Remember how I said I wasn’t interested in making complicated or time consuming cocktails? Yeah, well, I went and broke my own rule.
I couldn’t help it. This week’s recipe, from a 2010 issue of Edible Blue Ridge, called for heirloom tomatoes. Who can resist a cocktail made from heirloom tomatoes? Not I! And I just happen to have nice big juicy varieties waiting to be plucked from my garden.
To make, combine 4 chopped room temperature heirloom tomatoes and scant 1 tablespoon kosher salt in a bowl, making sure all the juice from the tomatoes stay in the bowl. Transfer the salty tomatoes to a piece of cheesecloth. Gather the cheesecloth loaded with tomatoes into a handy bag and tie it to a sink faucet, allowing the tomato juices to dribble into a bowl right beneath it. This can take more than an hour. You may even need to squeeze the bag a few times to help the juices along.
Confession: This was the point at which I wondered, why am I willing to wait an hour for a drink?
Anyway, once the tomatoes are devoid of their juices, portion out 1/2 cup of the fresh tomato juice and add it to a shaker loaded with ice. Add to the shaker 1/4 cup pepper-infused vodka, 1 basil leaf and a nice squeeze of lemon. Shake it vigorously and strain into a martini glass.
See how frothy it is? Once I took that first sip, I understood what all the waiting was for: juicy, salty, spicy, lemony–refreshing!
If you crave more spice, garnish with a slice of jalapeno, as I did. And by all means, don’t let those drained tomato chunks go to waste. Drizzle them with a bit of olive oil and serve with fresh mozzarella over crusty bread. You should have enough drained tomato juice for at least three more drinks.
I look forward to another one this evening.
See previous summer cocktail recipes:
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
ok, so when i can expect a book of great cocktails and shine from you miss rurally screwed ?..we are all waiting, your devoted blog readers..hmmm?
who replies to their own post? weirdo? maybe..anxious readers that get teased with all this booze and crave more..uh huh thats me! i want it in book form..and ya, i dont know you at all.. but i read you..and i’d like a book pls miss jessie ..:)..would a neener neener make you do it?
i would love to do a cocktail book except 90 percent of the recipes i feature were not created by me! i lifted them from elsewhere (with attribution, of course). but thanks for the wind in my sails, sarah.
Well, if a book is not in the future for us, maybe you’d like to arrive on our deck every afternoon, ingredients in hand, and let us be the guinea pigs for your latest cocktail efforts…we’ll be happy to critique the process (and even take notes, in case you DO decide to write that cocktail book) This heirloom tomato number sounds wonderful — thanks!
I’d buy your cocktail cookbook. But I also just love the name “heirlooped.” And I’m looking at my piles of spotty blighted storm-damaged tomatoes in a whole new light!