Arthur Christmas and Turkish Hot Chocolate

Happy Epiphany/Twelfth Night! And Merry Christmas to our Orthodox friends!

For the last day of hot chocolate and Christmas movies I chose a new favorite movie and tried a Turkish twist for the chocolate. The movie was great. The hot chocolate...eh not so much. Arthur Christmas is adorable and the movie has a great cast. It's worth the watch alone for Cutie McScottish (otherwise known as James McAvoy).

I thought for the very last hot chocolate I'd do something mocha-style but with Turkish coffee. This seemed like a really good idea in my head. Not so much as it turned out. In fact less of a good idea than putting jam in hot chocolate. Turkish coffee and chocolate flavors do not mix well, not like everyone else's coffee and chocolate. I added some sugar and a lot of cocoa powder in an attempt to blend the flavors a little more. It didn't come out undrinkable...but I wouldn't really recommend it.

My suggestion, if you want to make a mocha hot chocolate, would be to either just substitute some milk for fresh-brewed coffee or, better yet, steep some whole coffee beans in milk for like an hour, discard them, then whisk in the coffee as per usual.

This was fun! Since it's fracking cold and snowing here I'm going to continue to make hot chocolates even if they don't go up on the blog. Hope you tried and liked a few of these! I'm thinking a series of lemonades for the summer.

Happy Christmas to all!

Turkish Wine of the Week - Suvla Kabatepe Rose 2013

It's very pink. Really. Very. Pink.

Normally I eschew roses, largely I think because I don't like dry chilled wines. Partially also probably because roses make me think of white Zinfandels and well...If Suvla's Kabatepe Rose is any indication though I need to stop being snobby about pink wines and jump on the bandwagon!

The whole Kabatepe Rose 2013 experience is like being enveloped in summer. The nose is all summer fruits and flowers with strong overtones of strawberries and raspberries.The palate is similarly so, red fruits, strawberries, raspberries and summer flowers. It is not sweet though so don't be thinking that. It's very crisp and slightly acidic.

I hope this is still in stock come summer because I just found the wine that I'll be drinking on my terrace come the warm weather. In addition to this Suvla has a blush and now that I'm off my high horse about pink wines I will certainly be trying it. Sometimes it's good to be wrong.*

*Disclaimer: I'm usually not wrong. Just so we're all on the same page.

Twas the Night Before Christmas and Nutella Hot Chocolate

I think maybe a lot of people don't remember 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. Much like the Micky Mouse Christmas Carol, this was aired every year (on CBS of I recall) and was always one of our favorites...until it disappeared from air. But then my clever little brother found it. The singing is slightly less annoying than it is in other movies. It's also kind of amusing the way the humans and rodent communities live on concert with each other. Plus the Santa is cute.

I also (half) watched the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer during which (while fast-forwarding through the truly dreadful songs and anything involving the ridiculous elf, Kirby) it really hit me how truly bigoted this movie is. The song is one thing because we all know kids are cruel so them not letting Rudolph join in any reindeer games is not surprising. The poor little calf's just been born and his parents are practically rejecting him. Were reindeer Greek they'd probably have left him out in the snow for the fates. Why do we watch this?!

Really, could there be much better than Nutella hot chocolate? Other than the Nutella raspberry frappuccinos they make in DC's Pound pretty much the answer is, no. Really if you're in the DC area go to Pound on the Hill and  try one. In the meantime this will tide you over. Oooo...you could use raspberry flavored chocolate (not jam as we learned with the raspberry hot chocolate attempt).

Recipe:

• 1 Cup milk
• 1/4 Cup heavy cream
• 50-ish grams dark chocolate, chopped*
• 2-3 great heaping Tablespoons Nutella. 

1. Heat milk and cream to hot but not boiling.
2. Whisk in chocolate and Nutella.
3. Add more Nutella as desired :)

*I ran out of dark chocolate so used milk chocolate but added cocoa powder. It needs the dark chocolate (or cocoa) otherwise it tastes too milky.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Coconut Hot Chocolate (take two)

The good version of course. Generally I'm behind anything Christine Baranski does; but it takes a lot to trump Boris Karloff. Watching his version of The Grinch and getting that song stuck in your head is a time honored seasonal tradition.

And who doesn't love the part when his heart breaks the magnifying glass, growing to a truly unbelievable size given the proportions of his chest cavity. No wonder he was able to lift the sleigh with all the gifts; he was on some sort of roided out high. Even I'd likely be able to lift more than a wine glass if my heart were that big.

It is not wine that we're talking about today though; it's hot chocolate and my second attempt at a coconut version. Not that the first one was bad, not at all, but because coconut and chocolate together makes me feel like this:

And since there are multiple ways to achieve the goal of coconutty chocolate goodness it would be irresponsible to not explore them all. In the name of science, and ... Christmas. Or whatever.

Recipe Version 1:

• 1 Cup milk
• 1/4 Cup heavy cream
• 55 grams dark chocolate (chopped)
• 1.5 Teaspoons sugar
• 3-4 Teaspoons powdered coconut milk*

1. Heat milk and cream to hot but not boiling.
2. Whisk in sugar and powdered coconut milk.
3. Whisk in chocolate.

*Asian food stores might have this. Coconut milk in Turkey is outrageously expensive so I bought a couple boxes of powdered milk in Kenya (for all of $1 each).

Recipe Version 2:

• 1 Cup coconut milk
• 1/4 Cup heavy cream
• 55 grams dark chocolate (chopped)
• 1.5 Teaspoons sugar

1. Heat coconut milk and cream to hot but not boiling.
2. Whisk in sugar and chocolate.

Recipe Version 3:

• 1 Cup milk
• 1/4 Cup cream of coconut
• 55 grams dark chocolate (chopped)

1. Heat milk and cream of coconut to hot but not boiling.
2. Whisk in chocolate.

So it appears there are more than two ways to pull this off but I don't have access to cream of coconut or enough days before Epiphany left to try them all. Pity.

Miracle on 34th Street and Raspberry Hot Chocolate

As we go into January and winter rears its ugly head here in Istanbul, this hot chocolate experiment seems to be an even better idea than I thought it would be and will likely continue long past Twelfth Night*. It's cold, windy, wet, and miserable here. And my apartment, which is totally fine nine months of the year, is basically an uninsulated marble and cement box with drafty windows and doors.

Miracle on 34th Street, the remake (because Dylan McDermott) is usually one of the first Christmas movies I watch during the season. For no other reason than that the movie begins with a Thanksgiving parade so it always seems like a nice segue. And so I did this year but I bust it out again for this. It's no hardship (again because Dylan McDermott). What is a hardship though is that my Carrefour has recently renovated and it seems to no longer stock a lot of things I used to go there specifically to buy; like frozen raspberries. My hot chocolate plans took a little stumble because of this so I had to get a little creative. Incidentally the lack of frozen raspberries has also thrown off my oatmeal game.

It wasn't bad really. It was interesting to say the least. However I think I will hunt down some raspberry flavored chocolate or bite the bullet and give up one of my arms to pay for some Chambourd before I try this again.

Recipe:

• 1 Cup milk
• 1/4 Cup heavy cream
• 2-3 Tablespoons raspberry (or what you will*) jam
• 55-ish grams dark chocolate, chopped

1. Whisk jam into milk and cream.
2. Heat milk mixture to hot but not boiling.
3. Whisk in chopped chocolate.
4. Enjoy!

*Haha, see what I did there?