Image via Wikipedia
One of my favorite food sites is 101 Cookbooks – lots of yummy, interesting, healthy, and most importantly, vegetarian food. (Don’t worry friends, the infamous vegetarian-hating, bacon-loving Ted Brassfield has not converted – this is She, guest blogging while He cooks up fish tacos for dinner.) I usually leave the adventurous recipes to Ted, but it just so happened that I was perusing 101 Cookbooks and came across a chile blackberry syrup recipe on a day when I had a pound of blackberries in the refrigerator. So I hopped over to our Latin market, picked up some guajillo chiles (the one item I didn’t have on hand), and gave the recipe a whirl. The result? A gorgeous, deep purple syrup with a bright blackberry flavor (not at all jammy) and a healthy dose of heat (yowzer!).
Having just finished the last of the 32 ounces made in that first batch, let me share a few suggestions for usage:
- Add a dash to sparkling water for a refreshing summer drink (though there was a bit too much heat for me to consume much of it this way)
- Add some bourbon to make a Briar Patch, a delightful little cocktail
- Ted’s brilliant creation: shake with shochu for a lighter cocktail that perfectly highlights the flavors of both the syrup and the liquor
- We topped off a blueberry crumble, made by our friend Alexandra, with some syrup – so very berrylicious!
- And the piece de resistance? Ted added some to his fish tacos tonight. I was skeptical, but by god, it was actually quite good!
