Sabrina,
A cold shaken salad! In a tuppie! This is a great concept and I will try one this week, maybe for a picnic? And, thank you so much for the inspiration for cold soba soup. It was finally hot here so I made a version of it this weekend and loved it – I can’t believe how quickly such a flavorful broth came together.
In other summer news, a friend taught me how to make mead last weekend, and I am here to report back on my first venture into home brewing. My friend is a beekeeper and we spent a day harvesting pounds and pounds of honey. We were trying to think of honey-based recipes. My best idea was baklava, but his better idea was mead.
Mead is honey wine – it’s just honey and water and a bit of yeast, which ferments into a sweet, boozy drink. My impression was that it’s something that only exists at Renaissance Fairs or maybe in Beowulf. But, it’s apparently the oldest alcohol on earth, and has been brewed all over the world in many different cultures. The Vikings were making mead, the Mayans were making mead, and evidence of mead-making has been found on most of the continents.
Making honey wine is much easier than it sounds. I won’t act like I can write a real recipe, but here’s the gist. If you do want to make some, there are more scientific and reliable people out there who can give better directions (we loosely followed this one).
First, somehow acquire 3 or 4 pounds of honey. Then, heat up a gallon of water to a simmer. Infuse the water with any flavor you can think of. We did one batch with hibiscus, which tasted kind of like a honeyed agua de jamaica, and then one batch of Christmas mead with winter spices like star anise, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. When you’ve sufficiently infused the water with your flavors, mix in the honey. Then add a bit of yeast. Pour this mixture into a big glass jug and seal it up. Wait for a few months while it ferments.
Unfortunately I am missing the core part of a food post where I tell you what it tastes like, because I won’t actually know if this has worked out for a while… But I will report back. And in the meantime, please send ideas for other recipes that use honey!
A running letter between long distance friends who love to eat
Do you miss your best friend? Are really hungry you right now? If the answer to either of these is yes, you know what to do.