp) – modern raisins have enzymes that retard yeast growth, so boil them for a few minutes before putting into your bottle
  4. The MUST left in the bottom of a bottle from aged wine.  What is MUST?.   White Champagne is best but any wine yeast will do, even red.
  5. A demijohn ranges from one gallon to about ten gallons.  An Imperial gallon is about 1-1/4 US gallon, so is slightly larger than a US gallon.  Make substitutions based on whatever glass container you have available.
  6. Racking means that you should siphon off the clear liquid leaving the hard particulates at the bottom of the bottle.  If you do not have a second demijohn, a sterile white plastic bucket can be used, the contents are then returned to the demijohn after it has been cleaned. It is better and more sterile to go straight into a second clean bottle.
  7. A fortnight is about two weeks.  This recipe does not mention it, but this device from Amazon is good for making sure your brew doesn’t go bad.  This AIRLOCK is one device.  A TWIN BUBBLE AIRLOCK is another option.
  8. What you have now is hard cider.  For those of you from back east, you can equate this to 3.2 beer.  If you want to go to the extra effort, you can create Applejack out of your Hard Cider by using the following method.
  9. Hard cider will typically have an O.G. (original gravity reading) of around 1038.  Applejack will have a F.G. (final gravity reading) of around 998, giving about 5.6%ABV (alcohol by volume)  and 0.74% acidity. For a less acidic cider the apple juice can be reduced and the sugar increased. Stronger versions can be produced by adding extra sugar during Step 2.  Each extra 50 g of sugar provides about 0.5% alcohol – but do not sacrifice quality for alcoholic strength.  You will get a better taste quality following the original instructions printed here.
  10. EXTRA INFO:  Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate are often used as preservatives, but if you don’t use enough it does absolutely nothing.  If you use too much, you can damage your liver.  If you consume it with vitamin C the byproduct is benzene – a carcinogen.  Best bet: Drink this before it spoils.  Don’t use any preservative.

APPLEJACK (an Unofficial Recipe)

INGREDIENTS for APPLEJACK

  • Hard (fermented) apple cider
  • Two demijohn bottles

STEP BY STEP

  1. Fill your first demijohn ( or heavy glass container ) about 7/8 full of apple cider
  2. Put it in a zeb-zero environment  – – – Traditionally this is done in a barrel outdoors in wintertime, but improvise as your circumstances require.
  3. After it has chilled for several hours (traditionally you would do this overnight) inspect the barrel and see if a layer of ice has formed on top of the liquid
  4. Remove this ice, as completely as possible, and discard.  This is frozen water.  The alcohol, has a lower freezing point than the water, and will not freeze.
  5. Repeat process until cider has achieved the desired degree of intoxicating qualities, or until you are not getting much ice out after an overnight freezing.
  6. See Grandpa’s note 9 and 10

 

Apple Wink

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 CU banana nectar
  • 1/2 CU apple juice
  • 1-2 tsp honey

STEP BY STEP

  1. If you have a juicer, juice the ingredients, then mix and serve.
  2. If you have only a blender, you can liquefy the ingredients
  3. Then add 1/4 CU of orange juice.

 

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