Bubbly Events

Make a Pink Pepperberry Fizz, Then Join Us for National Rosé Day

June 12, 2020
Pink Pepperberry Fizz cocktails

Most fun holidays only happen once a year. But how lucky are we to get two days to celebrate all the styles of beautiful pink wines?

National Rosé Day is always on the second Saturday in June, and that falls on June 13 this year. It’s a good makeup, in case you missed Rosé Day on February 7.

I’m so thrilled to be partnering with Champagne Blaine of The Fizz is Female and Rita Jammet of Champagne La Caravelle for a Zoom chat at 9 am Pacific/12 Eastern on Saturday June 13.

Rita will tell the story of her fabulous champagne brand that she and her husband created. Then I’ll share a recipe for a simple cocktail using La Caravelle Rosé, and a fun breakfast/weekend brunch food pairing that always works. Rosé is one of the best styles of wine for food pairing, so you won’t be disappointed.

Here’s the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/rose-day-zoom-cocktail-brunch

So you can sip along with us, here’s the recipe for my Pink Pepperberry Fizz cocktail. It’s inspired by the French dessert of strawberries with black pepper and balsamic vinegar. Here, the bright flavors of the bubbly stand in for the vinegar, and the pepper is perfect with raspberries too.

Pink Pepperberry Fizz

2 raspberries, fresh or frozen
1 teaspoon Black Pepper Syrup (see below)
La Caravelle Rosé champagne

Drop the raspberries in the bottom of your glass. Add 1 teaspoon Black Pepper Syrup. Top with champagne. Give the glass a quick stir and enjoy.

Variation: You could also make this with strawberries.

Makes 1 cocktail

 

Black Pepper Syrup

The key to this fragrant syrup is toasting the peppercorns in advance to release the oils. This is also delicious in a dressing for salads with fruit like berries or stone fruit, and over ice cream and berries.

1-1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 cup filtered water
1 cup sugar

Toast the pepper in a dry pan over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes. It will get very aromatic, so don’t inhale too much. Remove pepper from the flame.

Add the water and sugar to a large Pyrex measuring cup. Add the toasted pepper and stir. Cook on high in the microwave for 4 minutes. Then stir again. Cook for another 4 minutes. Let cool and funnel into a clean glass bottle. Keeps for two weeks in the refrigerator

Variation: You can also make this with pink peppercorns for a slightly less sharp flavor.
© By Maria Hunt, The Bubbly Girl.

Cocktail Recipes

Quarantine Cooking: Corona Sour Cocktail Recipe

May 6, 2020
Corona sour pomegranate cocktail the bubbly girl

Unpacking my leftovers from Thanksgiving 2019, I found a surprise in my bag: a bottle of pomegranate molasses. It wasn’t mine, but since no one else had claimed it after the mass cooking session, our hostess Jill decided I needed it.

I put the stowaway on the high kitchen shelf along with the rose water and orange blossom water, and pretty much forgot about it unless I needed something behind it.

But in the spirit of using what I have in the house, I decided I’d figure out what to do with that bottle of pomegranate molasses. The thick, dark red syrup has a deep flavor similar to molasses along with the tang of pomegranate.

This year, I’m planting a pomegranate in my garden. If you have room, the pomegranate is one of the prettiest bushes you can imagine. The flowers are bright coral-red trumpets with a burst of yellow on a field of oval deep green leaves.

The flowers that bear fruit are bisexual. But it’s the multitude of arils inside the bright leathery skin that inspired all those myths linking it to fertility. There’s some kernel of truth in the legend. The pomegranate is loaded with antioxidants and has health benefits for the cardiovascular system, along with calming inflammation, fighting cancer and enhancing testosterone in both men and women.

The pomegranate‘s little corona or crown on top where the blossom formed gives it a royal air. That surely inspired artist Salvador Dali.

My first version of the Corona Sour included blood orange juice since I was trying to use those up, but any fresh orange or tangerine juice will do. I was also making them with my house bourbon, Four Roses Yellow Label, but for Cinco de Mayo, it seemed right to crack open this mezcal I brought back from Oaxaca.
Salud!

Pomegranate molasses 400 conejos  mezcal , lime

Corona Sour Cocktail Recipe

Makes 1 cocktail
1.5 ounces mezcal or bourbon
1/2 ounce pomegranate molasses
Juice of 1/2 lime (about 3/4 ounce)
1/2 ounce orange juice
Splash Creole Bitters
Wedge of lime, 3 pomegranate arils
Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until your hand starts to get uncomfortably cold. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge and 3 pomegranate arils.

