Believe it or not, I really am supposed to surf the web for my job. And I came across two drink recipes that just tickled my fancy, so I thought I’d share them.
Smoking lemons
The first is for Smoked Lemonade from blogger Kat Kinsman, who gives a recipe for smoking lemons (it’s not what you’re thinking) over a charcoal fire while you’re smoking other food. As she says,
“If I’m going to go to all the trouble of stoking a hardwood lump charcoal fire, obsessively monitoring its low-‘n-slow-ness for a goodly chunk of the day, feeding its greedy gut with beer-soaked mesquite and hickory chunks at half-hour intervals all for the sake of an albeit fabulous brisket or pork shoulder, I’m gonna want a bit more return on the investment.”
All that is needed is a foil pan for the fruit, checking it a natural intervals when you would be checking on the meat.
Place the lemons in foil pans, some cut-side-up and some down, away from the heat source in your smoker or kettle grill.
Kat recommends hickory or mesquite chips. After adding a sugar syrup, and cooling, bourbon or rye makes a nice addition. Here’s the complete recipe.
Lemons, sure. But beets in a cocktail?
Since beets are now in season, why not? This interesting drink recipe comes by way of Daniel Meyer writing on Mark Bittman’s NYTimes blog, Bitten. Here’s the simple recipe.
“I split a couple of beets, threw them in a saucepan with half a cup of water, a quarter cup of sugar and some mint, brought it to a boil, strained it and cooled it (I froze the beet stems and used them as swizzle sticks).
“Then I finely grated another beet and stirred it into some salt, my kitchen turning pinker by the second.
“I wet the rims of the glasses, dipped them in the beet salt, dropped in some ice, some gin, a few spoonfuls of the beet syrup, a splash of tonic (seltzer would have been much better), and a few tarragon leaves.
“The thing was very nice to look at, refreshing, and pretty tasty, too (most especially if you’re obsessed with beets).”
We’re due to get beets at our CSA farm pick-up this week. I’ll let you know how it goes with vodka.
