While we are huge wine fans, I must admit that I love a cocktail. We've been experimenting with a few recipes and fresh fruit and came up with a mixology challenge that we are ready to take on: cocktails with a full serving of fruit. So each week or so, we are going to put together a recipe that has a full serving of fruit.
First, what is a full serving of fruit and how much do I need? Well, things are changing and while 5 a day was the rule, now the guidelines depend on your age, gender and activity level. On www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov, you can put in your age and gender and learn how many cups of fruit and vegetables you should be eating per day. I am supposed to be eating 1.5 cups of fruit and 2.5 cups of vegetables. Now we know most of these servings should not be in the form of juice, but if I am going to have a cocktail, why shouldn't it have a full serving of fruit?
The CDC website describes a serving of fruit as:
One medium piece of fruit - As in 1 medium orange
½ cup cut-up raw or cooked (fresh, frozen, or canned)
¼ cup dried fruit
4 oz/ ½ Cup 100% fruit juice
We will be using fresh fruit or freshly squeezed juice in our Mixology Mission. We have three juicers that we really like: the old-fashioned hand juicer, the yellow one from Williams-Sonoma and the simple, vintage Juice-O-Mat. The glass juicer is the most versatile but takes the most work. The yellow one is great for limes and small fruit but can't handle an orange. We really love the Juice-O-Mat which easily juices grapefruit to limes and we bought it on eBay for $12 after admiring our friends' Juice-O-Mat.
Here's our first cocktail for the week: The Sweet-C Margarita
This refreshing drink is named Sweet-C for the sweet agave nectar, the citrus fruit, the good old vitamin C you are getting from the freshly squeezed juice. It was inspired by Carrie Floyd's recipe at Culinate.
You'll need:
1 orange
1 small lemon
3 limes
1 shot of tequila (1.5 fl oz)
1/2 shot of cointreau or triple sec (0.75 fl oz)
agave nectar
coarse kosher salt
ice
1. Squeeze the orange, lemon, and 2.5 of the limes. Don't squeeze one lime half, but save it instead. Mix all of the juices.
2. Add the tequila and triple sec or cointreau to the juices and stir.
3. Add enough agave nectar to sweeten the cocktail to your taste.
4. Use the saved lime half to rim a tumbler and dip the tumbler in kosher salt.
5. Add ice to the tumbler and pour the mixture over the top. Toss in the lime half for garnish.
Cheers!
