Sunny Health

The year-end is a time to drink and make merry, but we shouldn’t exclude the friends and guests who don’t drink due to health or religious reasons. Non-alcoholic drinks can be a healthier alternative, yet festive for the season, and they’re popular even in the restaurant holiday menus as well! Here are 3 easy ones for the upcoming New Year party. Now that you can toast all night without worrying about that beer belly or the health implications on your liver!

The following recipes are courtesy of BBC Good Food and Tania Glyde.

Fruity cranberry concoctions

The bright red colour cranberry resonates well with the festive mood. Cranberry is also a very tasty and nutritious fruit and would be the perfect holiday punch when mixed with other fruit juices!

Orange and cranberry spritz.
Mix together 500ml of orange juice and 500ml of cranberry juice in a large jug. Pour in sparkling elderflower drink to fizz it up. Mix together and serve in tall glasses with ice. If you can’t find elderflower drink, any other mildly sweet sparkling fruit drinks will do as well.

Driver’s punch
You will need 100g of cranberries, 100ml of cranberry juice, 500ml blood orange juice, 600ml sparkling apple juice, 1 lime, thin wedges of orange and some mint sprigs. Place the cranberry in a freezer container, cover with water (by about 2.5cm) and freeze till solid. Mix cranberry juice with blood orange juice. Juice a lime and add the juice in. To serve, smash the sheet of frozen cranberries into shards and put in the bottom of tall glasses. There should be about enough for eight. Put a wedge of lime and orange and a mint sprig in each glass, then pour in the fruit juices and top up with sparkling apple juice.

Something warm, sweet and cozy

Hot chocolate reminds one of winter and snow. It is a wonderful and cozy feeling to sit around a fireplace with mugs of delicious hot chocolate to warm your hands and insides. In Singapore, we have neither cold nor snow, but hot chocolate is still a very yummy drink that’s perfect for a party.

Peppermint hot chocolate
You will need 200g bar plain chocolate, broken into chunks, 600ml milk, 150ml pot single or double cream, Sugar to taste, 6 peppermint candy canes, a handful of marshmallows, to serve

Put the chocolate in a pan with the milk. Gently heat, stirring until all the chocolate has melted. Continue heating until the milk is steaming, then remove from the heat and stir in the cream. Divide the hot chocolate between 6 mugs, add sugar to taste and hang a candy cane on the edge of each. Pass the mugs round and let everyone stir their hot chocolate with their candy cane – letting as much of the sweet peppermint dissolve as they fancy. Put some marshmallows for a fuzzy feeling.

For the non-sweet tooths, here is another alternative for a rich, hot drink.

Hot apple pie punch
You will need: 1½ tsp ground cinnamon, a good pinch ground cloves, ½ whole grated nutmeg, 2 litres of apple juice, 2 tablespoon vanilla extract, 6 scoops vanilla ice cream

Place the cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg, apple juice and vanilla extract in a large saucepan. Bring to a gentle simmer.  When the apple juice has warmed through, add the vanilla ice cream and whisk vigorously with a balloon whisk until melted and combined with the hot apple juice – the ice cream should make a frothy top on the juice.

Faux alcohol is better than no alcohol

You can make your own non-alcoholic “mulled wine” with the follow recipe.

You will need: 2 litres apple juice, 2 litres cranberry juice, 1 stick cinnamon, 2 oranges, 1 lemon (unwaxed), 1 teaspoon honey, Quarter teaspoon ground nutmeg, about 20 cloves

Slice the oranges into halves. Scrape the rind off about half of the lemon and then quarter the lemon. Stud the orange and lemon rinds with the cloves – it looks great and will infuse wonderfully.
Pour one of each of the cartons of apple juice and cranberry drink into a large pan with all the other ingredients and put over the lowest heat you can get. Leave it to heat slowly until it reaches the point where it is starting to steam, then three minutes longer. This takes about 10 to 20 minutes in total – it should not boil at any point. Switch off the heat and serve into small glasses.

Have a very Happy New Year!