YOUR GARDEN’S BOUNTY CAN BE FOR HAPPY HOUR, TOO
Enjoy gardening successes with four simple cocktails
Basil blooms, bees buzz and tomatoes finally ripen. Peaches burst out of farmer’s market bushel baskets, and cucumber and squash vines sag under the weight of their bounty.
It’s time to drink in summer before the frost hits.
With the season in mind — plus the long, sweaty hours you’ve likely spent planting, weeding, watering and pampering those plants — here are four recipes for simple summer cocktails. Drink them on a shady porch with your sandaled feet up, or make them by the pitcher for brunch. Each of them can be modified to your taste and garnished with whatever edibles you have ripe for picking in your garden.
If you have an exploding liquor cabinet, full of odds and ends and luscious liquors that you can’t seem to get rid of, it’s the perfect occasion for a party. Just add friends with good taste and have them bring mixers, plus whatever produce their garden has too much of.
Note: There is no such thing as too many berries.
Peach Whip
You absolutely have to try this simple, elegant, non-dairy smoothie. Keeping it simple lets the flavor of a Colorado peach come through. Absolut’s Wild Tea vodka has a touch of tea and elderflower flavors, but you can use plain vodka. Just don’t skip the sugar and lemon. Makes 1 8-ounce cocktail that stays slushy rather than separating.
Ingredients
1 medium-large ripe Palisade peach,
peeled, pitted and cut into chunks 1 tablespoon sugar
½ cup ice cubes
1½ ounces Absolut Wild Tea vodka 1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 ounces plain unsweetened seltzer Whole blackberries and peach slices (peel
on) for garnish
Directions
Puree first six ingredients in a food processor. Taste to correct seasoning. Pour into a chilled glass; garnish with blackberry and peach slice. This drink remains thick and doesn’t separate, but you may want to add ice to keep it chilled. Want to get real fancy? Freeze blackberries or blueberries in ice cubes.
Limoncello Cooler
Cucumber vodka might sound as though you would want to use it in a Bloody Mary, but it’s actually a sweet, grassy flavor. Get the best-quality limoncello you can afford, and choose a medium-intensity ginger beer (Cock and Bull is too intense; Canada Dry not intense enough; Fever Tree is perfect). Makes 1 8-ounce cocktail
Ingredients
1 Thai basil leaf
A few ice cubes
2 ounces Pearl cucumber vodka
1 ounce limoncello liqueur
½ ounce St. Germain or other elderflower liquer
6 ounces ginger beer
1 heaping cup of ice
Cucumber slice or wedge, for garnish Thai basil leaves or flowers, for garnish Nasturtium flowers, for garnish
Directions
Muddle 1 Thai basil leaf and add to the bottom of a tall glass; top with a few ice cubes. Add next five ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously until shaker is cold to the touch. Pour chilled cocktail into glass; add garnishes and serve.
Sesame Bloody Mary
If you can’t find furikake flakes in your grocer or at specialized Asian groceries, you can make your own from crushed nori, sesame seeds and fine salt (pink salt is pretty). Makes 2 cocktails
Ingredients
2 teaspoons wasabi powder or
1 teaspoon wasabi paste
1 cup best-quality tomato juice,
chilled
1 tablespoon tamari or soy
sauce
¼ teaspoon ginger paste (or ½ teaspoon fresh chopped ginger root)
¼ teaspoon chili garlic paste or Sriracha seasoning (or to taste)
2 tablespoons plus one heaping teaspoon furikake seasoning, divided
1½ ounces vodka
½ ounce sake (if sake is unavailable, use 2 ounces vodka)
Juice of ½ lime
Fresh vegetables (cherry tomatoes, small peppers, cucumber wedges, etc.) for garnish
Two sturdy whole scallions Four lime wedges
Directions
If using wasabi powder, mix two teaspoons with water according to package directions. Set aside. Combine next eight ingredients in a large measuring cup with a lip. Taste to correct seasonings and liquor amounts. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Assemble garnishes on two skewers; trim any mangled or droopy green parts from scallions. Put two remaining tablespoons of furikake seasoning on a flat plate. Rub a lime wedge around the rim of two glasses. Add ice, scallions, and garnish skewers. Pour tomato-juice mixture over ice and serve.
Lebanese Fruit and Honey
This mocktail is so easy, and yet so refreshing. Many Middle Eastern communities have their own recipe, but the basics don’t change: pressed whole-fat yogurt cheese or clotted cream, fruit juice or nectar, chunks of fruit, chunks of honey, and chopped and whole pistachios. Serves 1.
Ingredients
6 ounces very cold, sweet, fruit nectar or juice, fresh or canned (mango, passionfruit or peach works well), chilled ½ cup chopped fruit (melon, peeled pear, plum, pineapple, halved grapes, berries or canned fruit cocktail), chilled 1 tablespoon local honey (semicrystallized is fine)
2 heaping tablespoons clotted cream or pressed yogurt (recipe below) if desired 1 tablespoon shelled, chopped pistachios (preferably unsalted)
Directions
Combine first three ingredients in a chilled, tall glass. Taste; correct for sweetness. Add honey and stir. It’s fine if the honey remains in chunks, but aim for multiple small chunks. Drop two tablespoons of clotted cream (available in jars at larger grocers and gourmet stores) or pressed yogurt into drink. Add an iced-tea spoon and a paper or re-usable straw. Top with whole and chopped pistachios.
Pressed Yogurt Cheese Ingredients
8 ounces full-fat yogurt Sugar or honey to taste
Directions
Select a small colander and small bowl that nest together closely. Line the colander with cheesecloth and set in a third, larger bowl to catch the moisture extracted from the yogurt. Spoon the yogurt into the cheesecloth-lined colander. Top with the second bowl. Weight the second bowl with a can of vegetables, a lidded jar full of water or whatever you have. Allow to drain for at least a day, in or out of the refrigerator. Remove yogurt; it should be thickened into a spread. Taste and add sugar or honey if needed. Refrigerate.