Recipe by Maria Hunt aka The Bubbly Girl
All rights reserved©

Celebrity Chefs, Food + Recipes

DIY Crackers: Olive Oil Crackers or Carta Musica Recipe

May 5, 2020
Carta musica olive oil cracker

I needed some unleavened bread yesterday, and didn’t feel like risking my health by squeezing into one of my little neighborhood markets for them.

So I went looking for recipes, and quickly found this exceedingly simple and delicious one. Or rather, the esteemed Mark Bittman found it, I’m just at good at Google.

The original recipe is from Sardinia, the island off Italy that’s renowned for olive oil and honey. This wispy flatbread is called carta musica which means sheet music in Italian. If you get creative and infuse the dough with soft herbs and flowers, like they do in this Food & Wine story, it will look more like sheet music with pale sheets with dark lines. (And they say this same dough can be used for ravioli too)

If you’re in need of matzoh as you celebrate Passover, or just want fresh crackers without having to go to the store, this is the recipe for you.

They’re round in Bittman’s recipe, but otherwise, these are almost identical to the olive oil flatbread crackers that are often sold in the cheese department.

Use a high-quality olive oil with lots of zesty green flavors, this is one of those ultra-simple recipes where every ingredient counts. Just four ingredients and about 30 minutes time, and you’re done.

Next time I make them, I’m going to cut the dough in strips, and sprinkle with seasonings like ground black cumin seeds, zata’ar, pink peppercorns or truffle salt. They’re good plain, with cheese, topped with hummus, labneh, fresh cilantro and spices or even scrambled eggs.

When you discover how quick and easy these are, you’ll be making your own olive oil crackers too.

Carta Musica or Olive Oil Matzo

Makes 12 round crackers

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup purified water

Preheat the oven to 500° Fahrenheit. Get your cookie sheets out.

Add the flour, salt and olive oil to a food processor or your KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment. Turn it on, then add the water. Process for a few minutes and the dough with form a nice little ball.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and form a log. Cut it in half, and then cut each half in thirds. Then cut each piece in half again. Hopefully you’ll wind up with 12 little lumps that are about the same size. Now’s the time to even them up if you like.

Flour your rolling pin lightly and roll the first one out, getting it as thin as possible without tearing. If you hold it up, you should be able to see light through it. Roll out a couple more, then place them on your cookie sheet.

Sprinkle with salt or whatever seasonings you’d like on top. Place the sheet into the oven and set the timer for 3 minutes. When the timer rings, your flatbreads will be starting to get bubbly and a tiny bit brown on the edges. Flip them over and set the timer for 2 minutes, since the second side cooks much faster.

 

Remove the first set from the oven and let them cool on a baking rack. Repeat with the remaining dough, or save some in the freezer for later.

Adapted from the Olive Oil Matzo recipe in The New York Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrity Chefs, Dinner Tonight, Food + Recipes

Eat + Repeat: Nigella’s Asian Flavoured Short Ribs

March 31, 2020
simply nigella asian flavoured short ribs

*Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, I earn a small commission, at no cost to you. 

You never know when you’ll discover one of those genius recipes that’s so satisfying that everyone wants to eat it again and again. I scored when I tried this Nigella Lawson recipe for Asian Flavoured Short Ribs from her cookbook Simply Nigella: Feel Good Food.*

Nigella Lawson forever summer book

Photo credit: Maria Hunt

I interviewed Nigella years ago when she was on a press trip for her book Forever Summer*. She was smart, engaged and lovely all around. She was plenty striking too, with black hair and a pale yet rosy complexion that defined peaches and cream. I don’t recall her outfit, but I do remember her aquamarine ring with a stone the size of a medjool date for what at the time was her secret engagement to Charles Saatchi. Most of all, I liked her down-to-earth approach to baking and cooking and her deliciously original recipes that cut out all the unnecessary steps, because who wants to spend extra time in the kitchen? (If you love baking, you’ll adore her first book, How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking.)

This recipe calls out beef short ribs, but I’ve remade it with boneless pork ribs and a beef chuck roast and it was still delicious. And the sauce is so flavorful, it can revive those meats you’re unearthing from the deep freeze right about now.

She recommends serving these short ribs with brown rice and green beans. But they’re also good with potato salad, pureed sweet potatoes or a spinach salad tossed with sesame dressing. Beverage Pairing: Since they have a little spice, these short ribs will be wonderful with a richer malty Belgian dubbel ale or any off-dry (slightly sweet) sparkling wine such as the delicious red Ottouve Gragnano from Italy.

Nigella’s Asian Flavoured Short Ribs

SERVES 6-8

5 lbs. beef short ribs

1 cup hoisin sauce

2 cups water

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 cup Chinese (Shaoxing) rice wine

2 tablespoons Chinese 5-spice powder

1 tablespoon dried chilli flakes

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

4 fat cloves garlic, peeled and finely grated or minced

TO SERVE

1 fresh red chili, finely chopped

2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

3-4 limes, cut into wedges

● Preheat the oven to 300 Fahrenheit. Place the short ribs into a large pan.

