Watermelon Sangria

Outside of my obsession with playing with spices, I love wine and playing with wine. I used actually be noted for my spontaneous cocktails. People loved them as much more than the food that I cooked. I have a theory on this, it is what I call the cheap wine theory, basically after a couple of glasses folks do not really complain about the edge or lack of smoothness of cheap wine. Nonetheless, I have significantly reduced dabbling with cocktails, not because I have reduced my drinking but it is sort of in line with my general hasstle free approach to cooking. Doing a creative syrup, cooling it, takes time. However, a couple of weeks back, I made this Watermelon Sangria, inspired by this recipe.

Now, what a difference the wine makes, while Doug's sangria looks like the pale red of the watermelon, my version looks much deeper and yes, you got it right I used red wine. Actually, I skipped the agave nectar, because I used a slightly sweet red wine.

This red is very happy served chilled and hence, just perfect for Sangria. I had to through in the black salt, it is a quintissential Indian combination to add black salt to fruit juices.

So I made about 4 glasses of sangria following the following measures,

Watermelon Sangria

Cook/Prep Time: 1 hour (mostly chilling)

1.5 cups of fresh watermelon juice (about 1/2 a medium sized water melon, cut and pureed in the blender and then strained.

1.5 cups of a sweet red wine

1/2 teaspoon black salt

1.5 cups of seltzer

Method of Preparation

1. Mix in the watermelon juice, red wine and black salt.

2. Chill for at least 45 minutes to an hour.

3. Place 2-3 ice cubes in serving glasses (you do not want too much or it will dilute the watermelon flavor).

4. Add in 3/4 glass of the wine-watermelon mixture.

5. Top off with some seltzer and enjoy.

Benmarl Winery - A local wine destination

One of the things I realized recently was that despite my love for wine, and the bounty and variety of wine we have around the region, I really did not know enough about the local wines. Sure I had a few favorites, here and there but not the way, I have my favorites with Chilean or Argentinian wine. Well, other than trying out wine, the Hudson Valley Wine trail,


makes for very pretty driving and communing with nature. Most of this regions have local farms along the way to pick up and sample local produce and jams. So one of our thoughts this year was to start covering the wine trails and local vineyards.


We started with Benmarl winery that was located on Slate Hill, and also houses the Slate Hill vineyards on 37 acres of land. The location is just stunning and spectacular. The day we went they were preparing for a wedding, but we landed well before everyone except the violinist who was practicing his music. This created a one of a kind magical atmosphere. The vistas of the valley are breathtakingly lovely.

It was a little cloudy and the camera especially my point and shoot can only do so much. There were very pretty dark and white grapes all over the vineyard and it would make for a lovely place for a picnic.
Now down to the wine, they have tasting of 6 wines for 5 bucks and a dollar more for each additional wine you would like to try.
I tried 3 white wines, (I will warn you, I am partial to reds) - the pinot grigio, that was fruity but a little too sharp for my palate, the Chardonnay was ok, but I really loved their slate hill white. I thought this was a nice wine to enjoy particularly with spicier foods.
I tried 4 of their red wines, they have a nice red called Baco Noir. I thought this was really amazing. It would be for of nice dinner kind of wine, not too heavy and again therefore good with a lot of foods, their Pinot Noir was pretty good as well. The two heavier reds that I tried, their Zinfandel and the Syrah were ok but not exceptional! However, once again just the loveliness of this destination makes this a worthwhile trip.
Next summer, I shall pack a picnic lunch and try to plan a better day (haha!) given the ridiculous weather we had this year.

A nice dark beauty!

I had been meaning to try this dish out for a while, when I saw this recipe, I was even further encouraged. Well this was an amazingly luscious sauce, but it takes a lot of time. Well, Katie said she tinkered with the recipe, I tinkered some more, but generally was pretty good, by my standards. This is how I did it.

Ingredients
To marinate
1 whole chicken skinned and jointed ( I just cannot use skin other than with roast chicken)
1 tsp rosemary
3 carrots thickly sliced
2 tsp salt
1 bottle wine (I used a modest burgundy)
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped parsely
6 cloves garlic
A few bay leaves

For the finishing sauce
3 tbsp butter
6 shallots thickly sliced
10 oz button mushrooms thickly sliced
2 zuchinis thickly sliced with the skin (Hey, that's pretty french)
1.5 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp cornstarch

Method of preparation
1. Soak the chicken in the marinade overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Cook for 1 hour on a simmer the next day.
3. Cool, slightly and remove the chicken.
4.Strain the sauce.
5. Put a half cup aside and disolve the cocoa and cornstarch.
6. Melt the butter, add the shallots and cook till turning golden (this takes about 15 minutes.)
7. Add the mushrooms and zucchini and cook for another 5 minutes.
8. Add the strained sauce and bring to a boil, mix in the cocoa mixture and add the chicken.
9. Cook for 7 minutes till thickened.
10. Serve with anything that will absorb this wonderful sauce.

Well, since this is the result of patrolling other blogs and is from France at some point of time, I am sending this off for an interesting event being hosted by Coffee who actually is encoraging folks to blog partrol.
This is an incredible busy time and since my doctor has ordered "off the feet for a few more days" I am double dipping and sending this off to David Lebovitz for Sugar High Friday. I used Ghiradelli. I actually am not much of a chocolate person, I do white chocolate, I do not think that really counts, but I did read David's chocolate book, since I like reading cookbooks.