Beverages | I Can Cook That

Sangria

For Father’s Day, I wanted to make my dad a somewhat traditional sangria. He is a man who has nothing and wants nothing (which is probably a result of having two daughters and a wife who want everything), but he does love a good sangria. I hope he likes it!

Ingredients:

1 bottle of Rioja wine

1/2 cup brandy

1/4 cup triple sec

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup cranberry juice

3 table spoons simple syrup

1 apple, cored

1 orange, cut into thin slices

1 lemon, cut into thin slices

1 lime, cut into thin slices

1 peach/nectarine, pitted and cut into wedges

Ginger ale, to taste

Combine the wine, brandy, triple sec, orange juice, cranberry juice and simple syrup. Stir.

Prepare all of your fruit.

Add the fruit to the wine mixture and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

When ready to serve, pour sangria into a glass and top with the ginger ale to taste.

I took only one sip of this, so my dad will have to be the true judge of this recipe. It seemed to taste good to me: not too sweet and still a hint of actual wine. You can make a bunch of substitutes for this recipe. If you don’t have the time to make simple syrup, just use 3 tablespoons sugar and stir until it dissolves in the wine mixture. Feel free to substitute or eliminate some of the fruit choices: blackberries would also be a nice addition in the sangria.

Berry Sangria

I have a bunch of fruit left over from my Berries with Lemon Mint Syrup. It’s a lovely warm weekend in Philadelphia which immediately made me think of sangria. What a perfect way to use more of these berries!

Ingredients:

A bowl full of mixed berries (strawberries, hulled, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries)
1 1/2 cups of triple sec
1 1/2 cups cranberry juice (I used cran-raspberry juice)
1/2 cup simple syrup (left over from my Mojitos)
1 bottle of white wine
1-2 cups ginger ale or club soda, to taste
Ice cubes
Mint, optional

Continue reading Berry Sangria

Strawberry-Mint Mojitos

There are few things more refreshing on a hot summer day than a mojito. My CSA share came with mint this week as well, so mojitos sounded like a perfect drink for this little heat wave we are experiencing in Philadelphia. I didn’t want to just make a classic mojito so I was happy that the CSA share came with strawberries as well.

Ingredients (per serving):
1 teaspoon simple syrup
2 fresh strawberries, halved
Mint leaves from 1-2 sprigs
Sparkling water (club soda)
1/2 lime
2 ounces light rum
Ice

To make simple syrup, combine 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water in a saute pan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves. Cool.

Prepare your strawberries. Remove the stem from the strawberries and cut in half.

Add the juice from 1/2 a lime, two strawberries (4 halves), 1 teaspoon simple syrup, and the mint leaves to a glass.

Using a muddler or the back of a spoon, muddle the ingredients together. Muddling is crushing ingredients to allow the flavors and oils to be released and combine.

Add two ounces rum and ice, and shake to combine. Fill with sparkling water.

This is so refreshing. I made mine with very little simple syrup; I prefer my mojito to be more minty than sweet. Feel free to adapt the amount of each ingredient to your tastes. This recipe can also be changed to use watermelon, raspberries, or whatever else sounds good to you.