Food & Drink

I'm Chris - or Christopher - or Mr. Dean - or Master Christopher - or just plain Sir. I'm a self-professed foodie. I love to cook and I take great pleasure in all things edible. My husband and I are relatively new to Portland, Oregon and are enjoying our culinary explorations of the area!



Food is NOT just fuel!



Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Watermelon Nectar with Lime Salt


keith decided he wanted to make this drink - it's directly from Tyler Florence's book "Dinner at My Place." I love watermelon - always have. I have fond memories of sitting on my porch as a kid with a big slice of watermelon, spitting seeds into the yard with my sister. And did anyone else salt their watermelon? My mom always salted ours. I don't as an adult, but maybe I will next time. :)

So now that I'm older, I like my watermelon juiced and mixed with liquor. What can I say? My tastes have refined. We had 1/2 a watermelon, so keith got to work cutting it up and running it through the juicer. If you don't have a juicer, you don't know what you're missing. Ours went sorely under-used in NYC only because we had such limited counter space. Now it's out in the open, and we use it often!

And you can use a mortar and pestle to make the lime salt, but nothing beats the Flavour Shaker. I got it a few years ago and LOVE it. It was invented by chef Jamie Oliver and makes creating rubs, mixing dry ingredients and such a blast. Another recommendation from my kitchen to yours. And just one warning - this drink goes down SMOOTH. I was gulping it down and suddenly didn't realize why everything was so funny. :) A sign of a good drink!



Watermelon Nectar with Lime Salt (not crazy about the title)
2 Tbl. sea salt (we used flaked sea salt)
Zest of 1 lime
1 small seedless watermelon (or 1/2 huge seedless watermelon) - you need 8 ounces
4 ounces white tequila (first drink we did this...second we did 6 ounces)
2 ounces simple syrup (we made a concentrated version so only needed 1 ounce)
Splash of lime (after testing, this resulted in a GOOD splash - about 1/2 of a lime)
1 lime cut into wedges, for garnish

To prepare the lime salt, combine salt & zest in a mortar & pestle and mix until the salt takes on a bright green color. Or use a flavour shaker and shake the crap out of it until you get the same results. Use a lime wedge to wet the rim of your cocktail glasses, and then dip the rim in the lime salt.

You can either squeeze the watermelon through a clean kitchen towel or cheese cloth, or juice it like we did. There's a tiny bit of pulp left with the juicer, but I liked it like that. Pour 8 ounces of watermelon nectar into a cocktail shaker, add the tequila, simple syrup and lime juice. Shake with ice, and pour over ice into your glasses.

4 comments:

  1. Well, then you need to just call it The Salty Melons, obvs. My parents salted their watermelon, their from Pennsylvania, so maybe it's a regional thing? Have you ever tried salt and peppered watermelon on top of goat cheese? Amazing.

    Holly

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  2. They're...OMG, I majored in English for Pete's sake!

    Holly

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  3. Salty Melons it is! And....I know! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Holy crap that's a good drink. Very smooth and very dangerous. Loved the lime salt.

    Holly

    ReplyDelete