Raspberry Lemonade

OK people, it's officially summer. In case you couldn't tell by the extreme heat and crazy weather. Or the fact that the 4th of July was just a few days ago. And I don't think there's anything that says summer more than lemonade. Maybe sitting by the pool with ice cream dripping down your fingers. Ooo wait. I totally have it. Sitting by the pool with ice cream dripping down your fingers sipping this lemonade. Summer overload.

I made this a few weeks ago for the bridal shower where I also made these sandwiches and Kaanan made these cupcakes. It was super delicious and a nice drink for a soon to be (any day now!!!) new Mom!

Raspberry Lemonade
Source: Joy the Baker

For the sauce:

1 small package raspberries (about 6 oz)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp water

For the simple syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

For the lemonade:
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, 4 to 6 lemons
4 cups cold water

First, make the simple syrup. Heat the 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a small saucepan until sugar dissolves.

Meanwhile, make the sauce! Combine raspberries, sugar, and water in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Set a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and pour in raspberry puree. Use a spatula to press the puree through the strainer so that only the seeds remain in the strainer.

Combine lemon juice, cold water, 1/4 cup of sauce and simple syrup in a large pitcher. Stir to combine and test to see if it needs more sugar. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Enjoy!

PS. This sauce is awesome on greek yogurt for breakfast in the morning. Or on top of vanilla ice cream. A-mazing.

Palak Tofu

Spinach season is almost over! I loved getting tons of spinach in the CSA this year. I'm a little behind on posting recipes (silly grad school) but I'm trying to get caught up. This is just in time for the last part of the spinach season, so go out and make this. It's sooooo good.

As before with the Mattar Tofu, I used tofu in this recipe instead of paneer. And just to blow your health freak socks off, I totally served this over brown rice. Yeah, that's right. Health. Food.

Palak Paneer
Adapted from my Kaanan's recipe for Palak Paneer

1 package extra firm tofu
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
2 bunches spinach, washed and torn
1 shallot (or small onion), diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup milk
1 tbsp flour
2 heaping tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chile powder

In a medium nonstick skillet, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the tofu and fry on all sides until golden brown. Set aside.

While the tofu is frying, melt the butter and remaining oil to a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Add the spinach in batches and cook until wilted. Continue cooking spinach until it is all wilted. Add flour and stir to coat spinach. Pour in milk and stir until combined. Cook for a few minutes, then remove from heat.

Blend the spinach using either an immersion blender right in the pan or carefully transfer spinach to a food processor and pulse until mixed. Return to pot and add Garam Masala, coriander, turmeric and chile powder. Salt to taste.

Add tofu to spinach and mix to combine. Cook until tofu is heated through. Serve over rice or with naan.

Enjoy!

Oh, and if you happen to be cooking this on a 90 degree day with the threat of blackouts due to every single air conditioner being run at full capacity, you might need one of these.

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Whey

Made ricotta cheese recently? Have a whole lot of leftover whey and no ideas on what to do with it? Never seen whey in your life and you're wondering why it looks mildly like uncooked egg whites? Well, friends, you've come to the right place.

I made ricotta cheese the other day and I thought it would be fun to try something with the leftover whey from the cheese making. I figured if the cheese could be that amazing then anything made with the whey would be just as good. Simple reasoning, right? Right.

I googled for a bit about what exactly to do with all this whey and once I got past all of the body building websites (yikes) I found a couple of helpful forums. Mostly, people talked about adding it to baked goods where you would normally add buttermilk. So.... the experiment began.

Side note about pancake making which has absolutely nothing to do with whey but has a lot to do with nostalgic memories of making pancakes at my Dad's house on Saturday mornings. My Dad used to have this awesome griddle in his kitchen. Why someone decided to put a gigantic griddle in his condo is completely beyond me... I think it must have been a 70's thing to go with that amazing avocado refrigerator  Anyway, we made a lot of pancakes on that thing. We would wake up on Saturday mornings and I would dump half of the ingredients on the counter help make the batter (things haven't changed much, have they Dad?). Then he would let me help cook them and when I got old enough I would actually cook them myself. He was always very specific about how much the batter was mixed and exactly how to cook the pancakes. They had to start bubbling on the edges and look just the slightest bit dry. I still make pancakes exactly like that. And they always turn out perfectly. Except now I add crazy things to the batter... like whey.

Whole Wheat Whey Pancakes
Adapted from Joy the Baker

If you don't want to use whey or you're scared of whey or you haven't made cheese in a while (sheesh) then go ahead and use whole milk in the recipe instead of the whey like I used here. They would be just as delicious.

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup whey
1.2 cup whole milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk whey, milk, eggs and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid. Whisk until combined, and then let it sit for 5 minutes to thicken.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and melt a pat of butter in the center. Add about 1/3-1/2 cup of batter to the pan and let it cook until the edges get all bubbly and slightly dry. Then flip and cook the other side until done.

Serve with strawberries and homemade ricotta from the other day if you have it.

Enjoy!