Say hello to red wine hot chocolate... your latest cold weather obsession

The weather is getting colder and the dark nights are officially creeping in.
And at this time of year there is only one thing we need... warm drinks to heat us up. So, we couldn't think of anything better than this, say hello to wine hot chocolate.
Ok, so it might not sound THAT appetising but it's actually really nice and to be honest, we can't believe we haven't thought of this before. It is most certainly our new boozy beverage for this season.

After continuously seeing it on Instagram, we decided to make it ourselves and it is actually so simple.

Here is the method to follow...
1. Put four teaspoons of sugar, three teaspoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and a pinch of salt into small pot together.
2. Then, stir in three tablespoons of milk, followed by 1/4 cup of red wine.
3. Stir the mixture together and then place the pot on the hob continuously stirring until you bring the mixture to boil.
4. Once you have brought it to boil, pour your mixture into a mug, add a couple marshmallows (if your feeling fancy) and you are ready to go.

Polenta and mushrooms make a flavorful meal

Stirring a pot of polenta can be tricky for a short cook like me who has to balance on a step stool to reach into the steaming mash. But with a double boiler, the polenta practically cooks itself perfectly (without the risk of a burn). The double-boiler method uses lower, slower heat so that the cornmeal grains swell and become exceptionally creamy and sweet. Served straight from the pot and drizzled with butter, sprinkled with cheese, this polenta is the ultimate comfort dish. Topped with robust mushroom duxelles, it makes an elegant first course or light meal.

Duxelles, named for 17th-century gourmand Marquis d’Uxelles, is a hearty paste of chopped mushrooms and garlic sautéed in butter with plenty of herbs. It contains no meat, is rich and satisfying, stores for a week in the refrigerator and freezes nicely. I keep it on hand as a base for soups, to top baked potatoes, fill omelets, toss with pasta, and to slather on pizza, bruschetta, risotto and this polenta. Granted, there’s a fair amount of chopping upfront, but once you’ve started cooking, you’re pretty much done.


For this classic recipe, you don’t need perfectly fresh mushrooms; the box of white button mushrooms that’s lingered in the crisper too long is fine. (Of course, if they’re slimy, toss them out.) If they’re simply shriveled and dry, cooking mushrooms in butter will plump them back up. Now that our food co-ops offer such a wide variety of locally grown fungi, try using a mix in this recipe — portobellos, shiitake, large-stem oyster, lion’s manes, chanterelle, porcini and others — from our organic mushroom farmers, such as Mississippi Mushrooms, Cherry Tree Mushrooms and Forest Mushrooms

According to Instagram: This is the world's best winter drink - and we have the recipe!

Attention, we have a new trend to announce - and it's so delicious that our mouth is already watering when writing: hot chocolate + red wine!

Granted, that sounds strange at first, but hey, we eat (and liiieben) and other crazy food combo like Nutella pizza or fries with milkshake dip #issso.

Incidentally, the winter drink was discovered by our colleagues from the UK online magazine Stylist , the recipe for which came from US food blogger Kylie Michell aka immaEATthat .

On Instagram #redwinehotchocolate is of course totally off, so the red wine chocolate is pretty sure to be THE scene drink this winter! And that's how easy it is:

For the world's best winter Christmas punch drink you only need 3 ingredients:
1 glass of red wine (Kylie Michell recommends a Cabernet Sauvignon)
1/3 cup dark chocolate drops

1 ½ cups of milk

First, warm the milk in a pot, add the chocolate drops and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Then add the red wine, stir everything again et voilà!
For more red wine taste, just take less chocolate.

If you like, you can refine the winter drink with cinnamon, coconut whipped cream (yummmy !!) or marshmallows.

Dill Magazine spotlights Asian food

Asian noodles are the theme of Dill Magazine’s first issue, released July 17, as the magazine strives to uncover untold stories and “journey deep into the cuisine of Asia,” according to its website.

Shayne Chammavanijakul, the magazine’s founder, grew up enjoying food, and after listening to her Hakka Thai grandmother’s stories one summer, she was inspired to report on underrepresented cultures, cuisines and countries.

“I wanted [a] publication that explores Asian cooking in this detailed and nerdy academic way, focused on home cooks [and] mom-and-pop shops,” Chammavanijakul said.

