Saturday, July 24, 2010

Cucumberlicious

I have always loved cucumbers.  Growing up we ate loads of lemon cukes during the summer.  Yellow, round and slightly barbed we ate them like apples.  Over the last 10 years I have had crops in the hundreds.  Lucky recipients received handfuls upon request.  This year I am growing the family favorite.  Perisan cukes.  Alas, we are still waiting so in the meantime I buy mine at the Hollywood Farmers Market.



 We tend to serve them daily eating them whole, putting them in gaspacho, salsa and salads and as of last night we have found the best place to put them ; in a glass.

Recently while at The Hungry Cat we ordered what we thought would be just another yummy summer beverage.  The first sip told us this was something different, cool, subltle and delicious, this was the drink I had been searching for all summer, the one that would allow me to drink gin again after swearing off it at 18.  

The bartender let us watch as he prepared another, giving us the ingredeints and  the real secret which is  Hendricks Gin.   Handcrafted in Scotland using botanicals such as juniper, coriander and citrus peel  and the  "unexpected  infusion of cucumber and rose petals it is a gin unlike any other I have tasted.
Here is the recipe for one drink:


Juice 1/4 of a large cucumber, skin on.

Make simple syrup: mix one part bartenders superfine sugar to one part boiling water.  Let dissolve.

Measure one jigger Hendricks Gin. 

Fill a shaker with ice, add the one jigger gin, 1/2 jigger cucumber juice, 1/2 jigger simple syrup, 1/2 jigger fresh lime juice.  Shake vigorously.  

Pour and enjoy!


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