CookingDiva

Certain flowers are not only for decoration, they could also be in your salad and satiate your thirst with an invigorating, magically sensual brew. Do I have your attention now?

The benefits of cooking with tea seem endless. In many cases, when you cook with tea, it retains many of the essential vitamins as well as the antioxidants. Tea is not only a refreshing and delicious beverage, but also very versatile and exotic ingredient that is hitting the kitchens of the adventurous cooks all over the world. How about cooking with tea today? Here we are sharing a simple, yet fantastic recipe to tickle your creativity. It could be prepared with fresh hibiscus petals, or red hibiscus tea.

Ingredients

• 1 cup boiling water
• 4 tablespoons red hibiscus tea (or the petals only of 4 red hibiscus, washed)*
• 1 cup sugar or honey (or to taste)
• 3 cups original flavor yogurt (regular or low in fat)

Preparation

Pour boiling water over hibiscus tea, or hibiscus petals. Brew 5-10 minutes, or until it has reached a very intense red color. Remove tea bags, OR put the liquid through a very fine sieve to remove solids. Discard solids / used tea bag.

Combine tea with sugar and stir until dissolved. Cool completely and then add the yogurt and stir until the tea has been distributed evenly. You will get a pink beautiful yogurt. So sexy!

Pour mixture into ice pop molds and freeze until firm. To serve, press firmly on bottom and sides of molds to remove. If using paper cups, freeze mixture until almost firm and then insert Popsicle sticks into centers. Freeze until firm.

Recipe yields 6-8 Popsicles.

Important: if you are using fresh hibiscus petals, make sure they have not been exposed to pesticides.

Related posts:

• Cooking with Saril = Jamaica = Roselle, Hibiscus Sabdariffa
• Edible Flowers: The Marvelous Hibiscus
• Edible Flowers: The Red Velvet Rose of Love
• Hibiscus: More than just a Beautiful Flower

This post is my contribution for this week's Kalyn's Kitchen Weekend Herb Blogging. Don't forget to visit her blog on Sunday night to check out all the other great posts that always get submitted for this event!

Tags: weekend herb blogging, hibiscus, cookingdiva, cooking, panama

Sorbet is the French name for sherbet, long popular as a cooling sweet made from fruit juice, liqueur or wine. Sorbets are so versatile, they can be served as a first course, between courses or as dessert. The champagne added before freezing creates an interestingly flavored sorbet. Use about 1 cup alcohol to 1 pound of fruit or two cups of fruit juice.

This sorbet is easy to make. When the sorbet comes out of the ice cream maker, it can be eaten immediately, although it will be very soft. For a firmer consistency, transfer it to a freezer container and freeze for two to three hours to allow the sorbet to harden. If you do not have an ice cream maker, you can freeze the mixture in a large metal pan, stirring occasionally as it begins to freeze. However, the texture will be fairly icy. If sorbet is too hard, it can be crushed and serve as a granita.

The confession: The popping noise gives me goose bumps. I have always loved wine, but now The Enthusiast woke up and life would never be the same. Being passionate about the world of wine makes my mission in life to search and purchase wine to enjoy with family and friends. If this requires traveling the world, then so be it.

Nothing gets my juices going like a wine tour in the most exotic of places, wearing, of course a t-shirt that proclaims me as the "Wine Diva." Nevertheless I am not afraid any more to spit and criticize or swirl and admire as a wine demands.

Now, I am finally back home from the Wine Tour.

I missed you very much, but have to admit the Wine Tour was an unique and espectacular opportunity to explore my beloved Argentina and Uruguay in a new way. Loved to argue over a chardonnay and found the romance of corks irresistible.

Andres Rosberg, a fine gentleman that happens to be the President of the Argentinian Association of Sommeliers, traveled with our small group trough the top vineyards of his country and Uruguay. Winery after winery, I lost track of how many wines we tasted, but I sure remember the places we visited:

First, Cafayate in the Salta province. There we stayed at the Cafayate Wine Resort.  We visited Bodega El Esteco, and later we went to Bodega Laborum and vineyard. We had lunch at the home of the Laborum owner, Marcelo Romero, who is the brother of the governor of the province.

October 8 was the perfect day to visit the Domingo Hermanos Winery. It was sunny with a refreshing breeze that accompany us through our journey. Thirty minutes away was the San Pedro de Yacochuya winery waiting for us. The delicious lunch was as good as their wine.

Then, Mendoza. What an unique place. We stayed at the Park Hyatt Hotel, and to tell you the truth I could NOT resist the temptation to nurture my wine-loving body with one of their beauty treatments with wine. Oh my! It was quite sticky, but I loved every second of it. Ahhh...

Tomorrow I will write about the places we visited in Mendoza, including a great video featuring "the making of empanadas in a rustic oven made of mud." Stay Tuned!

Now, I leave you with a link to Asado Argentina, a very nice blog on Argentinian Asado. They have an array of recipes and tips to cook the perfect asado and side dishes to accompany such a delicacy.

AND, if you are in the mood for some Argentinian Empanadas and Chimichurri Sauce, check out this scrumptious recipe. You WON'T regret it.

Have a tasty afternoon!

Melissa

Tags: argentina, food blogs, cookingdiva, cooking, panama, recipes, food & drink, food, chef melissa