I went to the local produce stand a couple of days ago and got there as the trucks were unloading. I was almost first in line for the freshest of goods, but some other woman beat me to it! That’s ok, there was enough goodness for us both. One thing I couldn’t resist, were the amazingly huge and beautiful yellow lemons and the bunches and bunches of fresh mint. (ok, that's TWO things... but they went together). I love to cook with mint, and I recently had a refreshing drink at a restaurant that I was determined to recreate at home. I found this recipe online, and adjusted it a little as so:
Mint Lemonade
Ingredients:
Juice from 6 large lemons
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup fresh mint leaves, packed
ice
Method:
Add lemon juice, sugar and mint leaves together and blend well. Strain. I used a hand strainer with a mesh approximately the size of what you’d find in a flour sifter… green bits will be in the drink, but who cares?! The drink is green anyway! (which meant that the kids did not want to try it, at all… and I didn’t push too hard because that meant more for me and Brad! They’ll learn… )
Return the juice mixture to the blender, add ice to make 4.5-5 cups. Blend (or ‘Smoothie’ or whatever ice crushing method your blender does best).
We haven’t tried this with the addition of rum, or bourbon (to make it sort of like a mint julep), it was amazingly refreshing as is. Maybe this summer we’ll try the alcoholic version. I might also try it in future by preparing the mint and lemon mixture in advance and chilling it, perhaps even freezing it slightly, to make it more of a slushy, frozen drink.
12 comments:
I make something similar with lime, it is yummy with mexican food, cuts the heat from the jalepenos. It never occurred to me try it with lemons. Sounds wonderful.
I'm going to have to try this with limes! :) Although I don't know what type of limes I'll find here. I was surprised to find the big yellow lemons. In Cairo we had "limuns" which were a small hard greenish-yellow citrus (the same variety that we call Key limes in Florida!)... I bet they'd be good too.
I learned to make the Egyptian limonade with the limuns & milk. Ohhhh baby. So good. I miss fresh, fresh produce.
It's more expensive here, but so is everything! And the freshest stuff is at the roadside stands, not the stores (at least not on the days I shop). I adore fresh produce! The place I go also carries an great assortment of greens. I picked up a handful of outer cabbage leaves for rolling with seasoned meats and a tomato sauce tonight - where else, but your own garden? - can you get just a handful of leaves like that?? (kids didn't like it, but we did!)
That looks good, a great summertime drink. I've never had a mint julep, didn't know they were alcoholic.
Rebecca, I haven't had a mint julep either. I was just trying to find recipes that compared to this, so people might compare. I didn't know that mint juleps were mostly lemonade... for some reason I thought it was more bourbon and mint! I had this mint lemonade (non-alcoholic) at a restaurant and loved it, so I searched and combined recipes until I found one that seemed to match most closely... that's how I stumbled upon the mint julep. Gotta love the internet and the random facts you learn here and there!
I wish I were a lemonade fan! That sounds pretty good.
I'm not a big lemonade fan either, but I love mint, and that's the main flavor of this. I am very curious to try this with lime as Shannon suggested.
Thanks for your comments on my blog. I really appreciate having "plenty of us at your side (literally and virtually)". I am so happy to have made such nice FS-blogo-friends.
Have a great day!
I found your blog today and added a link to it to my blogroll of FS blogs at http://lifeafterjerusalem.blogspot.com
Sounds delightful!
I have some mint leaves leftover from something else. I think I will try this tomorrow.
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