What do you do when you find yourself in possession of a shopping bag full of kumquats? Eat one or two everyday and swear off all other fruit until they're gone? Throw them away and don't tell the giver what you've done? Or turn them into a tasty beverage that is the perfect summertime sipper?
Kumquats are hard to come by at this time of year. They're usually easier to find in the late winter or early spring at your grocery store, and even then may be impossible to find. These odd, little fruits about the size of a golf ball, that you eat like a grape (skin and all) look like teeny-tiny oranges. But, they aren't even a citrus fruit. They're actually in the Fortunella family, along with five other Asian citrus-like items.
Why am I telling you about fruit that you won't be able to find until this winter? Because I had a bunch of them and I had to do something with them. And the method I came up with can be used with the more typical citrus fruits we do have access to: oranges, lemons, limes. I turned my kumquats into kumquat-ade, but you could make lemon-ade, lime-ade, orange-ade, ?-ade.
A girl can get tired of drinking water all the time. She also occasionally has people to her home and wants to whip up something delectable, but easy and refreshing. I'll provide you with directions on how to make fruit-ade as well as mint tea (or juleps) and white sangria. Got a favorite hot-weather beverage that I'm not mentioning? That's what the comments are for.
Citrus-ade
1 pound of citrus fruit
1 cup of sugar (Splenda also works great)
Water
Fresh mint sprigs and a few fruit slices for garnish
Most of the flavor of citrus fruit actually resides in the skin. Cut each piece of citrus in half. Squeeze as much of the juice as you can get out of the fruit into your two-quart pitcher, then cut each half into quarters or smaller and place them into a large saucepan. Sprinkle the sugar across the fruit and fill the pan with water, cover and turn the heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil, then turn off and let cool for 15 minutes. Pour the water into the pitcher, straining out the fruit. Fill the pitcher with more water and return to a medium-high burner. Bring to a boil, let cool again, and then strain and add the liquid to the pitcher. Add to glasses filled with ice, a lemon slice, and a sprig of mint, and serve.
Mint Tea
1 handful of fresh mint, washed and stems removed
8 cups of boiling water
3 to 5 tablespoons of sugar, or honey
Add water and sugar or honey to a saucepan and turn to medium high. Hold the leaves in your hands over the pan and rub your hands together before dropping the leaves into the pan. This bruises the leaves and permits the flavor to come out of the leaves easier. Bring just to a boil before turning off the heat and letting it sit for 3 minutes. Pour over ice and garnish with a mint sprig.
Mint Julep
1 handful of fresh mint
2 cups of boiling water
1 cup of sugar
Bring the water and sugar to boil in a saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar. Cool to room temperature. Pat yourself on the back -- you just made a simple syrup. Place four or five mint leaves in a heavy pint glass. Using a wooden spoon crush the mint against the sides or bottom of the glass. Pour 2 ounces of syrup into the glass, fill with ice, and then add 2 ounces of bourbon. An alternative way to make this is to put all of the mint into a bowl and crush the mint in the bowl. Add the syrup to the bowl and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours before serving. Fill a glass with ice, add 2 ounces of syrup and 2 ounces of bourbon and serve.
White Wine Sangria
I gotta give props out to Ms. Anne Holub for introducing me to this lighter version of a summertime favorite.
Choose three: apple, orange, peach, banana, 1 cup of cherries, 2 plums
1 large bottle or 2 small bottles of white wine (cheap wine is great for this)
1/4 cup simple syrup (see mint julep recipe)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup brandy
Sprite or soda water
Chop your fruit into small, bite-sized pieces and put in the bottom of a very large pitcher. Pour the wine, simple syrup, orange juice, and brandy over the fruit. Add several cups of Sprite (if you like a sweeter sangria) or soda (if you like a less sweet drink) to fill up the pitcher. Let sit in the refrigerator for 2 to 8 hours before you plan of serving. Serve with some of the fruit in each glass.
amyc / August 10, 2004 3:57 PM
I can vouch for the tastiness of the kumquat-ade. It tastes like popsicles or some other familiar flavor of childhood.