Quick Sip - Smokin' Cherry
Hickory Smoked Cherry Limeade
Juice of 2 dozen limes
1 1/2 cups simple syrup (more or less to taste)
2 cups water (more or less to taste)
Stir these together in a large pitcher with 2-3 handfuls of smoked cherries.
Hickory Smoked Cherry & Bourbon Lemonade
2 quarts lemonade (fresh or from concentrate)
1 cup triple sec or orange curacao
2-3 cups bourbon (to taste)
1 cup smoked cherries
Pour over ice. For a lighter drink, top with seltzer.
So how do you happen to come upon smoked cherries? Prolly not in your local 7-11. Seeing as I was spending 8-ish hours smoking brisket, I figured I might as well put the top racks to use. Took a couple of foil baking pans, and laid in a layer of fresh cherries in each. Two hours in the low, steady lump charcoal heat, suffused with the heady smoke of beer-soaked hickory chips left the cherries with unbelievably rich, mellow, sweet-smoked flavor. Seeing our guests repeatedly sidling over to the bowl with the extras, and plucking them from their cocktails to savor on their own makes me think I've stumbled upon something pretty distinctive. I've a notion there will be a goodly bit more experimentation as long as they're in season.
Oh - and I also tossed in a foil pan of kosher salt for about 6 hours. That smoked salt will add some delicious wood-char undertones to my next batch of margaritas. But that's a whooole other post.
Posted May 30th 2007 11:18AM by Kat K food network
Tue Feb 10, 2009 5:41 pm