An avid reader of food literature, Chammavanijakul said she noticed writing on Asian food concentrated just on celebrity chefs and famous restaurants. She wanted to fill a niche by sharing recipes with historical, cultural and political backgrounds.

Asian food accessibility does not necessarily mean removing the authenticity of the recipe, Chammavanijakul said. Instead, Dill offers a spectrum of food from a simple noodle stir-fry that can be done after school to big weekend projects with page-long ingredient lists, she added.

To eat the goods, noodles you cook right?

Many people cook noodles, are so full of boiling water after the pot began to cook, in fact, this is likely to lead to uneven heating of noodles, noodles easy to gelatinize the surface of the paste, cook the surface is not tendons Road.
In fact, should be so hot to just start to take the bubble, this time will face under the pot, and clockwise agitated noodles, noodles will soon be able to cook.
So that the surface of the boiled and play Q, excellent taste, master the following timing, you can make the noodles delicious 10 times.

When you cook at home, usually the surface thrown into the pot, found the soup more boiled more muddy, there are many floating white foam.
At this time, add a small bowl of cold water to the pot, soup can immediately become clear. The cooked noodles alone fish out, rinse with cold water, but also better to maintain the toughness of noodles.
Cooked with cold water, can better keep the noodles of the taste, but also to reduce the noodle alkaline oozing, eating too much alkali will damage the stomach.

Tastes heavy people, like the soup in the soup, add too much salt, that cook the noodles so delicious.
In fact, the soup too much salt, will increase the burden on cardiovascular, especially those who do not eat high blood pressure.
Want to noodles taste more fresh, as in the cooking side plus a teaspoon of vinegar, can better comprehensive soup of alkaline, and for ordinary noodles, the vinegar, the noodles more white, higher value Oh!

Wolfgang Puck: Set off culinary fireworks with this fresh, flavorful seafood recipe

I haven’t seen definitive statistics on the matter, but I’d be willing to bet that Independence Day sees more people across America cooking and eating outdoors than any other day of the year. It’s a time to enjoy summer in all its glory with family and friends; and food in the open air seems even better when it’s bookended first by relaxing in the back yard or park and later by watching a great fireworks show.

　　When it comes to selecting your main dish for Independence Day, it seems to me that people fall into two different camps. There are the traditionalists, who always go with tried-and-true main dishes like hot dogs and burgers or barbecue ribs, chicken or pork. And then there are people who want to do something original, looking every year for a way to add a new, exciting dish to the holiday.

　　This year, I’d like to offer you a recipe that I think will satisfy both the traditionalists and more adventurous souls: my grilled teriyaki scallops (or shrimp) with grilled pineapple-jalapeno salsa. And while the recipe may at first appear to be out of the ordinary among July Fourth offerings, there is also a strong case to make for it being undeniably all-American.

What America thinks is 'healthy'

 

The survey involved 1,002 American adults, who completed it online in March. Nearly 60% of respondents ranked being "high in healthy components or nutrients" as one of the top three factors for a "healthy" food.

Slightly more than half of respondents ranked "free from artificial ingredients, preservatives or additives" among the top three factors, and nearly 50% ranked "part of an important food group that I need to build a healthy eating style" among the top three factors.

Factors such as "organic" and "non-GMO," or genetically modified, were less likely to be ranked.

The researchers found that there appeared to be much confusion about what eating habits are healthy and what aren't. Many respondents said they turn to their friends and family for guidance on food choices, even though they see dietitians and health care professionals as the most trusted sources for guidance.

"Trusted nutrition information is hard to find, and the public is inundated with conflicting messages, including from dubious sources," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who was not involved in the new survey.

"Looking at the survey results, it's positive that the public recognizes the importance of foods being high in healthy components, nutrients, and part of an important food group and correctly pay less attention to criteria like GMO or organic," he said.

When considering the healthfulness of individual specific components and ingredients, most survey respondents placed vitamin D, fiber and whole grains at the top of the list and saturated fats at the bottom.

When it comes to unsaturated fats, an age gap emerged in who found those fats to be "healthy." About 50% of survey respondents 65 and older called unsaturated fats healthy, whereas just 33% of those 18 to 34 did.

"The low recognition of the importance of healthy fats is disappointing," Mozaffarian said.

Older respondents were also more likely to label saturated fats as unhealthy, which most experts agree is correct, according to the survey.