The Late Night Gourmet
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When I visited my parents a few months ago, I noticed that my mom had a bag with dried flowers in it. She confirmed that they were lilacs. My mind naturally went to recipe-related possibilities. I then completely forgot about them until just before the recipe challenge deadline. But, that's the nice thing about dried things: they generally keep indefinitely.
I naturally thought of a tea, but then I decided on something stronger. Mind you, fresh lilacs are a lot prettier, and will create a cleaner infusion. This one came out dark and muddy, but the flavor did come through quite nicely. It's not pretty, but it did the job. Note that:
- The dried lilacs are symbolic of autumn (I just lucked out with that correlation, but that certainly sounds good, doesn't it?)
- The color does look like an autumn drink, rather than a bright summery drink.
- The decorative glasses and decanter attempt to bridge the global gap and unite the world in something that many of us can agree on: a good drink is a good thing!
Ingredients
1/4 ounce dried lilacs
12 ounces of water
1 orange, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons of honey
3 ounces of good gin (or more!)
Directions
1. Bring water to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Add dried lilacs.
2. Add orange zest to the pot. Stir in honey until completely dissolved. Allow to steep for 30 minutes.
4. Strain out the contents of the pot; reserve liquid and discard the remains. Refrigerate liquid until fully cooled.
5. Add liquid, grated cucumber, the juice from the orange, and the gin to a shaker or some other container with a lid.
6. Shake contents a few times, then refrigerate the entire container until fully cooled. Strain out the contents and serve. NOTE: shaken drinks often add ice to chill them. If you have room in your shaker (which I didn't), you can do this, but know that it will dilute the drink.
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