Summer Breeze and Fireside Cranberry Sours, the perfect way to enjoy the day.
#CapeCodSelect #PremiumCranberries #RecipeContest
It’s cranberry time!! No it’s not fall or winter, it’s summer but when you have access to the best, most premium frozen cranberries, you can eat cranberries all year long. I am so happy to be an accepted blogger to participate in Cape Cod Select’s Blogger Challenge. This year I learned a few things about the company. One, it’s is a small women-owned family business. How cool is that? Second, the Rhodes family has been growing cranberries on their 800 acre cranberry farm for more than 75 years and is now in its fourth generation. That’s a lot of cranberries over the years.
The cranberries are grown to some of the industries highest standards and are Non-GMO verified and hold GLOBALG.A.P. Certification. Check out what that means here at https://www.globalgap.org/uk_en/for-consumers
Just look at those gems. Cape Cod Select also has a focus on sustainability, powering its facilities primarily with solar power and using better growing practices on their farms. It is no wonder that they grow the largest, fullest, richest cranberries I have ever cooking with. (FYI, this is my personal comment with no endorsement for saying so.)
This years bloggers contest includes three categories; Beverages, Appetizers and Sides, Salads & Salsas. Each blogger can enter all three categories for a chance at winning cash prizes as follows.
:: One Grand Prize Winner: $1,000.00 Cash Prize
:: One Beverage Category Winner: $500.00 Cash Prize
:: One Appetizers Category Winner: $500.00 Cash Prize
:: One Sides, Salads, & Salsas Category Winner: $500.00 Cash Prize
The winner of the Cape Cod Select “Summer Breeze Blogger Recipe Challenge” will be determined by judging all qualifying entrants’ submissions based on the following criteria:
:: 1. Visual Appeal: 25%
:: 2. Creativity: 25%
:: 3. Taste: 50%
With summer time here, I felt inclined to start with a beverage. We have a fire pit table in our backyard and it is such a wondrful place to hang out, eat, drink and toast a marshmallow or two. Knowing how well lemon goes with cranberries, I wanted to use fresh squeezed lemon juice for the drink. Whiskey Sours sounded good. They use lemon juice but how could I incorporate the cranberries? Cranberry simple syrup!!
This couldn’t be just another ordinary kind of Whiskey Sour even though I was going to use cranberries in the simple syrup. It needed to be a little more elevated than that. In comes the fresh rosemary branches. Not so much for the hint of rosemary flavor they could give but rather the smokey flavor they could give once the branches are lit on fire.
The flames of my fire pit inspired this drink, rightly named Fireside Cranberry Sours.
The recipe is actually easy to make. You just need to add frozen cranberries to some whiskey and then add the burnt rosemary branches to the jar. Quickly add the lid and allow it to set for a few hours. The longer the better. Even turning the jar upside down or giving it a shake with allow the flavors to blend.
If you have a gas stove or even a fire pit going, you can light the branches on fire over the open flame. If you do not have either of those available you can use a lighter and ignite the leaves as best you can with the torch.
Try to capture as much of the smoke as possible. If needed relight the branches to produce more smoke. This is what will produce a smokey flavor in the whiskey.
Not to forget that the cranberries take in the whiskey while they soak. Skewer several on a pick and use them as garnish along with a torched rosemary sprig. While the whiskey is exchanging flavors with the cranberries and torched rosemary, you can make a quick cranberry simple syrup needed for the cocktail. Once you have that done all you need is some fresh squeezed lemon juice and some rock hard ice cubes.
Find more great recipes and ideas on using these premium cranberries on Cape Cod Select social media. @CapeCodSelect
If you want to purchase Cape Cod Select frozen cranberries online from their website, click here. If you want to locate a store to purchase their frozen cranberries, click here. You will be happy you did.
Fireside Cranberry Sours #CapeCodSelect
Number of servings: 6
Summer Breezes and Fireside nights have never tasted better. Add this smokey Fireside Cranberry Sour to your next summer gathering.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whiskey
- 2 cups Cape Cod Select Premium Cranberries, divided
- 12 sprigs fresh rosemary, divided (6 will be for garnish)
- Zest of two lemons
- 9 ounce fresh lemon juice (approximately 5 lemons)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- Quart jar with lid
- Stick style lighter if no open flame from gas stove
- 6 rock glasses
- Large ice cubes (2-3 cubes per glass)
- 6 skewer picks
Instructions
- Pour the whiskey to a quart jar and add in 1 cup of frozen cranberries.
- Over an open flame, ignite the leaves of 6 rosemary sprigs. The leaves do not burn long if they are fresh. Relight if needed to get a good smoke going. Quickly invert the sprigs into the whiskey and close the jar with a lid.
- Refrigerate and allow to set for several hours or longer if possible. The jar can be inverted or shaken occasionally to allow the flavors to blend and mix.
- In a saucepan over medium high heat bring to a simmer the sugar, water, zest of the lemons and the remaining 1 cup of cranberries. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes or until the cranberries begin to open and cook down.
- Strain the cranberry simple syrup to remove the zest and cooked cranberries. Chill the syrup.
- To prepare a cocktail, remove the rosemary sprigs from the whiskey and discard. Remove the whiskey soaked cranberry and assemble on skewers and set aside.
- Put 2-3 large ice cubes in a glass, add 2 ¼ ounce of the whiskey, 1 ½ ounce lemon juice and 1 ounce cranberry simple syrup. Garnish with cranberry skewers and the remaining rosemary sprigs that have been burned on the ends.
- If a sweeter drink is desired, additional cranberry simple syrup can be added.
