Thai Market Banger

Two drink recipes in a row?! You're wondering what is going on and you're kind of excited at the same time. I actually made this drink the same night that I made the recipe I'm posting next week, so I figured I would go ahead and post this one first and let you settle in with the flavors. This drink is setting the stage for more Asian-inspired food to come...

Let's not get too ahead of ourselves though. This drink is awesome on its own and should get all the credit it's due! I was planning, researching, and obsessing over next week's recipe for some time and when I realized that a trip to my local Thai market was necessary, I decided to make an occasion out of it and also get some ingredients for a drink. It was Friday night after all - a drink was mandatory! I racked my brain trying to come up with an Asian-inspired drink recipe while I was making my grocery list, but wasn't coming up with much. Then I had a brilliant idea: treat it like my old Farmers' Market recipes, where I would go to the FM with no idea of what I wanted to make and let the produce speak to me and come up with a recipe on the spot.

As I meandered through the market looking for my dinner ingredients, a few things jumped out at me from the refrigerated section: lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, Thai sweet basil, and ginger root. I have cooked with these ingredients many a time before, so I was already familiar with them and know that every single one of those things has really amazing, strong scents and flavors. I was becoming inspired so into my shopping basket they went. While I was in the prepared foods section (looking for mochi ice cream - a must on any trip to the Thai market), I noticed a fridge full of juices and sodas. I took a peek and saw some "lychee drink." I wasn't sure exactly what "drink" meant - was it juice, was it nectar, was it soda? - but I grabbed it anyways! Can't go wrong with lychee, I figured. Last but not least, I grabbed a can of coconut cream. I've been dying to make a drink with coconut cream so here was my chance!

I had some lime, agave, and rum at home, so I decided to add those as well. The drink turned out to be really good and was pretty simple to make considering all of the ingredients I bought! My favorite part was that the coconut cream gave the drink a frothy texture similar to what you would get on a pisco sour from the egg whites, and this girl LOVES a pisco sour!

Now that you know my thought process behind this drink, I feel like I should give you some substitutes in case you don't have all of these fabulous Asian ingredients readily available to you. I think fresh ginger, coconut cream (use coconut milk if you can't find the cream), and agave are probably pretty easy to find, so we'll skip those.  You can substitute regular sweet basil for the Thai basil, lime and lemon peel (just one piece each) for the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, and for the lychee drink, well there aren't any exact substitutes for that. If you are able to find canned lychee in syrup, just use the syrup and add the agave to taste after mixing. You may not need the agave at all because the syrup will be pretty sweet already. If you can't find canned lychee, look in your south/central America foods section for some papaya nectar and use that instead.

Now, let's get drinkin'! And don't forget to check back in next week for a really scrumptious Asian-inspired recipe that you can make to go along with this drink!

Thai Market Banger
Servings: 1 small tumbler-sized drink
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: n/a

Ingredients:
3 small kaffir lime leaves
1 large Thai sweet basil leaf
1 slice of fresh ginger
1 sliver of lemongrass
1/2 cup lychee drink/juice
1 shot of light rum
1/2 lime, juiced
2 tablespoons of coconut cream
1 tablespoon of agave nectar
Slice of lime, fresh ginger, and an extra basil leaf for garnish

Start by placing the lime leaves, Thai sweet basil leaf, fresh ginger, and lemongrass into the bottom of your glass.

Use a wooden spoon or an actual muddler if you have one, to grind the ingredients together for about five - ten seconds. You don't want everything crushed and falling apart, just broken up enough so that they are all releasing their oils and flavors.

Add the muddled ingredients to your cocktail shaker.

Place a handful of ice cubes in the shaker, as well as fill your cocktail glass with ice cubes.

Add the lychee drink, rum, lime juice, coconut cream, and agave to your shaker.

Shake vigorously for about fifteen seconds.

Remove the lid of the shaker and strain the liquid into your cocktail glass, over the ice. You may have to stop and shake the solid ingredients that are inside the shaker to get them out of the strainer so you can get all of the liquid out. Make sure you don't get any of the pieces of the solid ingredients in your drink.

Garnish the rim of your glass with a lime wedge, a slice of fresh ginger, and add a basil leaf to the top.

Serve as soon as humanly possible because this drink is delicious and you won't want to wait any longer! Salute!

