Classic Cocktail – The Whiskey Sour

17. August 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: beverage · Tags: , , , , , ,

If you have been following my blog for any length of time you should know by now that I am a huge Bourbon fan. While I’ve never met a Whiskey I haven’t liked, over the years I’ve found that I prefer Bourbon to all other Whiskeys, including Scotch. I’ve always been a Bourbon, at least since my college days, when I drank copious amounts of Jim Beam. While in culinary school I discovered Basil Hayden and the rest of the Super Premium Bourbons and haven’t looked back since. Basil Hayden is still one of my favorites, although I can’t afford it often so my “go to” Bourbon is Maker’s Mark or Buffalo Trace.

While in college I usually drank Jim and Coke, or did straight up shots, but occasionally I would go on Whiskey Sour kicks. I quickly outgrew those drinks as they always seemed too harsh and abrasive. It wasn’t until years later that I rediscovered what great drinks “Sours” could be once you gave up on that nasty premade bottled stuff made with chemicals, acids and a very small percentage (if any) of real juice. Real purists will probably tell you that it is best to make each and every drink completely from scratch. While I will occasionally make my Sours this way, I prefer to streamline the process and make up a batch of homemade sour mix. This is a great time saver, but only make enough to use up in a couple of days. After that, the fresh lemon and lime juice starts to oxidize and loses that wonderfully fresh flavor that one can only get with fresh squeezed juice. Technically, the sour mix will stay good for a week or so, but to really experience the drink in its prime use up your sour mix in a day or two. Also, this drink is all about freshness so don’t even consider using a shortcut and buying one of those plastic lemons and limes. It’s not worth it and you might as well just go ahead and purchase the sour mix itself. Trust me those plastic lemons and limes taste nothing close to fresh squeezed.

Finally, and I’ve covered this before, but it’s been awhile, many old, classic drinks contain egg white. It lends a rich, almost creamy mouth feel to cocktails. Make sure that you use the freshest eggs you can get your hands on and don’t overdo it or it will add an off flavor to your drink. If the thought of a bit of raw egg white totally grosses you out, you can skip it and the drink will still be good, but I encourage you to try it, at least once, and see if it doesn’t elevate the drink from just good to great.

Sour Mix
makes about 4 1/2 cups

1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
1 1/2 cups Water
1 cup Lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 cup Lime juice, freshly squeezed

Combine the sugar and water in a small pot, bring to a boil and cook just until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Strain the lemon and lime juice to remove any and all pulp and add to the cooled simple syrup. Chill until ready to use. Best if used in the first 3 days but will stay good for a week or so.

Whiskey (Bourbon) Sour
makes 1 drink

2oz. Bourbon
3oz. Homemade Sour Mix
1 Tbl. (1/2oz.) Egg White”"

Combine Bourbon, sour mix and egg white in a cocktail shaker and dry shake (shake without ice) for 5 seconds. Add ice to fill the shaker half way and shake for about 20 seconds. Strain into a tumbler filled with ice, making sure to allow the shaker to drain completely. Garnish with a cherry and lemon or orange wheel. You will notice in the picture above there is no cherry. We had some maraschino cherries in the fridge but it looks like my daughter got to them before I did!

**Egg whites can be difficult to measure out as they want to stick together. You can combat this by adding a drop of water to the egg white and giving it a quick beating with a fork to break it up. If it still wants to cling together it’s best to under portion the egg white rather than over portion it.

Hot Spiced Cider

06. December 2011 · 1 comment · Categories: beverage, Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Christmas season is in full swing, and at our house one of the things that means is the drinking of copious amounts of hot, spiced cider. For as long as I can remember the holidays, both Christmas and Thanksgiving…and many of the days inbetween, were accompanied by the the sweet, heady smells of a pot of spiced cider warming away on the stove top. To this day, it just doesn’t seem like the Christmas season without having brewed up a gallon or two of one of my favorite drinks.

While we’re on the subject of cider, I want to rant just a little (and I think I’ve voiced this rant before so I’ll make it short). It drives me nuts, walking through the grocery store and seeing bottles of clear, amber liquid that companies are passing off as cider. Sorry, but it looks and tastes like ordinary apple juice and has about as much in common with real cider as does Grape juice. Cider should be brown and cloudy with a body and mouth feel that apple juice can only wish it could attain to. I even have a problem with “pastuerized” cider, but I understand that some people are concerned about food borne illnesses. But please, if you have never tasted fresh, unpastuerized cider before, check it out. You’re in for a treat. The real stuff, when made properly has a complexity that is totally lost in the pastuerization process.

