Cucumber Mint Lime Agua Fresca

We’ve got leaves, we’ve got flowers, we’ve even got some legitimately hot days head our way and since it seems I’m determined to skip right into Summer this year, we’ve got refreshing Cucumber Mint Lime Agua Fresca just in time for Cinco de Mayo. In Spanish, “agua fresca” means cool waters, and I first really learned about the wonder that is agua fresca living in the San Francisco Bay Area, where every good burrito stand has some form of house agua fresca that they serve to counter the heat of the hot weather and the spicy food. I’ve had a lot of different flavors over the years, but recently a friend of mine made a Cucumber Mint Lime Agua Fresca (like this one) that she had at the restaurant Lemonade in L.A. While I don’t promise that this is their exact recipe, I can promise that I like it a lot, it is delicious and refreshing, and it’s easy to make. And once you make it the first time, you’ll be persuaded to make it often. It’s a great beverage to keep on hand for guests who aren’t imbibing, too. Just serve it in a big pitcher with lots of … Continue reading

Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda

Well, it is my birthday, and I do love a good funky cocktail, so here it is, the Chanh muối Lemon Salt Soda. The Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda is a traditional Vietnamese drink that I somehow didn’t know about until fairly recently. Like any good menu reader who prides themself on ordering all the dishes and drinks they’ve never heard of, I was surprised that I’d never come across the Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda. It turns out the Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda is a common menu item, which I discovered this fall at a local Philly pho taste off. Of course, I had to immediately compensate for the years with no Chan muoi in my life and all kinds of kitchen experimentation began. Thank goodness I’m constantly deciding that I need to do things like preserve lemons, because I had them on hand. While it started with making traditional Chanh muoi Lemon Salt Soda, it became aparent to me that the drink was an obvious candidate for conversion to cocktail. Sure enough it was wonderful with bourbon. Cheers! And happy funky cocktail day to all of us. And may you ever associate both me and my birthday … Continue reading

Lime Dark Rum Cranberry Relish

I love cranberry relish, and no matter my theme, it’s going to be at my Thanksgiving table in some form or the other. So when I took on a Caribbean menu, there was no doubt that I would still make a cranberry relish no matter how foreign cranberries may be to the Caribbean and that was enough to make this Lime Dark Rum Cranberry Relish possible. I just needed to add the right flavors and accents to make the cranberry relish fit in with some of my more traditional dishes on the menu, like the jerk turkey. I also knew that since my classic relish is raw, I would need to combine it with a sauce of some sort if I wanted to sneak in something as bold as dark rum. So here we are with a best of both worlds Lime Dark Rum Cranberry Relish that combines a cranberry sauce and cranberry relish. While you’re making the relish, be sure to keep tasting both sauces throughout both processes (which is, of course, a good general practice) because while I like things a little tart, you may not, and should feel justified in upping the sugar just a bit here and … Continue reading