Chapter 16
Beverages and Syrups
I‘ve spent the better part of this book telling you how to remove water from foods, then how to return the liquid in varying amounts.
Sometimes when I put a drink together I start with pieces of a dried fruit; at other times, with a powder. At still other times, I use dried leather or even dried herbs. As you can see, your options are many, and so is the variety of beverages you can make. Enjoy, for example, Dried Fruit Cordial, made with brandy; or Apricot Cordial, made with white wine (reserve the fruit for a humdinger of a breakfast treat). Or make Mint Tea, using your own homegrown, homedried herbs. Or serve your guests a Dried Fruit Punch—it’s nonalcoholic and perfectly lovely for sipping.
I’ve also included three special syrups: Strawberry, Apricot Leather, and Dried Cherry. Each adds flavor to pancakes or waffles, and can be used as a topping for pound cake or coffee cake. You might also want to combine any of these with a glass of chilled seltzer for a particularly cooling drink.
I hope that this handful of combinations shows you how versatile dried foods can be when you use your imagination to make delicious beverages and syrups with them.
Cranberry Apple Drink
If you do not want to buy commercial cranapple drink, this is the recipe for you. And you can control the amount of sugar in it. You will need dried cranberries, but you probably already have some on hand. For backpacking, pulverize all the dry ingredients first and take the blend along in a plastic bag. Boil water on the trail, add the mix to the boiling water, let cool, then enjoy.
1 cup boiling water
½ cup small dried cranberry pieces (¼-inch size or smaller)
¼ cup small dried apple pieces (¼-inch size or smaller)
1 cup cold water
½ cup sugar
teaspoon ground cinnamon
In a heatproof bowl, combine the 1 cup boiling water, the dried cranberry pieces, and the dried apple pieces. Let sit for 15 minutes to rehydrate.
Pour the rehydrated mixture into a blender and add all the remaining ingredients. Puree until smooth. Serve the drink over ice cubes in tall glasses.
Makes 2 drinks
Dried Fruit Punch
I’m going to serve this easy-to-make nonalcoholic punch at my next New Year’s party. It’s so good, and my friends who have made it say that the flavor compares to other healthful soft drinks.
If you’re wondering why I use rhubarb powder here, it’s because it grows profusely in the Midwest and is a plant that benefits from continual harvesting. Also, I really like it. To see its stalks poking through still frozen ground is one of the first sure signs that summer will come again after our notoriously long winters and late springs. If you don’t have or don’t care for rhubarb, you can substitute either dried cranberries or dried apricots.
2 quarts ginger ale, divided
cup dried rhubarb powder
One 12-ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
¼ cup sugar
Ice cubes
Dried apple rings and/or dried strawberries to float on top
In a punch bowl, combine 1 cup of the ginger ale and the dried rhubarb powder, and stir to mix thoroughly. Add the lemonade concentrate, the sugar, and the remaining ginger ale, and stir until the sugar is dissolved and the punch is combined. Let sit for at least 15 minutes to rehydrate. Add ice cubes to chill. Float the dried apple rings or strawberries on the top.
Makes 10 cups
Dried Fruit Cordial
There are several advantages to flavoring cordials yourself. First, you can use your own fresh or dried fruit. Second, once a dried fruit has steeped—be aware that you will need 4 weeks for steeping—and the alcohol has been flavored, you can reserve the fruit and use it in cooking. (Fresh fruits generally do not lend themselves to this type of recycling because they do not hold together as well after being soaked.) Last, making your own cordials is fun and provides endless opportunities for inviting friends over for sipping.
2 cups dried fruit, such as blackberries, pears, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, or plums
1½ cups sugar
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup brandy
Put the dried fruit of choice in a 1-quart canning jar. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Cover the canning jar securely with the lid and place it where you can see it. You will need to turn the jar over once a day for the next 4 weeks.
Strain the liqueur into a clean bottle, reserving the fruit.
Serve the drink in cordial glasses over ice.
Makes 3 cups
Apricot Cordial
Here’s a variation on the Dried Fruit Cordial that you can enjoy after just 1 week. I like to have the wine-and-brandy–steeped apricots fried in batter for breakfast. First, pat the apricots gently to dry them, then dip them in a light pancake batter and fry them. You might want to just call it a day after that—and go back to bed. They are delicious.
8 large pitted dried apricots
2¼ cups dry white wine
1–1½ cups sugar
1 cup brandy
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
In a saucepan, bring the apricots to a boil in the white wine. Add the sugar, the brandy, and the cinnamon. Stir to dissolve the sugar and remove the pan from the heat. Let cool. Pour the apricots and the liquid into a 1-quart canning jar and cover tightly.
Turn the jar over once a day for 1 week. Strain the liqueur into a clean bottle, reserving the fruit and using it as suggested above.
Makes 3 cups
Dried Fruit Smoothie
This popular drink has only three major ingredients, and all of them are good for you. On a hot day, a smoothie can be cooling and refreshing; on a cool day, nourishing and filling; and after a hard day, it’s a high-energy pick-me-up. You can have a smoothie for breakfast along with a cup of Granola with Dried Fruit. If left to sit for a few minutes after blending, the smoothie thickens and turns almost maltlike.
½ cup dried fruit pieces, such as peaches, pears, bananas, or pineapple (½-inch size)
1 cup yogurt, such as vanilla or plain
Sweetener, sugar, or honey
Ground cinnamon to taste
In the container of a blender, combine the milk and the dried fruit of choice. Let sit for 5 minutes to rehydrate.