It’s the holidays so enough ranting and more holiday cheer! You’ll notice, in the picture, that there is a distinctive red hue to that mug of cider. Don’t adjust your computer monitors, it’s supposed to be that way. I often like to add “Red Hots” candies (you know, those little, red, firery, cinnamon candies). They add a nice festive hue to the cider and help bump up the cinnamon in the drink. If you don’t want to use the candies, and sometimes I don’t, just up the number of cinnamon sticks you add to the cider to compensate for the lack of cinnamon flavoring.

Once made, you can ladel it into mugs and serve as is, for the children and teetotallers in your group or you can do as most of the members of my family do and spice with a shot of bourbon or dark rum. A few of those and I guarentee that you’ll get a party started!

This recipe uses a gallon of cider as I find that it can go pretty quickly, but you can easily adjust to make the amount you need. Also I just toss in all the spices. If you’d rather not fish around trying not to ladel up allspice berries and cloves you can tie them up in a coffee filter and just remove the whole thing after about 30-60 minutes.

Hot Spiced Cider
makes just over 1 gallon

1 gallon Cider
4 each Cinnamon sticks
1 Tbl. Whole Cloves
2 Tbl. Whole Allspice Berries
1 (12oz.) can Orange Juice Concentrate
3-4 oz. Red Hots candies (the little red cinnamon candies)

Place all ingredients in a nonreactive pot and simmer, without boiling for, at least, 30 minutes. Ladel into mugs and serve. Feel free to add a shot of bourbon or rum for a more adult beverage, or experiment with any of the various flavored alcohols out there. If you come across a really great combination let me know. If so desired, garnish the mugs with an orange wheel and a cinnamon stick for stirring.

Bourbon Peach Slush

21. August 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: beverage · Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

This past Saturday the family and I headed down to Wauwatosa (a suburb of Milwaukee) for the #MKEfoodies Potluck Picnic. #MKEfoodies is a group of food bloggers, food writers, food enthusiaists and anyone interested in the Milwaukee food scene. While Fond du Lac is about an hour north of Milwaukee I became aware of the group this past spring when I donated a few dozen cookies to their bake sale in support of kid’s cancer research. Since then I’ve lurked among the fringes of the group, following their exploits via Twitter. With the long drive, crazy schedule for both my wife and I, and the fact that we have a 4 year old, I haven’t had a chance to make to any of their events. So when I heard that they were having a picnic on the weekend I knew I had to get involved.

Needless to say, it was a great time, with the folks (Lori & Fred) over at Burp! Where Food Happens, organizing the whole event. Thanks you guys!!! Everyone brought a dish or 2 to share while the meat was donated by Fox Bros. Piggly Wiggly, Big Frank’s Wiener Waggin’ and Bunzels. There were even Cherry studded Brats donated by Cherryland’s Best. We ate plenty of great food, met some wonderful people, drank some good beer and wine, and even Gigi made a few new friends.

Our contribution to the event, besides eating all the good food, was a pasta and vegetable salad made from vegetables in our CSA box. It was tri colored rotini tossed with shaved fennel, dried cherry tomatoes, scallions, green pepper, and yellow squash, all tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette. I also made Bourbon Peach slushes to serve. And I think I have a new favorite summertime beverage!!!

The recipe below will make about a half gallon of slush mix or about 8-10 servings, but this recipe is easily doubled or tripled and since you are putting it in the freezer why not make a large batch to keep around for those hot summer days. The other great thing about this recipe is that you can play with the ratio of bourbon to peach schnapps. For this party I went a bit heavier than the 1:1 ratio, favoring the peach schnapps. If I was making this for me I would probably go heavier on the bourbon although my wife would probably disagree. As long as the total amount of booze doesn’t go above 2 cups then feel free to play however you wish, even going so far as to drop the peach schnapps all together if you really like bourbon.