Cucumber Melon Gin Refresher

My boyfriend's family was coming to dinner and I thought I would use the opportunity to do a drink recipe. They are a family who really enjoys a good gin and tonic. Knowing this, I decided to sass up their go-to drink for this dinner and use the result as a blog recipe. You're welcome! haha

 

The gin and tonic is such a simple, yet utterly refreshing drink. Two ingredients: gin... and tonic! Three if you want to get fancy and add a lime wedge. My boyfriend really enjoys Hendrick's gin because it has a slight cucumber flavor. One of his brothers is a bartender at my favorite neighborhood Irish pub, and he made a gin drink for my boyfriend once (that he always talks about!)that included cucumber. In making my sassed up version of gin and tonic, I decided to take the cucumber idea and run with it. Honeydew melon is the perfect quintessential summertime fruit, and it also happens to pair well with cucumber, so I figured it would go nicely in this drink. Lastly, I needed an herb. Both sage and rosemary came to mind as herbs that would go well with gin, but I think of them as more cold weather herbs. Dill came to mind as going well with cucumber so I thought I would take a little bit of a chance and throw that in the mix.

 

It wasn't enough to just add all of those things to the drink - I wanted the drink to take on those flavors. If you simply add fresh fruit, veggies, or herbs to a cold drink, you won't get much of the taste from them unless they are muddled. I wanted to keep this drink nice and clean, so muddling was out of the question. Infusion was a much better option.

 

I am going to give you the recipe for the infused gin as well as the recipe for the drink. If you're not a big gin & tonic drinker, you could always use the cucumber/melon/dill gin for another drink recipe - like in a sangria or a limeade. Or you could even use the same recipe but do vodka instead of gin and make a vodka tonic or vodka soda!

 

I'm not a huge fan of gin, so I didn't drink one of these drinks, but my dinner guests drank quite a few and rather enjoyed them, so I am considering this recipe a success! Not just a success, but an actual Winner ;-)

 

Let's get infusing!

 

 

Cucumber Melon Gin

Servings: 1 750ml bottle of gin (also known as a fifth)

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: n/a

 

Ingredients:

1/2 English cucumber

1/2 honeydew melon

2 small sprigs of fresh dill weed

1 750ml bottle of gin (I used Tanqueray)

 

You will need one pitcher with a tight fitting lid for storing your gin infusion in the refrigerator for two days.

 

Start by cutting your cucumber into 1/4 inch thick slices.

 

Add them to your pitcher.

Next, cut the half of the honeydew melon into one inch slices.  Use the blade of your knife to cut away the rind from the fruity flesh.  Cut the flesh into chunks.

Place the chunks into the pitcher and mix in with the cucumber.

Add your sprigs of dill.

Last, pour the entire bottle of gin into the pitcher. Remember to save the gin bottle because you will be pouring the finished product back into the bottle for storage.

Use a spoon with a long handle to mix the cuc & melon together with the gin.

I had to place plastic wrap over the top of my pitcher because air was escaping through the spout. If you have a similar situation, go ahead and do the same. If your lid is completely air tight, don't worry about this step.

Place the pitcher in the refrigerator and leave there undisturbed for a minimum of 48 hours.

After two days, remove the pitcher from the fridge.  Put the empty gin bottle in your kitchen sink & place a funnel into the bottle opening.

 

Pour the pitcher of cucumber/melon/dill infused gin into the funnel and keep pouring until all of the gin is out of the pitcher.  You may have to shake the fruit around a little to ensure you have gotten out all of the gin.

Screw the lid back onto the bottle and place it in the freezer until you're ready to serve your drinks.

 

 

Cucumber Melon Gin Refresher

Servings: 1 drink

Prep time: 3 minutes

Cooking time: n/a

 

Ingredients:

Two fingers' worth of cucumber melon gin in your tumbler glass

Half a small bottle of tonic water

A piece of fresh cucumber & a piece of fresh honeydew melon for garnish

First, fill your tumbler glass full with ice cubes.

Next, pour two fingers worth of the cucumber/melon/dill infused gin you just made into your glass.

Now, pour about half of a small bottle of tonic into the glass to fill it the rest of the way to the top.

Garnish with a fresh slice of cucumber and melon (I do NOT suggest eating the fruit that has been infusing in the gin for two days, as you would tend to do with say, a sangria. My boyfriend and his brother both tried this fruit, and I believe the term they used to describe the taste/sensation, was "fire fruit." It's not good, let's leave it at that.).

Serve immediately! Salute!