Monday, August 2, 2010

Foodie Fights time - Cucumber and Black Pepper

I recently moved, and am lacking a kitchen, well I had to do something. It took me a while, but my inner alcoholic/gin whore took over, best part is it's fairly easy. I made most of it at my desk What I've made today is essentially a Tom Collins made a bit differently. Cucumber juice instead of lemon juice and some other substitutions. The drink is simple:

1 part simple syrup (which I made not so simple)
1 part juice
1 part dry gin
ice
club soda

For the syrup, I was shocked to discover that I didn't have any sugar, but what I did have was honey. I dissolved equal parts honey and water. To the solution I added six whole peppercorns for flavor. I nuked the solution in the microwave for five minutes, and let the syrup cool to room temperature. In the meantime I started with my juice.

I chopped my cuke as finely as possible, if I had a blender I would have used it. Then I simply squeezed the pulp through a cheese cloth into a glass.



The photo is the syrup and the cucumber juice in the glass before the rest is added. The color is from the honey, not the wooden desk.

Then add one shot.


Top off with:



And finally garnish with a nice slice of cucumber. I drank it with some lovely bread and butter pickles.

It's a nice refreshing summery drink with a great peppery aftertaste, but I can't help thinking that it needs more cucumber juice to cut the power of the gin. Give it a shot, I'll still take my regular Gin and Tonic first though, although with the improvements I mentioned I might change my mind. Cheers

3 comments:

  1. looks like a mighty fine cocktail!

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  2. Try it with Hendricks Gin, it has it's own cucumber elements. Good luck.

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  3. Did not know that about the Hendricks. I'll keep that in mind for future reference.

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