Bourbon Peach Slush
makes 1/2 gallon of slush mix

4 tea bags, black tea
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 6oz can orange juice concentrate
1 12 oz can lemonade concentrate
1 cup bourbon, your favorite brand (don’t use the really cheap stuff, but also no need to use ultra expensive either)
1 cup peach schnapps
lemon lime soda

Place tea bags, sugar and water in a sauce pot. Heat to just below boiling, turn off heat and allow to steep for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags and add the frozen concentrates to cool the tea down. Add the bourbon and peach schnapps and place in a plastic container. Freeze for 3-4 hours. Stir and allow to freeze at least 6-8 hours longer, preferably overnight or longer.

To serve, fill a cup 2/3′s of the way with the slush then fill with lemon lime soda. Give a quick stir and serve.

Rhubarb Refreshments

04. June 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: beverage, fruit · Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The last couple of weeks, here in Wisconsin, have been unseasonably warm. We hope for days in the 70′s in May, though often it only gets into the 60′s, but the last week or two has seen temperatures in the upper 80′s and even lower 90′s. Looking for ways to cool off I decided to make a few drinks based on rhubarb, seeing as I have a huge patch of the stuff just begging to get used up.

Rhubarb has the same tart quality that makes citrus fruits such wonderfully refreshing drinks when the weather gets hot. Unfortunately it doesn’t contain much sweetness so the first thing I needed to do was create a syrup with the rhubarb to sue as a base for any drinks I made. After doing some experimenting I decided on pairing the rhubarb with sugar and lime to form the syrup from which I would then create a couple of drinks.

For the alcoholic version I wanted to create I decided to use rum as the liquor. After numerous experiments and tastings (oh, the sacrifices I make for this blog) it was determined that standard white rum worked best. While, generally, I am more of a fan of gold or dark rums, I found that these rums had too much character that tended to overpower the taste of the rhubarb. Rhubarb may be quite tart, but its flavor profile is rather delicate and can easily be overwhelmed by other strong flavors.

Rhubarb Lime Syrup
2 pounds rhubarb, cut into chunks
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 cups water
1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Combine rhubarb, sugar, and water in a nonreactive sauce pan, bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 10 minutes or until the rhubarb starts to fall apart. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Strain liquid into a pitcher and add the lime juice. Chill until ready to use.

Rhubarb Spritzer – nonalcoholic

4 oz. rhubarb syrup
seltzer water

Fill a glass with ice. Add rhubarb syrup and top with seltzer water. Give a quick stir and garnish with a lime wedge.

Rhubarb Rum Cocktail

3 oz. rhubarb syrup
2 oz. Bacardi rum
1/2 oz. grenadine (preferably homemade)
seltzer water

Fill a Collins glass with ice. Add the syrup, rum and grenadine. Stir to combine. Top with seltzer water and garnish with a lime wheel.

Homemade Grenadine and A Gin Cocktail

04. May 2010 · 3 comments · Categories: beverage · Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In my long career, in the restaurant world, I’ve held most every position there is, from dishwasher and busboy to chef and manager and pretty much every job inbetween. While I have enjoyed cooking the most, my second favorite job has always been bartender. I love the interaction with the patrons and enjoyed the showy aspect of creating a good cocktail. I took pride in the drinks I poured and would handcraft each one.

While this country may be experiencing a “cocktail revolution” or “re-awakening” I still am disappointed by the number of bartenders that really have no clue about how to make a proper cocktail. To them, it’s just a matter of throwing some booze in a glass, adding a premade mixer, stirring it up and maybe adding some soda. There’s no thought behind how the drink is made and the general mindset seems to be “the stronger the better.” While this attitude seems to be changing, at least in the cities and at higher end places, it’s still business as usual at the vast majority of bars. That’s why I mostly drink beer. It’s pretty hard for a bartender to screw that up, but ask for something as simple as a Manhattan or Old Fashioned and all bets are off. And forget about any of the more complex drinks that require precision in measuring and a little technique. To most of today’s bartenders, the word jigger is a bad word and most would rather be dead than caught using the measuring device. Unfortunately though, well made cocktails need to be measured out. Without measuring there is virtually no way to get the proper balance a drink needs.

But even measuring doesn’t do much good when you add crappy ingredients to a cocktail. Bottled sour mix, OJ from frozen concentrate, and a whole host of packaged bar mixes might help to speed things along at busy bars, but they certainly have no place in the making of a good cocktail. It saddens me when I see someone order a margarita with a premium tequila only to watch the bartender ruin it by using a bottled mix instead of fresh juice.

