Spiced wine with quince and roses

February 7, 2010 at 1:00 am | Tags: , , , , ,

People, believe it or not, I've found a use for kiddush wine. For those who have never had it, it's a traditionally sweet wine to represent the sweetness of blessings, but there's just so much sweetness a person can handle until terms like cloying and sickly come to mind. But add some spices and fruit, and heat it up, and it's actually quite nice. There you have it, mulled wine, no sugar added. Good for the cold weather, too.

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of attending a Tel Aviv food blogger meet-up. Yael of Oranges and Honey (in Finnish), Irene of Irene Sharon Hodes, Sarah of Foodbridge, Michelle of Baroness Tapuzina and Miriam of Israeli Kitchen and I met at Mazzarine in Tel Aviv for dinner (see my previous review). The management had caught wind of our nature, and sent over a handful of offerings on the house, along with the new chef. Culinary highlights: I quite liked the foccaccia and the mustard mayonnaise; chef Sharon Artzi, who had been there a week at the time, told us he planned to renovate the menu with new dishes; and the mulled wine that closed our meal was excellent. A traditional Scandinavian holiday drink, as Yael pointed out. (Non-food highlight: Have you ever been out to eat with six people who all get up and methodologically photograph every dish? It's nice to be with like minds.)

Along with cubes of fresh fruit, Mazzarine added a few dried rosebuds to their mulled wine, and while they don't add a prominent flavor, they make a nice visual touch.

Now, you could make mulled wine from slightly better stock, but why bother? I've never exactly been a wine connoisseur, and in any case, why ruin something that's worth drinking on its own? And who doesn't have a random, unwanted bottle of kiddush wine sitting around? Continue reading Spiced wine with quince and roses...

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Tomato sauce with spinach, wine and pine nuts

March 29, 2009 at 1:00 am | Tags: , , , , , , ,

spinach-wine-pasta-sauce-cafe-liz

This is a simple tomato-based pasta sauce with wine, spinach and pine nuts. We tend to have open bottles of wine around, since we never finish them. One word of caution regarding the tomatoes: Since the sauce is based on them, they need to be ripe and sweet; otherwise the sauce will be lacking. Fortunately, tomatoes are just starting to come into season. Continue reading Tomato sauce with spinach, wine and pine nuts…

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Cranberry wine granita

February 11, 2009 at 1:00 am | Tags: , , , , , , ,

cranberry-granita

Strangely enough, I guess you could consider cranberry an exotic fruit around here — the climate is way too warm to grow cranberry bushes. This means I made this granita out of cranberry juice, which is readily available. Continue reading Cranberry wine granita…

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