Cookerati

My husband and I were at Tractor Supply the other day, getting – supplies to fix the limping along tractor we use on our lawn.  I found a couple of magazines, Organic Gardening Magazine caught my eye because of the garlic on the front.  We have grown garlic, but I’m always looking for a great hint to improve on my methods. Driving home, I was perusing the magazine and my eye caught on the perfect drink to brink to the Independence Day gathering at my brother in law’s house.  I knew it would be hot, and there would be water, but I thought watermelon would be sweet, without being too sweet especially with a little bit of lime in it. 

We doubled the recipe (actually maybe we quadrupled the recipe) and ended up with about 2 gallons of Watermelon Limeade. Instead of throwing ice into the cooler, I filled a zipper plastic bag with ice cubes and floated it in the drink so it wouldn’t be diluted.  Then we served it over ice.  This was the perfect drink, absolutely the best to drink when it was hot out.  So much better tasting than soda ;the adults were allowed to add a little white rum or tequila to their drinks.  I am disappointed I forgot my mint, it would have given a little extra something to it, though the drink was delicious.

It wasn’t until later that I read it was a recipe by Emeril Lagasse.  Organic Gardening Magazine did a feature with a few recipes and an interview with Emeril.  He has a new book out called Farm to Fork: Cooking Local, Cooking Fresh.  I haven’t read this book, never mind reviewing it, but the Watermelon Limeade is in this book as well as some of the other recipes in Organic Gardening. 

Do I have photos? No, but it was beautiful.  How about a recipe?  This recipe is from Emerils.com.

Ingredients:

• 8 cups cubed watermelon (seeds removed), or 1 quart watermelon juice
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 cup sugar, or more to taste
• Lime slices, for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Place half of the watermelon cubes in a blender and process until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve set over a large bowl; discard the solids. Repeat with the remaining watermelon cubes. You should end up with about 1 quart of watermelon juice.
Add the lime juice and sugar to the watermelon juice, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Taste, and add more sugar if necessary. Transfer the limeade to a nonreactive pitcher and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Serve over ice in tumblers, with lime slices for garnish.
Yield: 5 cups, 4 to 6 servings

I advise tasting to see how much lime and sugar you like in it.  Ours wasn’t tart at all, and I used less than a half of a cup of sugar per quart, because it didn’t seem to need much.  In fact, I made a simple syrup by heating up water and sugar to dissolve it, then added it to the jug.  It wasn’t much sugar at all really because the watermelon was so sweet.