That said, today I was playing around with cocktails at home. I had this crazy idea that I wanted to come up with a way to combine gin and fresh tarragon, one of the first herbs to come up in my herb garden. There wasn’t much out there, on the web or in any of my cocktail books to guide me in combining these two items so I was on my own. Grapefruit seemed like a natural way to bridge the gap as grapefruit pairs well with tarragon and all citrus fruits pair well with gin. I then needed a sweetener. Grenadine would work perfectly in this aspect, providing sweetness, flavor, and a little color to the cocktail, but I refused to use the store bought stuff as it tastes nasty and has no resemblance to pomegranate, which is what grenadine was originally made from. So I decided to make my own.

Homemade Grenadine

12oz POM pomegranate juice
12oz sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a large container with a tight fitting lid. Shake the mixture until your arms feel like they are going to fall off. Allow to settle for about 30 minutes and if there is undissolved sugar settling on the bottom, repeat the shaking process. Continue until all sugar is dissolved. Store, tightly covered in the refrigerator. Will last for about 3-4 weeks.

Once that was solved I decided I wanted to give my cocktail an old fashioned look and texture to it. I wanted a nice foam to top the cocktail and I wanted it to have a nice velvety texture to it. There is only one way to achieve the look and feel I wanted-raw egg white. Okay, I know what you are thinking, “Gross!!!” but egg whites have been used for years in cocktails, and trust me, by the time the cocktail has been properly shaken you won’t even know it is there.Many drinks relied on egg whites, the most familiar being the Ramos Gin Fizz and the whole family of Sours (Pisco Sour, Whiskey Sour, etc.). Nowadays, bottled sour mixes achieve that foaming action through the used of chemicals and additives. I think I’d rather take my chances with the raw egg white. If you are worried about food poisoning you can always use pasteurized egg whites but let’s look at the reality. Statistics say that about 1 in 20,000 eggs is infected with salmonella. That means you have a 20 times greater chance of dying by drowning, 4 times better chance of dying by choking on your food, and a 3 times better chance of dying from a slip and fall, than you do from contracting salmonella. Even then, if you are a healthy adult the chances of actually contracting the illness is even much slimmer. But again, I urge you to try this cocktail using the egg white, even if it is pasteurized. It is just not the same without it.

I have titled this drink “The Dragon’s Tongue Cocktail” as an old name for tarragon is Dragon’s Wort. Make sure you go lightly on the tarragon. It is an assertive herb and can easily overpower the other flavors in this drink.

Dragon’s Tongue Cocktail

2 oz. Gin (I used Tanqueray)
4 oz. grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed
1/2 oz. homemade grenadine
1 small sprig tarragon (3-4 leaves)
1 egg white

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add ingredients and shake for at least 1 minute. Don’t skimp on the shaking as it is this shaking that will create the lovely foam that sits on top of the drink. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and serve.

Hurricanes-Foggy Memories from the Past

04. January 2010 · 1 comment · Categories: beverage · Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

One January 1st, I posted about the dish, Hoppin’ John, and how, in many households, it is eaten on New Year’s Day to bring good luck. I could have chosen any number of recipes, from around the world, that are eaten for the same reason- to bring luck in the new year. I think one of the reasons I chose Hoppin’ John is because I’ve been thinking about my time down South for a few weeks. What got me thinking about my time living in Atlanta and New Orleans is the fact that a few weeks ago I got a craving for Hurricanes.

Anyone who has spent any time in New Orleans should be familiar with the bright red, potent drink carried all through the French Quarter in gigantic plastic “to-go” cups. It’s the drink that made Pat O’briens famous. The story goes, that in the early 40′s Scotch and Whiskey were hard to come by because of the war. Liquor distributors down south would force bar owners to purchase numerous cases of cheap rum, from the Caribbean just to get a case or two of the other liquors. Pat O’brien, facing a mountain of rum created a new drink using rum, orange juice, passion fruit syrup and lime juice, put it into hurricane shaped glasses (so named because they resembled hurricane lamps) and thus created the Hurricane. The drink became very popular among sailors as it was cheap and potent and remains popular today, not because it is cheap-Pat O’briens charges a hefty price-but because they still pack a mean kick.

