Quick links: Pita Bread | Lime Herculade | Grape Herculade | Hercola | Verdict
Hercules was one of my favorite movies as a kid. The SNES game rocked too. Get out your dumbbells, cuz we’re going from Zero to Hero with the food from Disney’s Hercules!
Foods Shown
Street Cart Pitas
When Phil and Herc get to Thebes, you see a street vendor selling pitas in the background.
Turns out making your own pitas isn’t too hard, though it is a little time intensive. We enjoyed our pitas afterward with salmon and tzatziki sauce.
Street Car Pitas
2015-12-08 23:53:14
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 35 grams whole-wheat flour (1/4 cup), preferably freshly milled
- 310 grams unbleached all-purposed flour (2 1/2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Make sponge: Put 1 cup lukewarm water in a large mixing bowl.
- Add yeast and sugar.
- Stir to dissolve.
- Add the whole-wheat flour and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and whisk together.
- Put bowl in a warm (not hot) place, uncovered, until mixture is frothy and bubbling, about 15 minutes.
- Add salt, olive oil and nearly all remaining all-purpose flour (reserve 1/2 cup).
- With a wooden spoon or a pair of chopsticks, stir until mixture forms a shaggy mass.
- Dust with a little reserved flour, then knead in bowl for 1 minute, incorporating any stray bits of dry dough.
- Turn dough onto work surface. Knead lightly for 2 minutes, until smooth.
- Cover and let rest 10 minutes, then knead again for 2 minutes. Try not to add too much reserved flour; the dough should be soft and a bit moist. (At this point, dough may refrigerated in a large zippered plastic bag for several hours or overnight. Bring dough back to room temperature, knead into a ball and proceed with recipe.)
- Clean the mixing bowl and put dough back in it. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap, then cover with a towel. Put bowl in a warm (not hot) place. Leave until dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Heat oven to 475 degrees.
- On bottom shelf of oven, place a heavy-duty baking sheet, large cast-iron pan or ceramic baking tile.
- Punch down dough and divide into 8 pieces of equal size.
- Form each piece into a little ball. Place dough balls on work surface, cover with a damp towel and leave for 10 minutes.
- Remove 1 ball (keeping others covered) and press into a flat disc with rolling pin.
- Roll to a 6-inch circle, then to an 8-inch diameter, about 1/8 inch thick, dusting with flour if necessary. (The dough will shrink a bit while baking.)
- Carefully lift the dough circle and place quickly on hot baking sheet. After 2 minutes the dough should be nicely puffed. Turn over with tongs or spatula and bake 1 minute more.
- The pita should be pale, with only a few brown speckles.
- Transfer warm pita to a napkin-lined basket and cover so bread stays soft. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.
Adapted from http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016071-homemade-pita-bread?pagewanted=all
DisneyMeals https://disneymeals.me/
Lime Herculade
I was really excited to make Herculade. I’ve never thought of making my own sports drink before. Herculade is first seen in the Zero to Hero song (that one was grape, later in the movie Panic was shown dumping a green Herculade on Hercules).
The Herculade I made actually tastes like a sports drink. A little more flavorful than Gatorade. I tried to use ingredients that they would have available in Ancient Greece. I used honey instead of sugar cane, because the Grecians didn’t have sugar cane back then. They had access to all the other ingredients, but I stretched a little with the calcium and baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) because they wouldn’t have used those in foods, but still had them available.
Lime Herculade
2015-12-08 18:56:10
- 1 q water
- Lemon Peel (or lemon tea packets)
- Lime Peel
- 1/8 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/2 c Fresh Lime Juice
- 1/3 c Honey
- 1 calcium (Tums) tablet, crushed
- Boil the water and put 1/4 of a lemon's peel in it and 1/2-3/4s of a lime's lemon peel. Boil for 5-7 minutes.
- Combine the rest of the ingredients.
- Stir/whisk/shake well
- Chill in fridge until cold
- (Note, I cheated a bit and added green food coloring)
DisneyMeals https://disneymeals.me/
Grape Herculade
Here’s the recipe for the grape version. Sadly, I couldn’t get it to turn out very good :S Maybe one of you out there can perfect the recipe.
Grape Herculade
2015-12-08 19:04:58
- 1 q water
- 1 peel of an apple
- 1.25 lbs grapes (or 1 1/2 c grape juice)
- 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 2 T Lemon Juice
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 c Honey
- 1 calcium (Tums) tablet, crushed
- Put all the grapes in a pot and mash with a masher.
- Bring the grapes to a boil.
- Reduce heat to medium and let simmer for about 10 minutes
- Place a cheesecloth tightly over a bowl and dump the grape contents onto the cheesecloth
- Let sit for an hour or two
- Fold the cheesecloth over the remaining pulp and squeeze the remains out
- Boil the water and put the peel of 1 apple in. Boil for 5-7 minutes.
- Combine the apple tea, grape juice and the rest of the ingredients.
- Stir/whisk/shake well
- Chill in fridge until cold
DisneyMeals https://disneymeals.me/
Hercola
After Hades blows up at Pain and Panic, Panic is seen drinking a Hercola.
So, here’s the thing with this. I had to order some Arabic gum and special champagne yeast from Amazon. But the order was delayed so I wasn’t able to make this before the time of this post. Here’s the recipe I would have used though.
Hercola
2015-12-08 19:07:50
- 1 quart water
- Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
- Finely grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
- 3 large (5-inch) cinnamon sticks, broken into small pieces
- 2 tablespoons dried bitter orange peel
- 2 teaspoons coriander seed
- 1/4 teaspoon finely grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon gum arabic (optional)
- 2 pounds sugar
- 1/4 cup browning sauce, such as Kitchen Bouquet
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 quarts lukewarm (80-90°F) water
- 1 batch cola syrup
- 1/8 teaspoon champagne yeast (Saccharomyces bayanus)
- Combine the water, lemon zest, lime zest, orange zest, cinnamon, bitter orange peel, coriander seed, nutmeg, and gum arabic (if using) in a large saucepan. Whisk together until the gum arabic dissolves. Stir in the sugar and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
- Boil for 1 minute.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon, lime, and orange juices, along with the browning sauce and vanilla. Let cool, then strain.
- This syrup will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
- Combine the water and syrup in a large container. Test the temperature; the mixture should be at a warm room temperature, from 75 to 80°F. (If it is too hot, let it sit until it cools a bit. If it is too cold, warm it over low heat.) Add the yeast and stir until it is completely dissolved.
- Pour the mixture into sanitized plastic bottles using a sanitized kitchen funnel, leaving 1 1/4 inches of air space at the top of each bottle. Seal the bottles. Store for 2 to 4 days at room temperature. When the bottles feel rock hard, the soda is fully carbonated.
- Refrigerate for at least 1 week before serving; drink within 3 weeks to avoid overcarbonation.
DisneyMeals https://disneymeals.me/
Will it Turn you From Zero to Hero?
The pita bread was awesome, as was the lime herculade. The grape Herculade was kinda disgusting, and I didn’t get a chance to make the Hercola yet 🙁
Verdict:
Pitas – 9/10
Lime Herculade – 8/10
Grape Herculade – 3/10
Hercola – ?/10 (Will update later)
