Suzi's Blog
Cucumber Martini
Cucumbers are wonderfully versatile and refreshing. The flavor is unmatched for vivacious clarity. And while it once was a summer food alone, now we find great kukes year round.
In a cocktail, the bright flavor of cucumbers is best matched with pure liquors, like gin or vodka. You need complimentary flavors, not dominance.
This martini was inspired by a recipe at www.diffordsguide.com but I have played with it. You’ll want to experiment, too. The flavor can vary with the vodka you use and certainly with the ripeness and intensity of the cucumber.
Cucumber Martini
Yield: 1 medium-sized drink
Ingredients:
• 1 three-inch slice of a medium-thick cucumber, peeled, and cut into a half dozen chunks
• 2 ounces vodka
• 1 ounce sugar syrup
Preparation:
Remove any seeds that freely come from the cucumber chunks but do not obsess: you do not want to lose any of the cucumber juice.
Place the cucumber in the bottom of a cocktail shaker and muddle for at least one minute. It’s impossible to crunch down every single fragment of cucumber, but that’s your goal.
Add the vodka — you could use a lightly flavored vodka here, say, lemon. In that case, I would suggest 1 ounce of flavored and 1 ounce of pure. Add the sugar syrup, ice, and shake.
Pour into a cocktail glass filled with either ice cubes or shaved ice.
Cucumber Mint Splash
It can be a bit of a challenge to come up with a flavorful cocktail in short order. A bartender is trained to do it, but at home we tend to move a bit slower. If you want a cool beverage, now and with no fuss, where can you turn?
This idea uses ingredients readily at hand: some mint, some cucumber, vodka and club soda.
The original recipe calls for a 12-ounce glass, but I like a smaller 8-ounce one. That means, necessarily, that when you top off with club soda, there’s less room for the soda and less dilution of the vodka-cucumber-mint component. I don’t like my drinks watered down, literally, so I’m happy with this more intense version.
The technique here calls for muddling the mint in the glass. I will admit that I am not a good muddler. I muddle through, but I just never seem to grind the mint all the way down. My solution here is to quarter the mint leaves to get a head start, then put 2 teaspoons of superfine sugar in the bottom of the glass. Yes, the drink is sweeter. But, also yes, the grit of that sugar enables you to chew up the mint.
Lastly, if your cucumber is filled with seeds, then of course scoop those out before finely chopping.
Cucumber Mint Splash
Yield: 1 drink
Ingredients:
- Sugar for rimming
- 4 fresh mint leaves
- One 2-inch-thick slice of peeled cucumber, finely chopped
- Shaved ice for filling the glass
- 1 1/2 ounces vodka
- Club soda
Preparation:
Pour sugar into a saucer. Moisten the rim of an 8-ounce glass and dip in the sugar to coat the rim. Muddle the mint leaves in the glass. Add the cucumber.
Fill the glass with ice. Add the vodka and top off the glass with club soda.
Stir and serve.
Source: The Seven Stars Cookbook