As a young cook in New Orleans, me and my friends usually tried to stay away from the touristy spots in the Quarter, most often seeking out those shady, less wholesome (and that’s saying a lot in a town not known for its wholesomeness) bars that border the Quarter. Occasionally though, we would venture into the the heart of the Quarter in search of young ladies who had come to New Orleans to party. Hey….I was 23 years old, unattached, and we lived by the motto “work hard, play hard.” We struck out way more often than not, but that was okay in our minds. We still had a great time….I think. Many of these nights found us hanging out at Pat O’briens, throwing back hurricanes with wild abandon. Luckily, my roommate and I lived just off of one of the major bus lines that ran 24/7 so we always had a ride home no matter what time of night or morning.

Looking back on those nights, at Pat O’briens, those hurricanes were pretty nasty. All alcohol bite with a lot of sugar and just enough fruit juice to make them palatable. The drink has come a long way from it’s early days and unfortunately it hasn’t weathered well. Nowadays, you can even purchase a powdered drink mix so that you can take the taste of New Orleans home with you. Don’t bother unless you are the kind of person who also doesn’t mind subsitituing orange Kool-aid for orange juice in your Screwdrivers, Mimosas, or Captain & OJ.

Searching the web for recipes is quite confusing also. While there are a number of sites that give some great recipes, there are also a ton of sites out there that are offering up recipes, for Hurricanes, made with vodka, gin, tequila, amaretto, or worse, all of those alcohols together, in the same drink.

Just because a Hurricane is potent doesn’t mean it’s an “everything but the kitchen sink” kind of drink like a Long Island Iced Tea, Bahama Mama, or Alabama Slammer. Like so many of the cocktails created in the first half of the 20th century, the Hurricane requires only a handful of ingredients, mixed in proper proportion to create a well balanced drink. Be careful though, this drink is still quite potent and it’s easy to overdo it as they don’t taste nearly as strong as they are.

Hurricane
4 ounces gold rum*
3 ounces passion fruit juice or puree (I use Looza brand juice as that is what I can get most often, if you can get puree, then even better though if you use puree you might want to also add a splash of simple syrup as the puree is rather tart)
2 ounces orange juice
1/4 each lime
2 Tbsp. grenadine

Fill a hurricane glass or pint glass with ice and set aside. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add all the ingredients. Shake to mix then strain into prepared glass. Garnish with a cherry and orange slice.

*Many tropical style cocktails benefit from the use of gold or dark rums as opposed to white rums as gold and dark rums bring much more flavor to the drink and add a nice complexity. While this drink would still be good made with white rum, personally I would never substitute more than half the rum with white rum.

Bloody Marys for Thanksgiving

25. November 2009 · 3 comments · Categories: Awards, beverage, Foodbuzz Top 9 · Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Bloody-Mary-3501

Back in 1993 I moved to Atlanta, a good 12 hour drive from Indiana and my family. Luckily, I wasn’t there long before I made many friends, many of them in the same position I was in with the holidays coming up and no family to spend it with. It was then that I decided that I would throw an annual Thanksgiving potluck get together. The premise was simple. I would cook a turkey, the dressing, and the gravy, and everyone else was to bring their favorite dish from their Thanksgivings at home.

The first year I did this we had a modest amount of people drop by. I think it was in the 12-15 person range but it quickly grew and by the time I left Atlanta I as hosting 30-40 people who would drop in throughout the day, with the main meal seating anywhere from 15 to 25 of my friends. Not only were friends with family far away attending, but friends with family right in Atlanta opted to skip the family drama and spend the holiday with us.

This was the start of my Bloody Mary holiday tradition. As the size of the group grew so did my cooking chores. I was still only doing the turkey, dressing and gravy, but now with so many people I was cooking 2 birds and numerous pans of dressing. Since all I had was a standard home oven I had to start pretty early in the morning to get everything cooked in time. I needed a way to help me pass the time and since I was, and am, a big fan of Bloody Marys, I figured they’d be the perfect diversion. I was right, they were the perfect diversion to the long hours of watching over the turkey as my friends slept in, fighting their hangovers from the pre-holiday festivities of the night before. And since I was usually suffering right along beside them, the drinks made a great “hair of the dog” cure to my self imposed ills.

