Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Green Tea

My favorite grocery store, Publix, makes a wonderful iced tea available in the deli section that has green tea, and honey with ginseng. I love that I can just pick up a gallon for parties. It is soooo good. But not as ‘healthy’ as it sounds. The ingredients list contains sugar and carmel color, and other not-on-my-list items. In fact, the diet version lists Splenda right on the front label – no thank you. But I still like it. And you know me, if I like it, I’d like to make it…myself. 
 
Now, I have plenty of green teas, honeys, agave nectar, and a lemon is never hard to find in my kitchen. Ginseng, is another matter. That is something I don’t stock. I went looking for a ginseng tea. While at my favorite local store, I spotted, in the tea section, a little gem I’d not seen before. It’s an herbal/green tea from Celestial Seasonings and it has all the cast of characters – this could work. The taste, however wasn’t really exact. It has white tea in it too, which is great, but made it rather mild. I like my tea over ice, so I tend to make the batches a bit strong. That said, I found the following worked perfect.
 

Michelle’s Publix-Style Green Tea

 
Green Tea
 
1 quart bottle: I reused one from some cider, so it’s got a lid that can take heat.
2-1/2 Cups Boiling Water
1 bag Green Tea
1 bag Celestial Seasonings Green Tea w/honey, lemon and ginseng
3 Tbl Agave or Honey
 
First warm up that bottle with some warm tap water so as not to shock it later. Get the water boiling either on the stove or microwave. 
 
When it’s ready, pour out the tap water, add in the Celestial Seasonings bag (because it has no tag) to the bottle. Pour over the boiling water. Then add the green tea bag and try to hold the tag out of the neck of the bottle. Leave the cap either off, or just put on lightly so it can release some heat. Leaving the tag out makes it much easier to fish out. Set it all aside and let it steep for a half hour or so,…don’t you have emails to check?
 
OK, that’s it – slowly pull out the green tea bag, leave the other one there, add the sweetener and give it a swirl. Top it off with some regular temp water (about 1-1/2 cups or so) and add the bottle to the fridge. 
 
Way better for you with only a few ingredients. And you can add more or less sugar if you like. The lemon and white tea makes it remind me of an Arnold Palmer too. Feeling really overheated, add a sprig of mint to your glass or bottle. 
 
Green Tea
 
Why only a quart? Because this is poured over a full glass of ice, and that means that with only me drinking it a half gallon is just too much. Besides, don’t you need a reason to get one of those uber cool swing-top ‘growler’ bottles?  I thought so. 
 
Go ahead Summer – bring on the heat – I’m ready!  
 
Michelle @ badzoot.com 

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Another Cherry-Limeade Drink

Today I found a new love – another cherry-limeade wannabe. That’s ok, because this is a version done by one of my favorite healthy diet friends, LaCroix sparkling waters. It’s not a soft drink, or a diet soda. It’s a carbonated water tinged with natural fruit flavors. Zero calories, zero caffeine, zero sodium ! Why yes, I do add alcohol and bits of fruit to them! And it’s awesome! I love only spending my drink-calories on booze. 

This is really new and I’ve only just found it at Target. It wasn’t on sale, but I needed a treat. So, $4.39 for 8 – 12oz. cans, I’m all in. I found a lime, now where’d I put that vanilla rum?
Summer, here I come !!

La Croix

Adventures in the Kitchen with Michelle, Beef Shank Ragu

Beef Shank Ragu, plated

Last month I took my son on a fabulous trip to NYC, via Brooklyn thanks to some of my favorite relatives. Can I have so many ‘favorites’ ?? Why yes – I can !

While on our trip we decided to spend at least one whole day doing the Brooklyn scene. Wow – what fun. Brooklyn Bowl (the coolest bowling alley eveah!!! ), the Brooklyn Flea (more coolness) and a dinner at Fette Sau. Now, I’ll tell you all about that later, but there was another, more casual evening that we ate at yet another fantastic restaurant there called Bar Corvo. It was walking distance from their apartment….ahhhh, Brooklyn. Jes warned me that their Oxtail Ragu was something I’d have dreams about – she was right. OMG! It was so delicious, and served over a gnocchi like I’d never had – like mashed potatoes and ricotta cheese (yes, I’m drooling a bit as I write this!). Honestly, it was ‘semolina gnocchi’, and from what I understand, it’s not commonly served.

I returned from this trip vowing to attempt to duplicate the dish. I already have in my repertoire a Beef Shank Ragu recipe that I really like – and it’s very close. I made it for the family the other night and thought I’d share it with Jes…and then I thought, why not just Post it. I’m just too lazy to re-rye all of it, so, here it is.   

Beef Shank Sauce Over Polenta Recipe – Anya Fernald | Food & Wine

The difference in my recipe would be, next time, to chop the veggies very fine. And start with my Truly Tomatoes, Rustic Style. It’s my cheater bolognese sauce starter. 

Truly tomatoes

Getting oxtails here isn’t the easiest thing. You have to call ahead, they’re expensive, and there really isn’t much meat on them. I really do like the shanks, but get extra bone if you can for the marrow. It melts out and into the sauce and is one of the keys. The next ‘key’ to my Bar Corvo riff is adding a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar. 

potStill fabulous, even with the chunky carrots. The taste – so much like the restaurant! It makes me want to work on that gnocchi – but that’s another meal time. These guys have been smelling this for hours and are ravenous! Make some polenta and you’re good to go. Hmmm, you may swirl in a bit of ricotta or cream cheesiness for that restaurant effect. ( I’ll be making that semolina gnocchi later, maybe tomorrow. )

Simple Polenta:

6 cups of boiling, salted water

1-3/4 Cups Cornmeal

Sprinkle, while whisking the cornmeal into the boiling water. Continue stirring until it thickens (careful – a big dump = a big lump), and then stir occasionally to cook, about 15min. Add in some butter, or cheesiness – spoon into bowls and top with the ragu. 

plated

It’ll never be quite like theirs, but it can remind me of good times whenever I make it.

Michelle Beal

http://badzoot.com