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.