Pomegranate Sunset Recipe Re-Do from Oct. 13th's The Chew

Clinton Kelly made drinks inspired by all of his co-hosts except Carla – what gives??? I’d have made a lemonade drink with a good bourbon from Carla’s home state of Tennessee. Oh well.

Daphne’s drink was a Pomegranate Sunset. I Ozzified it by making a syrup using agave nectar in place of the white sugar – 1 part agave to 2 parts pomegranate juice.

As usual, I made a few changes:

• I didn’t have any regular vodka, but had some vanilla vodka in the freezer, so I used that instead. 
• I used sparkling mineral water in place of seltzer water because that is what I had on hand, 
• Since I still had nearly a full jug of organic apple cider left from last week’s Apple Pie Yogurt dessert, I used it in place of the orange juice.
• I used a cinnamon stick and a quick grind of nutmeg as garnish rather than go buy mint which probably wouldn’t have gone very well with apple cider anyway.

The final product was tasty enough, but had way more calories and sugar than my usual cocktails. I’d rather have a mojito or a Skinny Girl margarita, especially since it’s still in the 90s here in Arizona.

Drunken Purple Cow, a Recipe Redo from The Chew, October 10, 2011

The redo today is not much of an Ozzification since grape juice also has resveratrol, but using the leftover syrup I Ozzified from Mario Batali’s September 29^th’s segment (Peaches in Primativo) is easier than reducing grapes and soooo much more fun! 

The syrup was Ozzified by using agave syrup in place of the sugar. It also was made using a more easily found red wine (Malbec) & since both the online recipe & Mario’s demonstration omitted the clove, the leftover syrup doesn’t have it either. While the clove would’ve enhanced the syrup on the peaches had the recipe appeared then as it does now on the website, it would’ve made for a nasty Purple Cow.  Happy accident for me - I was able to use the syrup in a totally different way today to make a grown-up Purple Cow.

Of course, I went a couple of steps further and Ozzified the remaining ingredients from Clinton Kelly’s Purple Cow as well.  I used sherbet instead of ice cream & ice-cold, sparkling Pellegrino instead of seltzer water. Sherbet has less fat and calories than ice cream and Pellegrino is rich with minerals like calcium not found in seltzer water.

The steps are the same as they were on today’s The Chew:

• Put a generous amount of the leftover Red Wine syrup at the bottom of a tall glass – about one ounce.
• Put in a scoop of sherbet.  If you decide to use sherbet instead of ice cream, be sure it is sherbet & not sorbet. Sorbet doesn’t have milk and will not foam up the way ice cream and sherbet will.
• Pour in the sparkling mineral water. To mix it all together without it effervescing all over the place, take an iced tea or other long handled spoon & rapidly move it up and down while pouring in the water, much the way Clinton did on his segment.

The result is a very foamy, very sweet, bubbly mauve drink. Drink immediately or the whole thing collapses when the foam deflates. The Purple Cow grows up - Salud!

Ozzifying Mario Batali’s Peaches in Primitivo Syrup - A Recipe Re-do from The Chew, September 29, 2011

This recipe was pretty simple, requiring only four ingredients, well @ first anyway. You can see Mario Batali's original, pre-Ozzified recipe here:

At first glance, there wasn't much to modify in this recipe. Peaches and red wine are both already very healthful ingredients. I did end up changing everything, however.

Modified:

• Red Wine - Mario used Primitivo, an Italian wine not easily found out here in the hinterland, so I used an inexpensive Malbec in it's place
• Peaches – Not really a change on my part - the recipe said to peel them, but the picture showed the peels on. I followed the recipe & peeled them, though it would’ve been fine to use them unpeeled since the peaches I had on hand were organic. 

Swapped:

• 86ed the white sugar & used agave syrup instead. I was able to use less of it since it was already reduced.
• Didn’t use a clove because neither Mario’s on-air segment nor the recipe when it first was posted on The Chew website made any mention of it. Now all of a sudden it mentions you might want one – I concur. The syrup’s flavor profile would’ve been enhanced had a clove been simmered in the reduction.

Kept:

Fresh ground black pepper

This was already a delicious and healthier alternative to a processed, high fat, high fructose dessert. Ozzifying it by substituting agave sweetener for white sugar makes it even better.