There's a garden in my drink

I remember way back in the day when I fell in love with gin and the Gin & Tonic.  I wasn't a big vodka fan (that came later) and G&Ts were perfect for a hot day and I was living in Texas so there were plenty of those.  Made well a Gin & Tonic is light and crisp not too sweet and not too heavy like even sometimes the most everyday pilsner can be (for me anyway).  It seems like for a long time there was quality gin and rotgut both more or less mass produced and that was pretty much about it.  At least here in the US.  Anyone doing anything close to micro batches or anything with a bolder botanical profile was likely making it in their bathtub or perhaps a distillery like they had on the tv show M.A.S.H.!

Enter gins like Hendrick's from Scotland and a little closer to home Death's Door from Wisconsin.  There's a great list here of different brands of gin, their flavor profile and where they are crafted if you really want to see the variety.

Cut to about a month ago when M sent me a link for a Gin Martini made with cucumber, mint, and tarragon.  We were doing a lot with cucumber and tarragon - those popsicle recipes - and I believe her comment was, "this looks great!  we should try it out!"

Cut to last Wednesday when I was cruising  at the farmers' market and they had all kinds of great herbs.  Everything except my tried and true cilantro, but there was mint, tarragon, dill, four varieties of basil and lastly the lovely shiso.  Completely intrigued by shiso (up until this point I had only seen shiso in the few Japanese grocery stores I frequent and it's always highly guarded under a thick layer of plastic wrap and styrofoam - I think it is where Fresh Direct got their idea about produce delivery - such a waste, but anyway...) I gave it a sniff and for 2 bucks I was in.  It's part of the mint family and it did have that, but there was also some pepper going on and it was grassy and delicate.  The wheels start turning.  I look in my bag and see that I've already purchased a gazillion kirby cucumbers, tarragon - check, mint - check (and just in case), the shiso and M's birthday is coming up on the weekend.  I start to have visions of cute antique jars, gifting this über botanical mixer and serving my friend a fancy cucumber tarragon martini to toast her!

The link to the recipe is above and here.  I replaced the mint with shiso leaves.  Depending on the size of the leaves use 2 - 4.  The cocktail is strong and herbaceous.  The St. Germaine gives it just enough sweet to round everything out.

Happy Birthday M!  



The leaves sticking out of the top of the jar was supposed to look like a sophisticated and subtle hint about the ingredients - a card of sorts.  I can't help, but think of a mullet when I look at this picture - business up front and a party in the back.  Next time I'll remind myself "less is more".

Mango Lime Ginger Tarragon Popsicles

Yeah we're a little consumed with popsicles. It's the heat. It's the fact that there's so much great fresh food at the market. It makes throwing a few ingredients into a blender and freezing for about an hour and half the easiest and best summer treat. So here we go!



INGREDIENTS:

2 large ripe mangoes peeled (approximately 3 - 4 cups)
2 tbsp Turbinado sugar (can use other sweeteners - what ever you have/like - would probably avoid something like mollasses though)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp lime zest
juice of one medium lime (approximately 2 tbsp of juice)
1 tbsp fresh ginger chopped
1 tsp fresh tarragon chopped
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

- Peel, chop, zest, juice everything into one bowl or put it directly into a blender or food processor.
- Add sugar, salt and cayenne.
- Blend everything until incorporated. On this step you can experiment a bit. If you don't want everything super smooth, but maybe some bits of mango and ginger you can blend in short bursts. Also all ingreditents can be adjusted to taste so feel free to experiment with that too.
- Fill molds and place sticks in.
- Put in freezer for minimum 1.5 hours

makes 6 pops

We haven't posted our experiment with the sweet plums we bought at the farmers' market, but that pop also came out good! We did a mostly sweet plum and lime pop with a cumumber and lime "rind". We pitted about a quarts worth of plums (with the skins on) threw them in a blender with the same amount of sugar and lime zest and juice as above. We let that freeze for about 45 minutes (just so that it was frozen through enough so that when we poured the cucumber mix they would stay distinct and not so frozen that the stick wouldn't go in). The cucumber mix is the same one we used for the watermelon prosecco pops here.

Food Science Geekery Alert! Every wonder why store bought pops and homemade pops don't taste as much alike as you'd expect? And we're not just talking about flavors etc. It has to do with the quickness of commercial freezing process. Home freezers don't work as quickly as commercial freezers and therefore there is time for the liquid and the sugar to separate a bit. We think this might not be as much of an issue with fruits like mango and bananna that have a lower water to fruit ratio. You can read more about this here.

the first of the frosty army!