Blend the combination to chop the fruit into small pieces. Add the yogurt and blend thoroughly until smooth. Add the sweetener and cinnamon to taste.
Divide the mixture between glasses.
Makes 2 drinks
Strawberry Smoothie: Use dried strawberries, then add strawberry yogurt to the blender for a nutritional and very flavorful variation.
Strawberry Shake
This recipe can be enjoyed both outdoors—note the use of dried milk—or at home, and it is also very good made with apricot or raspberry powder, or a combination of powders, like strawberry and banana. The recipe can be easily multiplied.
1 cup cold water
5 tablespoons instant dried milk
1 tablespoon dried strawberry powder
1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
In a 12-ounce covered container, combine all the ingredients and shake well. Let sit for 10 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Shake again and serve as is or over ice cubes, if desired.
Makes 1 drink
Orange-Carrot Juice
This simple and nutritious drink is great for breakfast, with Cakey Granola Bars or Grandma’s Coffee Cake, chilled or served over ice. Remember a basic tenet about food leather here: The smaller the pieces, the faster the leather rehydrates.
1½ cups warm water
¾ cup orange-carrot leather pieces (1-inch size)
In a bowl, combine the 1½ cups warm water and the leather pieces. Let sit for 30 minutes, stirring with a fork. Or after 15 minutes of rehydration, transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth, adding more water if necessary.
Makes 2 drinks
Orange-Carrot-Yogurt Drink: For a creamy variation, add dried yogurt when you rehydrate the leather. Use an equal amount of dried yogurt to water: For example, ¼ cup dried yogurt to ¼ cup water.
Strawberry Syrup
This basic syrup recipe lends itself to almost any dried fruit. Use the syrup on pancakes. At home, use it to candy fruits and vegetables. Or add sliced fresh strawberries for a dried- and fresh-fruit combination. A pinch of ground nutmeg or cinnamon is nice, too.
½ cup water
½ cup dried strawberries
1 cup brown sugar
In a saucepan, combine the ½ cup water and the dried strawberries. Let sit for 10 minutes to rehydrate.
Place the pan over high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the brown sugar, reduce the heat to low, and simmer the mixture for 10 minutes. Let cool, during which time the syrup will thicken. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Makes 1 cup
Apricot Leather Syrup
In the recipe for Strawberry Syrup, dried fruit is used to make syrup. Here, I use leather. When you’re ready to use the leather, all you have to do is add water in varying amounts, depending on the fruit. To hasten rehydration, tear the leather into 1-inch pieces and use hot or warm water. By returning a specific amount of water to the dried food, you not only reduce cooking time but you alter or control the finished product. Add chopped nuts, if you want syrup with crunch.
1 cup water
1 cup apricot leather pieces (cut or torn into pieces)
In a saucepan, combine the water and the apricot leather pieces. Let sit for at least 10 minutes to rehydrate.
Place the pan over high heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to break up the leather. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let sit for at least 10 minutes.
Adjust consistency by adding more water, a little at a time. By adding just a little water, you do not have to cook foods down to achieve the desired consistency—unless you added too much at the start!
Stir to combine. Use the syrup while still warm on pancakes, as a fruit topping, or as a simple dessert. Let cool. Store in a covered airtight container in the refrigerator.
Makes 1 cup
Dried Cherry Syrup
This syrup is delicious on flapjacks. If there’s some syrup left over, simply add more dried cherries to it and serve that as a fruit pudding. It’s good over pound cake or simple yellow cake.
1 cup water, plus 2 tablespoons cold water
½ cup dried cherries
½ cup sugar
teaspoon dried lemon peel
1 tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon vanilla
In a saucepan, combine the 1 cup water and the dried cherries. Let sit for 10 minutes to rehydrate.
Place the pan over high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, add the sugar and the lemon peel, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Simmer the cherries for 15 minutes until they are soft and tender, adding more liquid if necessary.
In a small dish, stir together the remaining 2 tablespoons cold water and the cornstarch until blended. Add the cornstarch mixture and the vanilla to the pan and simmer, stirring constantly, until the syrup is thickened. Serve while still warm over pancakes or camp breads.
Makes 1 cup
Mint Tea
I’m a tea drinker, and here’s one of my all-time favorite teas. As herb growers know, the combinations you can create with herbs to make teas are virtually limitless. Once perennial herbs, such as mint, thyme, and sage, are firmly established where they grow, they produce large harvests. Consider making these blends: mint and thyme; raspberry leaf and mint; clover blossoms and raspberry. Figure on 1 tablespoon dried product per 1 cup boiling water. Lastly, don’t let the tea boil; it becomes bitter or too strong. Only the water should boil.
2 cups water
1 teaspoon dried spearmint leaves
1 teaspoon dried peppermint leaves
¼ teaspoon dried orange peel
teaspoon ground cinnamon
Sugar, honey, or fruit powder as a sweetener
In a kettle, bring the water to a boil. Place the dried herbs, the peel, and the cinnamon in a tea ball and put it in a teapot. Pour the boiling water over the tea ball, cover the pot, and let steep for 5 to 10 minutes, depending upon how strong you like your tea. Remove the tea ball from the pot and serve the tea with the sweetener of choice.
Makes 2 cups
A Flower Petal Variation: In Seattle I once enjoyed a marvelous Earl Grey tea made with lavender petals. The tea was perfectly beautiful and its flavor was out of this world. You can add flower petals—like lavender or rose—to your own homemade herbal blends, or to store-bought teas. Either way, I think you’ll agree the petals make for a very special cup of tea.