Bossa Nova Juice Review and Recipe

Bossa Nova recently sent me some of their juices to review. The concept here is using superfruits, acai, mangosteen, acerola, and goji berry. Lightly sweetened with agave, these juices contain all natural and organic ingredients that contain nutrients, antioxidants, and vitamins.

Bossa Nova offers a line of individual serving sizes a few different flavors (check the website to see them all). The goji berry with tart cherry was surprisingly pleasant with its smooth tartness. It was the least sweet of the four, but still very good. Both the mangosteen with passion fruit and mangosteen with dragon fruit were both slightly thicker in texture than the acai and goji berry. I really like the taste of the mangosteen with dragon fruit because it had a smooth, tropical flavor that I liked over the juice with passion fruit.

As seen in the first picture, there is also a line of 32 ounce bottles of juice in three flavors. The juices were all delicious and I liked tasting the blends from different fruit combinations. I'd definitely recommend looking for Bossa Nova juices in the store if you feel like grabbing something easy to consume and offers a sweet dose of healthy things to keep you feeling great.

While these would make a great juice addition to the fridge, you can also use the juices to make recipes, from cocktails to fruit punches, granita, and more. I decided to mix the acerola with mango into a recipe for miso vinaigrette, and use it on top of stir fried eggplant.

This is a really quick recipe to prepare, taking just around 15 minutes to cook the eggplant, though you'll need to prepare the vinaigrette first. I'll also be using the juices in another recipe, so stay tuned for that.

The miso vinaigrette is incredibly delicious and offers the benefits of miso in a light tasting, tangy dressing that can be used on salads, vegetables, to dip bread into, or even as a marinade.

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stir fried eggplant with Bossa Nova Acerola-Mango miso vinaigrette

Vinaigrette recipe ~
Recipe adapted from this link

ingredients ~

1/2 cup white vinegar (or lemon juice)
2 tablespoons sweet, white miso
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon honey
2-3 tablespoons Bossa Nova Acerola-Mango juice, or water
1/4 cup fresh parsley, basil or chives
1 cup olive oil

directions ~

1. Whisk vinegar through parsley together in a medium bowl. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking quickly, until combined and mixture is emulsified. Set aside.

To prepare the eggplant ~

ingredients ~

2 pounds baby or Japanese/Chinese eggplant, sliced on the bias
A few slices sliced fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, smashed and roughly chopped
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Coarse salt and pepper
Prepared vinaigrette

directions ~

1. Heat oil on medium-high heat in a large skillet with ginger for about 2 minutes, stirring the ginger so it won't stick to the bottom. Add eggplant and garlic, stirring to coat in oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Stir fry for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.


2. Lower heat to medium and pour in 1/2 cup vinaigrette. Stir to coat, then cover and let cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until eggplant is softened but not mushy. Remove to a serving dish and drizzle with more vinaigrette if desired.

Sangrias at the Art Beat

Yesterday, South Bend had their Art Beat thing, where a variety of art vendors, performers, and culinary people come together in one spot. I went there for two reasons, really: to find earrings, and to eat at Sangrias, a fairly new restaurant to the downtown area.

The restaurant is a unique spin off from the creators of La Esperanza, another local restaurant I blogged about a while ago. While La Esperanza is strictly a Mexican restaurant, Sangrias' aim is to create a Latin fusion menu with a unique variety of drinks and a fun atmosphere. They often have a live band to enhance your dining experience, and stay open to midnight on some nights. There even is a tapas menu certain days of the week.

Sangrias has a small, homey feel due to its smaller size. The ambiance is lively and you instantly feel happier the moment you walk in.

Sangrias special offering for Art Beat was their "Latin sushi", which I unfortunately wasn't able to try since I needed to leave. But it looks really great!

There was some very impressive fruit carving work on the table as well.

I did take my picture with the chef, though! Some people watching even coaxed him into breaking a smile:

The bartender on duty, Abatu, was busy mixing up drinks for everyone.

Here he is shaking up a drink, but my camera is bad with motions, so it didn't come out very well.

My drink was a mojito de fresas. Translation: strawberry mojito. The flavor of lime and strawberries combine well together, in case you haven't tried it. The rum used here was a Cruzan rum, though I'm not sure which type was used. All I know is that it didn't overpower the flavors of the other ingredients. I don't drink at all, really, but when I cook with alcohol I use it as a flavor enhancer. It's not about saturating the dish with an overwhelming taste of wine, or beer, but simply to enhance, and thankfully this mojito was the same.

Each meal begins with a complimentary basket of tortilla chips, which I believe are made fresh in the restaurant. I think. All I really know is that they are addictive. The salsa is extremely good and spicy. The guacamole, which is extra, had a good consistency and tasted nice, though I would have liked it if I could taste the lime and cilantro a bit more.

For the eats, I ordered a sope, which is a thick fried tortilla made from maize. It was topped with Cuban-flavored pinto beans, lettuce, cheese, and I think I see tomatoes. I also ordered a side of roasted jalapenos, which I could not tolerate. I spent 10 minutes trying to recover from one tiny bite, so I stuck with the relatively minor heat from the salsa.

The sope was delicious. Dense, but not hard, and a nice corn flavor that paired well with the toppings. It seems like a light meal, but is surprisingly filling.

What I like the most about Sangrias is that they offer many reasonably priced menu items, and the portion sizes are decent for a meal. I will definitely be going back because I heard they had ceviche, which I've never had, and I want to blog about their fried ice cream, which was amazing! Definitely stop by if you're in the area.

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Sangrias
123 North Michigan Street, South Bend, IN‎
(574) 232-9463‎


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mocha cupcakes+espresso buttercream

Bit of silence happening over here in case you haven't noticed. I figured the best way to make it up to you was with cupcakes... that you can't eat. But we're ignoring that last part.

I saw the recipe for mocha cupcakes with espresso buttercream over at Brown Eyed Baker and figured, why not? What caught my eye were the words "mocha" and "espresso", something that gets me every time. If I'm ever talking to you and start losing my focus, adding a quick, out of context "ESPRESSO" will immediately snap me back to attention.

Mocha means a combination of chocolate and coffee. These cupcakes definitely do the job with both strong brewed coffee for part of the liquid, and instant espresso powder for an added boost. I felt the balance between the cocoa flavor and the coffee was really good here, and the cupcakes came out very moist and tender.

The frosting is just a basic butter and confectioners' sugar frosting, enhanced yet again with the addition of espresso power and some vanilla extract. What I noticed was that there wasn't any milk in this recipe, so the texture of the frosting remained firm, but still silky in texture.

This recipe makes exactly one dozen cupcakes, so it's perfect if you want a dessert that yields just enough without spending all day in the kitchen decorating and cleaning up. Because that's really not the point of baking, to clean dishes when you should be eating a cupcake.