Originating from the mountainous regions of Peru, Chicha Morada is a traditional alcohol-free beverage crafted from purple corn, pineapple peel, cinnamon and cloves. This delightful concoction is highly customizable, going from healthy to sweet. Despite its roots in Latin America, it is a delicious drink that deserves recognition worldwide. Chicha Morada holds a higher level of popularity in Peru than Coca-Cola. While it’s available in various forms, such as bottled, powdered, or gel, nothing compares to authentic homemade juice. Crafting it at home is surprisingly easy; the most challenging part may be sourcing dry purple corn (maíz morado), typically found at your local Latino market. If not available locally, you can likely find it online, ensuring it’s from Peru as they have the unique entirely purple cob. Particularly favoured among children, there’s also an adult version called Chicha de Jora, which includes alcohol, offering a different twist for the grown-ups.…
An autumnal cocktail to warm up and keep it fun and fizz. Try this Spiced Apple Spritz with spiced rum, sparkling apple juice (or cider), cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. There are zillions of great summer cocktails, but not as many Fall ones. Let me introduce you to this lovely spiced-up cocktail called Spice Apple Spritz. It is ultra simple to prepare and easy to turn into a grown-up punch, too, with extra apple pieces. Rum Choice This recipe comes from a Jamaican descendant friend, so she recommended a mix of a white overproof Wray& Nephew and brown rum. For those who don’t know what an Overproof rum is, it has more than 50% alcohol. It is 60% in this case, which is a bit scary for some people. I kept the drink a bit softer and used spiced rum instead, which works wonders. If you want the real Jamaican deal,…
Compressed Apple Cake is a lovely multilayer cake made of layered apple slices sweetened with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg compressed on a bed of walnuts and cornflakes. Compressed Apple Cake is a reversed apple cake, cooked slowly for 2 hours; the released pectin from the apples will jellify the whole cake to make it hold perfectly. The result is a fantastic mouthful of apples with a thin crust of walnut, sugar-free whole-grain cornflakes (or graham) with a touch of flour, butter and brown sugar. This thin base gives the dessert a crunch, but this dish’s magic finds itself in its bold apple flavour and fun light texture. I usually try to avoid flaky pastries knowing it’s filled with butter, so this base is a great solution; plus, walnuts and apples are just a perfect match. It is a sweet cake made with little sugar because apples are already filled, so it is…