In this verdant green cocktail, a margarita takes a stroll to the garden, and comes back greener, fresher, and a little spicier.
Cilantro and ginger root get in the blender with margarita elements – lime, tequila and sugar – to create a lively emerald cocktail. Herbaceous and citrusy, with that sweet, vegetal tequila note, it’s a fresher, more floral margarita.
My recipe started as a healthy, post-run, Sunday morning smoothie – the lime, cilantro, ginger, thing; I had an apple in there. This was pretty delicious: icy cold with little taste arrows pointing in all directions – sharp citrus, spicy ginger, peppery cilantro. Even the palm sugar owned a solid piece of the taste real estate. My husband and I took one sip and said, almost in unison, “This is amazing; it needs tequila.”
Sometimes good health is served in a smoothie, and sometimes it arrives in a cocktail. There were many served the very, very healthy night a bunch of friends all made tamales. To be posted soon.
Cilantro Ginger Margarita
makes approximately 4 drinks
juice of 4 limes
3/4 inch chunk of ginger root chopped loosely
1/2 bunch of cilantro
2 tablespoons palm sugar or honey (or more to taste)
1 1/2 cups sparkling water
3/4 cup tequila (more or less to taste)
Instructions
Mix in a blender lime juice, ginger, cilantro, and 1 cup sparkling water. Whirr until all is mixed well. Pour mixture through a strainer and discard solids.
To this mix add another 1/2 cup sparkling water and the tequila. Pour over ice in a shaker, shake hard, and strain into a glass.
Or, mix again in a blender with some ice cubes and serve in a glass.
To rim the glasses:
Set out two plates, one with a bit of palm sugar or honey on it, the other with sea salt. Run the rim of the preferably chilled glasses first in the sugar, and then in the salt.
Jason Grow hates to be interviewed, and would barely tell me anything, so I had to resort to what I know about him: He makes delicious homemade pasta, even pizzocheri, the buckwheat pasta from Northern Italy impossible to find in this country. A rough cut dough cooked with kale, potatoes, fontina cheese, sage, butter and garlic, pizzocheri was born in the Italian Alps and happily immigrated in Jason’s capable hands to New England ski-slopes as the perfect ending to a day on skis. Jason worked at Stars, Jeremiah Towers’ San Francisco restaurant and celebrity chef incubator. He worked at Chez Panisse for one day, then said, “unh, no, I don’t want to do this,” and he went back to Stars.