Hibiscus is a popular ingredient in Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Mexico. It’s used in beverages, salads, side dishes and desserts, among other things. It’s way overdue to break out in the U.S.
Along with our Top Pick Of The Week—hibiscus iced tea—try this hibiscus punch, known in Egypt as karkadé (pronounced kar-kah-DAY).
It couldn’t be easier to make the punch. If you can boil water, strain out the hibiscus leaves and add sugar, you’re there.
This recipe in the video doesn’t contain alcohol—Islam, the state religion of Egypt, doesn’t permit alcohol.
You can enjoy it as is, add your favorite white spirit (gin, vodka or tequila, for example), or substitute ginger ale for the alcohol.
Watch the video and see how quickly you can whip up an innovative (to Americans) hibiscus punch.
Make a saké hibiscus punch by adapting one of these saké punch recipes, or make the hibiscus punch recipe below (beneath the video).
HIBISCUS PUNCH RECIPE
Ingredients
3 quarts water
1/2 inch fresh ginger, finely sliced
1-1/2 cups dried hibiscus flowers*
1-1/2 cups sugar
Juice from one large lime
Optional: 1 cup alcohol (gin, vodka or tequila)
Optional: Lime wedges for garnish
*Look for them at Latin or Caribbean markets. Also called roselle, flor de Jamaica and red sorrel, among other names. You can also buy it in an affordable bulk size online.
Preparation
1. Bring water and ginger to a boil. Remove from heat and add hibiscus flowers.
2. Slowly stir in sugar until it has dissolved. Let steep 15 minutes.
3. Strain into a large pot or a gallon pitcher. Add lime juice and set aside to cool.
4. Refrigerate. When ready to serve, transfer to a pitcher. Serve over ice.
NIBBLE TIP: You can make ice cubes from some of the punch, so the ice doesn’t dilute the drink.
The last couple of years have seen a bacon frenzy: bacon chocolate, bacon brittle, bacon cupcakes, bacon mayonnaise and more (see our Best Bacon Gifts).
Given that bacon is a favorite breakfast food, why not try bacon in a morning muffin?
Summer saké punch with strawberries and cucumber: delicious! Photo courtesy Geikkekan.
For warm weather entertaining—like Father’s Day—serve something different and unexpected.
Party drinks like sangria and punch are popular, affordable and easy to make.
For a fun fusion, make them with saké.
Saké, which many people think of as rice wine (we’ll skip the technicalities for now), can substitute for conventional grape-based wines in these recipes.
How about saké sangria, an Asian twist on the Spanish original? Refresh yourself with:
Peach & Plum Sangria
Summer Saké Sangria, with watermelon and honeydew
Fruity Sake Sangria, with apple, honeydew and orange
Would you rather serve a pitcher of punch instead of sangria?
The key difference is that punch isn’t chock-full of fruit like sangria, and typically has effervescence added via soda water or ginger ale. Recipes include:
Ginger Plum Punch
Saké Berry Punch
Cool Sparkle Punch, with cucumbers and strawberries (our favorite among the six refreshing recipes)
FOOD TRIVIA: The word “punch” is adapted from the Hindi word, “panch.” In India, panch was made from five different ingredients: sugar, lemon, water, tea or spices and an alcoholic spirit. The word for “five” in Sanskrit is panchan–hence the name. After carbonated water (soda water) became mainstream in the late 18th century, it was added to the punch for some effervescence.
When you clean shrimp for a recipe, save and freeze the shells. They impart an intense shrimp flavor, and you can use them later to make another delicious dish.
Use them to make a simple stock and use it as a base for poaching fish, cooking rice, etc. (simmer the shells for 20 minutes with a bay leaf and 6 peppercorns).
Use the stock to flavor a shrimp/seafood risotto.
Use the stock to doctor a purchased seafood or fish stock.
Make a sauce from pan juices. After cooking fish or seafood, deglaze the pan with white wine and stock; finish with a tablespoon of butter and serve over the fish/seafood.
Simmer the shells in a pasta sauce for a big punch of flavor.
Add flavor to clam chowder and other fish/seafood soups and stews.
A friend tells us that her Golden Retriever loves to eat the shells.
Save those shrimp shells! Photo by Leonardo Menezes | SXC.
By the way, you can eat the shrimp shells. Some varieties have very thin shells, not unlike soft shell crabs. Many people don’t like to swallow the crunched-up shells, but they are nutritious. Our dad loved to crunch on them.
June 16, 2011 at 7:18 am
· Filed under Father's Day
No decisions required: Send Dad a gourmet gift certificate.
It’s getting close!
If you haven’t figured out what to get your favorite dad(s) for Father’s Day—or you don’t have time to run out and buy it—we have a delicious solution:
A gift certificate to The Nibble Gourmet Market.
We created our gourmet marketplace to make it easy to find our favorite foods, most of which have been NIBBLE Top Picks Of The Week (the rest are future Top Picks). So many readers write to ask what to give their girlfriends, grandmothers, kid’s teachers and so forth. The Nibble Gourmet Market makes it easy.
And what makes it even easier is a gift certificate. It gets emailed as soon as as your order is processed, so if you can’t get around to it until Father’s Day, this Sunday, it will still arrive “on time.”
Those who don’t get around to it can always send a belated gift certificate on Monday.
A gift certificate also eliminates the decision making: Does Dad want our favorite whoopie pies, artisan salame, fresh-picked oysters or single malt chocolates, for example. Let him decide!
