DIY Hydration

Over the weekend I finally sat down and finished up this little project from last year: the DIY Hydration calculator. Here's the deal and then the back story...

The deal: The calculator gives you recipes for a homemade electrolyte drink (a la Gatorade or Pedialyte) based on any starting juice (grape, orange, etc.). Making a drink with a balance of electrolytes and calories is as simple as mixing juice, water, sugar, and salt, but you have to figure out the right ratios, which depend on the juice you start with. This calculator computes the recipe for you for any juice (or beverage for that matter) that you want to start with as a base. Enter the nutrition info for the base juice and your 2 quart recipe is calculated.

The back story: Sports drinks have seemingly endless packaging, marketing, and wild lists of ingredients for a drink that's so simple. A little googling revealed some great recipes for homemade versions:

BRT's Insights blog
Kitchen Table Medicine
Instructables
Chicago Tribune

After playing around, BRT's recipes were the most consistently good. But to try a new flavor or use whichever juice is on sale, the ratios of ingredients have to be calculated each time. Now we have the DIY Hydration calculator to do the work for us! The calculations are based on the recipes cited above, particularly BRT's.

Ricotta Lime Pistachio Tart

As you may recall, a few summers ago I was a bit obsessed with lemon curd. I spent the summer making tarts and then basically forgot about it... until now.  Joel and I went to a party a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to bring something, and being the resourceful gal that I am I took stock of the pantry and googled the ingredients. What turned up was a "Pistachio-crusted Lime Ricotta Tart with Lime Curd", which of course I immediately knew would be a future favorite. And being me, I also immediately changed the recipe.  I made a gluten free crust I've been wanting to try, and I substituted in lime using the old lemon curd recipe I new I already liked. I did follow the little directions about the ricotta, sort of.

Of course changing the recipe meant that I didn't end up having all the things I needed, which meant sending Joel to the store the next morning to get the missing items, which meant scrambling at the last minute after work to put it all together before rushing over to the party. Thankfully, it was freezing outside, which meant the tart had plenty of time to cool on the walk over.

So, here's the bits and pieces in the order I prepped them. I made crust first and let it cool while I prepped the curt and ricotta filling. Then I layered 'em up and let the whole thing cool together on the walk over and then in the fridge for about an hour when we got there.  I'm thinking next time I'll skip the 30 degree walk and just go with the fridge straight up ;-)


Almond/Oatmeal Pie/Tart Crust
Many thanks to The Suburban Girl Gone Country for introducing me to this amazing gluten-free pie crust. It tastes a bit like shortbread, but is hands down the easiest and best pie crust substitute I've found to date.


Ingredients:
* 1 cup of oat flour (I just ground old fashioned rolled oats in cuisinart)
* 1 cup of almond meal
* 4 tbsp butter (softened or melted)
* 2 tbsp pure maple syrup
* 1/8 tsp salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350. (The Suburban Girl recommends lining a pie plate with parchment paper, but I used a springform pan and found I didn't need it for that kind of pan.)
• Mix the butter, maple syrup, and salt  in a large bowl with a fork.  Add 1/4 of the oat flour and stir and mash, continue to add a bit at a time while stirring and mashing (this will help the butter even out easily).
• Next add the almond meal and stir and mash. Use your hands to insure that butter is worked evenly.
• Press the dough into springform pan (or prepared pie dish). 
• Bake at 350 for 10 minutes if you are going to bake a pie or 15 minutes if you are going to fill the crust with a no-bake filling.

Ingredients: Lime Curd

* 3 large eggs
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (2-3 lemons) (do not use the bottled lemon juice)
* 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature is best)
* 1 tablespoon lime zest

Bring water to boil in a saucepan. While waiting for water to boil, whisk together eggs, sugar, and lime juice in a stainless steel bowl until blended. Place stainless steel bowl with egg mixture over saucepan and cook, stirring constantly (to prevent it from curdling), for approximately 8-10 minutes, until the mixture becomes thick (like sour cream or a hollandaise sauce). Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk into the mixture until the butter has melted. Add the lime zest and cover immediately (to prevent a skim from forming). Let cool in refrigerator. The curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Refrigerate for up to a week.


Ricotta Filling

Ingredients:
* 1 small contains of ricotta cheese (475 grams)
* 1/3 cup icing sugar
* juice and zest of 1 lime

Prep: In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to combine ingredients.