● Mix together all the remaining ingredients and pour over the ribs.

● Cover with a layer of baking parchment or greaseproof paper, tucking it in tightly to seal as best you can, before putting on a lid, or cover the top of the pan with foil and seal the edges securely. Cook in the oven for 4-4½ hours: the meat should be tender and starting to come away from the bones.

● Transfer the ribs to a vessel that will fit in the fridge later to cool, and then tenderly remove as many of the bones as possible, before covering and refrigerating for at least 1 day, or up to 3 days.

● Before you reheat them, remove the hard layer of fat that will have formed on the top (I do this with my hands, encased in a pair of disposable vinyl gloves, CSI-style), transfer to a large ovenproof dish that you can also serve the ribs in–I use a ceramic dish–and reheat, covered with foil or a lid, depending on what you’re cooking in, at 400 Fahrenheit for 1 hour, or until piping hot. (MH Note: I reheated them under a low broiler because I think oven ribs need some crispy edges.)

● Scatter some finely chopped red pepper and cilantro over the ribs on serving, and put some lime wedges on the table so that everyone can squeeze this sour juice into their rich, sweet stew, to taste.

Adapted from the Simply Nigella recipe on Daily Mail Online.

Photo credit: Simply Nigella

 

 

 

Food + Recipes

Sweet Potato Pie Cupcakes With Maple Bacon Frosting

January 26, 2020
Sweet Potato Pie Cupcakes With Maple Bacon Frosting

Growing up, I wasn’t that interested in sweet potato pie. My grandma, mom, and older cousins loved it because it reminded them of Mississippi and the women who made it for them.

Sweet potato pie beats the pants off  any pumpkin pie, but given a choice, I’d rather have Aunt Fannie’s chocolate meringue pie, Uncle Clarence’s German chocolate cake, or my Grandma Dorothy’s banana cake.

Sweet potato cupcakes with sugar sprinklesBut as it’s gotten harder to hold onto memories of my relatives, I’ve been craving those original family recipes.  I found it in a delicious pour-and-bake sweet potato pie batter from Mamie & Makhi’s. The founder Lois grew up in Berkeley, but her Grandma Mamie is from Mississippi, just like my family and it tastes just like I remember.

I’ve been making pies, smoothies, pop tarts, and pancakes with her batter, which led me to  these Sweet Potato Pie Cupcakes With Maple Bacon Frosting. They capture the flavor of sweet potato pie pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. I made them as mini cupcakes, because they’re so cute, and you don’t feel as guilty about eating them.

Start by making a few  pieces of thick applewood smoked bacon–the better the bacon, the better the flavor. I found a Fluffy Maple Frosting recipe on The Spruce Eats, and replaced a tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of bacon grease. The cake recipe is from Mamie & Makhi’s website. Try the recipe and let me know what you think:

For the Frosting

  • 3 slices thick applewood smoked bacon, cooked until browned, oil reserved
  • 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar (light or dark, packed)
  • 2 1/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons light cream (or half-and-half, milk, or evaporated milk; more as needed)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Optional: 1 tablespoon bacon fat

    1. Cook the bacon over medium heat until brown on both sides, but not burned. Blog the bacon and reserve the grease. When the bacon is cool, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch slices.

    2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter with the maple syrup, bacon fat, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly.

    3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring, for about 3 to 5 minutes, or until the brown sugar has dissolved.

    4. Remove the syrup mixture from the heat and let stand until completely cooled.

    5. Pour the cooled syrup mixture into a mixing bowl. Gradually beat in 2 1/2 cups of the powdered sugar and the evaporated milk. Add the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Add more confectioners’ sugar or more milk, as needed to make a spreadable frosting.

    The frosting makes enough for a two-layer cake, a rectangular cake, or about 18 to 24 cupcakes.

For the Cupcakes

  • 2 cups cake flour
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • Pinch sea salt
  • 2-1/2 cups Mamie & Makhi’s Sweet Potato Pie Batter
  • 1 egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup evaporated milk (only as needed)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Combine the sweet potato pie batter, the egg and the vanilla, then fold into the dry ingredients to form a moist batter. If the batter is too thick to pour into your cupcake liners, add 1/4 cup milk, up to 1/2 cup only as needed.

3. To bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake mini cupcakes for 15 minutes, being careful not to over cook or they will be dry! Stick a toothpick into one and if it comes out clean, they’re done.

4. When the cupcakes are cool enough to handle, frost them with the Maple Bacon Frosting. Top each one with a little slice of bacon and garnish with gold decorative sugar if you like.

Makes about 6 dozen mini cupcakes