House Special Margarita ~ The Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Continues
So yesterday we spoke a little bit about the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta menu and how I like to set up my buffet table. Today I want to share with you my house special margarita. She’s a beaut.
What makes this margarita so special? I’m glad you asked. We forego the store bought, prefab sour mix and substitute homemade lemon/lime sorbet. Add to it white tequila, Cointreau, and a rim of Australian Flake Sea Salt and you know what you have? You have a grade A cocktail my Brooklyn friend would say is “Dyn-o-mite”. Wait. Let’s stop a second. Say it again in your best Brooklyn accent. Really drag it out. Dyn-o-mite. Ok. That’s much better.
Shall we break it down? We’ll start with the lemon/lime sorbet. This takes a bit of planning because you need to do this a day or two ahead of time (plus extra days to freeze the ice cream machine canister). Don’t have an ice cream machine? Keep reading. I’ll explain how to make this without one.
Put 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan over medium heat and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved to make the simple syrup. Turn heat off and allow to cool.
Zest one lemon and one lime and set aside. Only the very outer layer! The white pith is very bitter.
Juice enough lemons and limes to have 1 cup each of juice (a total of two cups juice). I used 4 lemons and 6 limes for this. I also used an electric citrus juicer. I’m not sure who it originally belonged to but somehow it made it’s way to my kitchen and is quite useful in getting all of the juice from the fruit and makes juicing mass quantity much easier.
Combine the simple syrup and citrus juice. You should have about four and a half cups of liquid.
Process in the ice cream machine according to manufacturer instructions. Sprinkle the zest in little by little as it processes. This volume of liquid is about the max that my ice cream machine can handle so be sure your machine is up to the task before dumping it all in. Once frozen, transfer to a sealed container and store in the freezer until ready to use.
If you don’t have an ice cream machine pour the simple syrup citrus mixture into a rectangular baking pan and stick in the freezer. Set the time for 90 minutes. Using a fork, drag it through the liquid. Return to the freezer. Set the timer for another 60 minutes. Drag your fork through it again. Keep doing this until frozen. This is technically not sorbet but is a granita and will work great for this margarita.
Ok. Now that a day or two have passed and you just can’t wait any longer; or it’s the day of the big event… Juice one lime into a small flat bottomed bowl (one wide enough to stick your margarita glass in. Pour your salt of choice in another flat bottomed bowl or on a small plate. I used Australian Flake Sea Salt which was fantastic. If you don’t have access to that I recommend a good sea salt. Taste it. Not all salts are equal. Please PLEASE do not use regular table salt for this. Kosher salt or cooking salt will probably be too strong. If you have a salt grinder for your sea salt use a coarser grind.
Dip the rim of the glass in the lime juice first. Next dip the rim of the glass in the salt. Swirl around a bit to get more salt on the rim.
Put a scoop or two of your sorbet into the glass. Be careful to not shake all the salt off! About 1/3 cup. Pour 1.5 ounces of tequila and .5 ounces of Cointreau on top of the sorbet. Garnish with a wedge of lime.
Ready? Now it’s time to enjoy it! I swirl my glass so the alcohol combines with the sorbet effectively giving me a frozen margarita without breaking out the blender (which by the way I don’t own and would have to borrow or buy).
On a very last note….. If you have kids who want to enjoy this as well you could easily pour Sprite (7Up, Lemonade here in Australia) over the sorbet instead of the alcohol. I’d probably omit the salt too.