Skip the spooky green punch and go for something refreshing and elegant like this Halloween cocktail recipe with grapefruit juice and fresh blackberries. 

Since it IS practically Halloween, get into the spirit by adding fresh blackberry compote or “guts” into the flesh-colored mixture of grapefruit, gin and club soda. While your guests are consuming handfuls of Halloween candy this drink will offer a cooling respite.

The gin fizz is a classic cocktail usually made with carbonated water and lemon juice. An egg white is often added to make a silver fizz which I would highly recommend ordering the next time you find yourself in a classic cocktail bar. After years of feeling disgust at the thought of an egg in my drink I had a Pisco Sour that changed my life. Egg whites add a frothy layer to acidic cocktails so don’t be afraid of them…plus an egg white has protein to offset the alcohol.

The addition of muddled blackberries to a gin fizz makes for an interesting turn. I make this cocktail with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice to ensure that it isn’t too sweet. You can substitute the fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice for store-bought juice if necessary. The blackberry pulp has a beautiful dark purple color which looks creepy in the flesh-colored liquid of the grapefruit juice and liquor. Tell your guests they are drinking “guts” and they may roll their eyes but will be pleasantly surprised by this fizzy and not-too-sweet treat.

Grapefruit Gin Fizz with Blackberry “Guts”

Makes 6 cocktails (recipe is easily doubled)

Ingredients

6 ounces gin, such as Tanqueray or Beefeater
1 cup blackberries
1 teaspoon honey
3 ounces club soda
1 large grapefruit
12 large ice cubes

Directions

1. Slice the grapefruit in half and use a juicer to extract the juice.

2. In a small bowl use a muddler or the back of a wooden spoon to smash the blackberries into a pulp. Add the honey and mix thoroughly.

3. In each individual glass place two ice cubes and pour in 1 ounce each of grapefruit juice and gin and just a ½ oz or splash of club soda. Stir for a few seconds with a long spoon and then delicately add about a teaspoon of the blackberry mixture and serve.

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Photo credit: Ally Jane Grossan

The post Halloween Cocktail Recipe: Grapefruit Gin Fizz with Blackberry ‘Guts’ appeared first on EcoSalon.

For anyone that has ever wanted to bottle up summer. 

“You can infuse simple syrup with basil, right?”

These are the kind of questions that cross your mind when you are standing in your mother’s garden looking at two huge pots of fresh basil.

As it turns out, simple syrup was meant to be infused with basil. You end up with a sweet elixir that has a twinge of summer garden. An herbal addition to any drink, dessert or cocktail. It’s also good for a fruit salad dressing, drizzling over vanilla ice cream and bottling up summer in a jar, which is exactly what this Sparkling Blackberry and Basil Infusion is.

Sparkling Blackberry and Basil Infusion

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chilled sparkling water
• 1/4 cup blackberries, muddled
• 2 tablespoons basil simple syrup
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a glass (a mason jar is of course preferable) and stir. Serve immediately.

Basil Simple Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup basil leaves

Directions:

Roll basil leaves and then slice into strips.

Warm water and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

Pour simple syrup into a glass jar and add in basil leaves.

Let sit for a couple of hours to steep.

Strain out basil leaves and store simple syrup in an airtight container.

Want more food inspiration? Check out the rest of our Sunday Recipe series. 

The post Sunday Recipe: Sparkling Blackberry and Basil Infusion appeared first on EcoSalon.

Five timeless food lessons in celebration of Julie Child’s 100th birthday.

As a child, my mother and I would always watch a show about gardening on PBS together. It was a Sunday tradition, and for a child who was only allowed to watch public television, I embraced the chance to be glued to the screen, not realizing that gardening shows were not the norm for most seven year-olds.

If I was really lucky I got to hang out in front of the television just a little longer and catch Julie Child. I didn’t really have any idea who she was, but I knew that she had an unforgettable voice and magically a lot of her freshly chopped ingredients would just appear in a clean glass or ceramic bowl on the counter. She effortlessly put together dishes set to the kind of calming music that can only be made popular by public television.

I wanted to cook like that.

I later came to learn exactly who Julia Child was, as most anyone that has ever spent even only a few minutes in the kitchen does. To be perfectly honest, I don’t even – gasp – own a Julia Child cookbook. But you don’t have to own a book of her recipes to acknowledge her influence on how we cook. As food writer Julia Moskin puts it in the New York Times:

It was Child — not single-handedly, but close — who started the public conversation about cooking in America that has shaped our cuisine and culture ever since.

Many of her recipes aren’t simple. Far from it. They’re not the kind of thing you throw together after a long day’s work when you’re starving and just need to eat. Often requiring complicated bakeware, they may even seem pretentious. But ultimately Child, who would have turned 100 today, left us with a value that in modern times we have nearly forgotten: good food takes time and love. It’s an art.

She was known for her wit and one liners, and any cook can take lessons from some of her well-known lines to heart.

1. “If you’re afraid of butter, use cream.”

Even for the vegans and lactose intolerants among us, the lesson here is to never skimp on good ingredients. And for future reference: this woman was not afraid of butter. She used 753 pounds of butter while filming the Baking with Julia series.

2. “How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?”

A country that puts effort into food has an appreciation for culture. That’s why travel and food go hand-in-hand: you can learn a lot about a place by what they’re eating.

3. “In spite of food fads, fitness programs, and health concerns, we must never lose sight of a beautifully conceived meal.”

There is an art to good food, one that can’t be boxed up in a “just-add-water” mix. Pay attention to what you eat, and eat with intention. Eating good, whole food in moderation will make you healthier and happier than abiding to the how many antioxidants and omega 3s are touted on the packaging.

4. “Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.”

Food is meant to be shared and it brings us together. Have an enemy? Break bread with them. Need to work through an argument? Do it over a home cooked meal. Food, friends and family are what keep our bodies and souls nourished.

5. “It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate – you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.”

Beautiful food doesn’t make itself.

Beyond a few food lessons, it seemed only fitting that I add one of her classic recipes to my repertoire in celebration. She was well known for her calfouti, which is pretty much a fancier version of a Dutch Baby pancake, and with a pint of freshly picked blackberries, I couldn’t resist making a revamped gluten free version made with coconut flour and milk.

Coconut Blackberry Clafouti à la Julia Child

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 3 cups blackberries
• powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a blender, blend the coconut milk, 1/4 cup of sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and coconut flour.  Grease an 8-cup baking dish and pour in enough batter to cover bottom of the pan with about a 1/4 inch layer.

Bake for about 5-7 minutes, until batter is set but not baked. Distribute the blackberries evenly over the set batter and sprinkle rest of sugar on top. Pour rest of batter over the blackberries and sugar.

Bake 45-60 minutes.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.

Image: Time

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