Wendy Ra­hamut

Well they say tis' the sea­son to be jol­ly, lots of par­ties, lots of en­ter­tain­ing lots of good cheer to go around. And what bet­ter way to en­joy the sea­son than with our lo­cal fes­tive drinks of sor­rel and gin­ger beer. It's a good year for sor­rel, ven­dors have been sell­ing love­ly sor­rel, both black and red (we now have va­ri­eties).

The black has a soft­er less acidic tone than the red. Sor­rel will stay steeped and unsweet­ened in glass bot­tles in your fridge for up to one year. Re­mem­ber to en­joy in mod­er­a­tion and al­ways have a des­ig­nat­ed dri­ver in your par­ty whom you can de­pend on to get you home safe­ly. Here is some Christ­mas Cheer for you to en­joy this sea­son.

SOR­REL

To make sor­rel drink just clean the sor­rel, by re­mov­ing the seeds, put the sepa­ls in­to a large non-re­ac­tive pot, add some cloves and cin­na­mon bark.

It does not mat­ter the quan­ti­ties, do this to your taste pref­er­ence.

Add enough boil­ing wa­ter to bare­ly cov­er the sor­rel, cov­er tight­ly and steep overnight. Sweet­en to taste with sug­ar syrup. Chill and serve over crushed ice or with club so­da for a re­fresh­ing Sor­rel Cool­er!

Re­mem­ber to al­ways store sor­rel in glass bot­tles, plas­tic can pro­mote spoilage.

BA­SIC SUG­AR SYRUP

1 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar

1 pound sug­ar

Com­bine wa­ter with sug­ar in a small saucepan.

Cook over medi­um heat un­til sug­ar has dis­solved. Boil for 10 min­utes.

Cool , bot­tle and re­frig­er­ate un­til ready for use.

PONCHE DE CREME

6 eggs

5 8 oz pack­ages of evap­o­rat­ed milk (prefer­ably non com­bined, or non filled)

14 ozs con­densed milk

2 cups dark rum

1/2 tsp grat­ed nut­meg

1 tsp minced lime zest

1 tsp bit­ters

In a blender process eggs with lime zest un­til light coloured.

Add evap­o­rat­ed milk and con­densed milk, process to blend well. Strain.

Add bit­ters, nut­meg and rum, mix well, taste and ad­just flavour­ings to suit.

Serve over crushed ice, and gar­nish with lime slices.

CHRIST­MAS EGGNOG

6 eggs sep­a­rat­ed

8 ozs gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar

11/4 cups milk

1/2 cup Co­gnac

1/2 cup dark rum

1 tsp vanil­la essence

11/4 cups heavy cream, light­ly whipped

Zest of 1 or­ange, fine­ly minced

Zest of 1 lime, fine­ly minced

1/4 tsp nut­meg

With an elec­tric mix­er, beat the egg yolks with the sug­ar un­til thick and creamy. Stir in the milk, brandy, vanil­la and rum.

Whisk the egg whites un­til very stiff and fold in­to egg mix­ture. Chill for about 4 hours.

Mix heavy cream with or­ange and lime zest .

Fold cream mix­ture in­to egg mix­ture, pour in­to stemmed glass­es or cups and top with grat­ed nut­meg.

n Serves 4-6

GIN­GER BEER

1 pound green gin­ger

10 cups cold wa­ter

1 lime

2 sticks of clove

Wash, peel and grate gin­ger. Peel and juice lime, keep the peel.

Mix gin­ger, wa­ter, cloves , lime juice and the lime skin.

Pour this mix­ture in­to clean bot­tles and leave to fer­ment for about one day, prefer­ably in the sun.

Strain the gin­ger beer and sweet­en to taste with ba­sic sug­ar syrup.

Re­frig­er­ate un­til ready to use.

HOL­I­DAY PUNCH

This is an es­pe­cial­ly good non-al­co­holic punch- the sort that both kids and adults en­joy. The or­ange ice ring looks fes­tive and gives the punch a zesty flavour!

2 cans (28 ounce each) fruit cock­tail in syrup

21/2 cups gin­ger ale

1 ta­ble­spoon lemon juice or lime juice

4 cups or­ange juice (ap­prox­i­mate)

1 ring mold

30 maraschi­no cher­ries

Pour or­ange juice in­to the ring mold; add the maraschi­no cher­ries and freeze.

In a blender puree fruit sal­ad with syrup. Cov­er and re­frig­er­ate un­til ready to use.

In a large bowl com­bine gin­ger ale, pureed fruit sal­ad, and lemon or lime juice. Taste and add more lime juice if need­ed.

Place the or­ange ice ring in a large punch bowl and pour the punch over the ice ring.

Note: If you do not have a ring mold you can freeze the or­ange juice in an ice cube tray, add a cher­ry to each cube and freeze.

n Serves 25-30 4 ounce serv­ings