Just a couple of days ago She Who Must Be Obeyed and I ran out to the farmers’ truck market here in town in search of some fresh-off-the-farm slicing tomatoes. Those first, sun-kissed, perfect summer tomatoes always make it seem like you’ve never tasted a real tomato before and these didn’t disappoint.
There were lots of other goodies in to poke, prod, squeeze and sniff: fresh pickling cucs, all sorts of greens, spring onions (maybe the best grilled onion possible), new okra and more.
But the find of the day were the crates upon crates upon crates of early season, thumpingly ripe watermelons.
All I could think about as I pawed through a crate for a perfect pair of 8 pounders was chef Libby’s Watermelon Margarita recipe, punched up a notch with fresh lime juice and a hint of St. Germain Elderflower liqueur instead of the usual orange liqueur.
We’ve posted some great watermelon-based adult beverages before (The In-Sandiary and Two Watermelon Agua Frescas), but this one reigns as king queen of them all.
Tip of the day: Get two watermelons, you’ll need and want both. And make the watermelon ice cubes.
1 6-to-8 lb. ripe seedless watermelon, processed into juice and ice cubes
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup St. Germain Elderflower liqueur
.75 to 1 cup of good blanco tequilaWatermelon ice cubes or regular ice
Salt
Lime wedges
Make the watermelon magic. Start working on your watermelon, cutting the pink fruit into rough 1.5 inch cubes. Puree in batches and then strain into a container; we find that it typically takes 1.5 cups of watermelon cubes per cocktail so we end up doing at least 6 or 8 cups at a time. You need 3 cups of puree / juice for four cocktails. Use a rubber spatula to extract all the liquid you can from the pureed pulp. Refrigerate.
Watermelon ice cubes (optional). Freeze 2 cups (or more) of watermelon cubes on a baking sheet until frozen (at least 5 hours for us).
Shake it up. (Note the master recipe is configured for 4 cocktails, you shake two at a time.) Pour 1.5 cups of the watermelon juice into a shaker, along with 1/4 cup fresh lime juice, 1/8 cup of the St. Germain and up to 1/2 cup of your tequila of choice. Shake well.
Pour into two serving glasses (salt-rimmed if desired) filled with the watermelon or regular ice cubes. Garnish with a lime wedge and go to it.
You’ll want another. Enjoy.
