Happy Diwali and Happy New Year! I wish that in this coming year, your life is filled with love, light, luck and a sense of joie de vivre.
Entertaining is BIG during the holidays, especially entertaining at home. There is always something special about inviting friends or family home, to share a festive occasion, and to feed them silly, wine-ing them till drowsy, and serving them desert up until they enter a food induced comatose state. That makes you a true hostess with the mostess!
The appetisers are ready, decked out in your finest and most attractive china, wooden cheese boards and slate platters. The mains are lovingly resting in the kitchen – all prepped and perfectly planned, with different elements lined up together, just waiting for that final toss of the salad, the sauté of the pasta and the bubbling of the bake dish. Just before the doorbell rings and the first lot of guests arrive, I realise that yet again, I have ignored the cocktails/mocktails section of the menu and theres absolutely nothing to whet my guests’ appetite with, until they decide they are ready to hit the bar.
After this debacle has ensued more than a few times, I have started making a conscious effort to provide a light and refreshing beverage to be served on arrival, and which can also be spiked into a yummy little cocktail – killing two birds with one stone. This cucumber lemonade is just the trick that I have up my sleeve this time around. It can be made unto a day or two earlier as well, and spiked with some gin or vodka, for a kick.
I used two types of limes – one was the regular kind (yellow on the inside) and the other was an indigenous version, which when cut open resembles more of an orange than a lime, but the juice is as tart and sharp as lime, despite its distracting colour. On a separate note – the core ingredients of this beverage make it a real crowd pleaser in the warmer months of the year, and add a light flavour of the cucumber to the regular nimbu paani ordeal that we are all too used to. Serving over a mountain of ice in pretty little crystal glasses is always an added bonus. After all, we eat with our eyes too!
Cucumber Lemonade
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients:
- 6 cucumber(s), cut into large chunks
- 1 cup lime juice
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups cold water
- Ice
- Soda/sparking water, to serve
Method:
- Process the cucumber in a blender or food processor until completely pureed, and no chunky bits are visible when you stir through. Strain the puree using a fine-mesh strainer over a container. Discard the molten remains. This should give you approximately 1 cup of the green juice.
- Add lemon juice and sugar to it, then water.
- Shake the mixture well, so as to get the sugar to start dissolving in, and let it sit in the fridge (to get it started chilling) for 15 minutes, after which a couple more stirs or shakes should leave the sugar fully dissolved.
- Taste the cucumber lemonade, adding more sugar or water if desired. The idea is that this is kind of a concentrate, and when you’re ready to serve, pour over ice, with a splash of sparking water (or gin!) on top.