Now, some of you might question the intelligence of consuming large quantities of alcohol while working around large pans of hot food and very sharp knives. While I don’t necessarily recommend this to everyone (I am a professional I will remind you) I can say I made it through all those holiday meals without any major scars. Nowadays though, I limit myself to just a few early morning Bloody Marys while preparing our Thanksgiving feast, and maybe just a few more if someone else is doing the cooking.

So I offer up my version of the Perfect Bloody Mary. I say “my version” because, for Bloody Mary aficionados, a Bloody Mary is a very personalized thing. Luckily this is my blog so I get to give you my favorite version. Feel free to offer up yours in the comments section.

Pete’s Perfect Bloody Mary

3 oz. Vodka (either plain or pepper infused-or create your own infused vodka)
6 oz. Tomato Juice
1/2 tsp. Horseradish
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp. Dill Pickle liquid
2-6 dashes Hot Sauce (depending on the heat level you like, I usually go for 4-6)
2 wedges Lemon, cut into 1/8ths
Black Pepper
Celery Salt
1 each Celery rib, 1 1/2 – 2 inches taller than the glass

Fill a large glass with ice. Pour in the vodka. Add the horseradish, Worcestershire, pickle liquid, hot sauce, juice from one of the lemon wedges, and a couple of shakes of black pepper. Top with tomato juice. Pour entire contents between a cocktail shaker and glass a few times to mix, leaving drink the in the cocktail shaker. Use the remaining lemon to moisten the rim of glass. Pour some celery salt into a dish just large enough to accommodate the rim of the glass then crust the rim with the celery salt. garnish glass with lemon wedge and add the celery stick. Pour contents back into the glass and enjoy.

A few words about garnishes. Just about anything goes when garnishing a Bloody Mary; celery, pickle spears, olives, pickled Brussels sprouts, pickled mushrooms, poached shrimp (nice in a Cajun Bloody Mary or in one using Clamato juice), lemons, limes, etc. In Wisconsin they even like to garnish them with beef sticks. Just avoid the temptation to turn your cocktail into a salad bar. 1 or 2 garnishes is sufficient. I hate getting a Bloody Mary that is so heavily garnished I have to eat my way through to be able to get a drink!

Summertime Gin & Tonics

19. June 2009 · 15 comments · Categories: beverage · Tags: , , , , , ,

Years ago, when I attended New England Culinary Institute there was a little, local distillery that made a cucumber flavored gin. We had discovered it by accident, but I was glad we had as it made the greatest Gin & Tonics I had ever tasted. While the juniper flavor was still there it didn’t overpower and the combination of the cucumber, lime and tonic created a wonderfully refreshing beverage meant for chasing the heat of summer away. Veranda Gin was well ahead of its time. It was one of the few well crafted gins being created in small batches and using flavors beyond juniper to give their drink a unique taste all its own. Today many distilleries are experimenting with gin and flavors besides juniper, but it took them 10 years to catch up to what Vermont Distillers had created. Unfortunately, I believe that Vermont Distillers no longer exists as I’ve spent a number of hours searching the web to find any information on them. Most references I find are dated from the mid 1990′s and earlier. I had never forgotten those Gin & Tonics though and over the years I have perfected my own cucumber accented Gin & Tonic, which I happily share with you all.

Cucumber Juice
1 1/2 Cucumbers
2 Tbsp. Water

Peel the whole cucumber, but leave the 1/2 cucumber unpeeled. Roughly chop and place in a blender along with the water. Blend until as smooth as possible (about 1 minute). Strain through a fine mesh strainer pressing down on the pulp to extract as much liquid as possible. Depending on your cucumbers this should yield approximately 2 cups-plenty for a night of drinking with friends and then some unless you’re a lush like me!

Summertime Gin & Tonic
1 1/2 oz. Gin (preferably one with a little less juniper flavor such as Plymouth’s or Tanqueray 10)
2 oz. Cucumber Juice
2 wedges Lime (cut into 1/8th)
Tonic Water

Fill a tall Collins glass with ice. Add the gin and cucumber juice. Squeeze 1 wedge of lime into the glass and drop the lime in also. Fill with tonic water and garnish with the additional lime, allowing your guest to add more lime flavor if they want.

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