Raising the Root

Summer is upon us, and our gardens are starting to reward us for making it through yet another long winter of tasteless store bought fruits and veggies. Pea pods are starting to plump, holding sweet little round orbs of love.  Tomato and pepper plants are starting to grow excitedly from little baby seedlings into botanical toddlers.  Strawberries and raspberries are ripening at a mad pace–we’d even have cherries this year if the giant dog would do anything about the thieving squirrels!

The hubby came in with a big beautiful bowl of strawberries from the garden tonight, so – obviously – daiquiris are in order!  Nothing says summer like an ice cold beverage, and I love celebrating the garden by drinking it.  This recipe is kind of a daiquiri/mojito hybrid (even better!), nothing like the syrupy pink slushee drinks served at bad chain restaurants across the country.

Hooray summer!

Summer Strawberry Mint Daiquiris
(makes 2)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled
• 1/2 cup loosely packed mint (Optional–if you don’t have mint in your garden, don’t go out and buy it for this drink.  It’s very subtle, and not worth spending $5 to get the 1/2 cup you need for two drinks.  If you have it in your garden, you know you have some to spare.)
• 2 limes
• 3 oz. rum (or to taste)
• sugar to taste (or none at all!)
• ice

Mixing:

• Get out your blender or food processor.  (No, this is not a foo-foo frozen drink recipe.)  Put the strawberries and mint in the bowl.
• Cut the limes in half, and using a lime squeezer, squeeze into the bowl.  If you don’t have a squeezer, cut the limes into quarters or eighths and squeeze as much juice out of them by hand as you can (and buy yourself a squeezer tomorrow–summer is almost here!)
• Measure the rum into the bowl.
• Blend until everything is pureed.  Do a quick taste test.  If you need to, add sugar (hopefully your strawberries are sweet enough that you won’t need to).  If you need to, add more lime.  If you need to, add more rum!
• Let everything sit for about 30 minutes to let the mint impart some of its flavor into the mixture.
• Fill a shaker with ice.  (You don’t have a shaker either???  Oy.  Add it to the shopping list.)
• Strain the liquid from the blender/processor through a mesh sieve into the shaker, then shake!
• Strain into your drinking vessel of choice (chilled if possible), and garnish with a sprig of mint.
• Put your feet up and toast to summer!!

Stay tuned next week when the raspberries are ripe…

The inspirational ingredients: mint & strawberries from the garden.

Add the strawberries to the food processor or blender.

Throw in the mint.

The proper way to load your lime into a squeezer. (I did this backwards for years!)

The rum. Yum.

The finished puree. Strain this into your shaker using a mesh sieve.

Add ice to the strained puree.

After shaking, strain the mix into your drinking vessel of choice.

The finished product. Delish!