This time of the year every grocery flyer / circular you receive in the mail normally contains amazing deals on seedless watermelons. But growing up on the islands we were not accustomed to getting seedless anything… we had to old-school it and spit out the seeds. I remember hearing the old folks say that we shouldn’t eat the seeds or we’ll grow a water melon plant in our belly. Well due my love for watermelon and it’s refreshing nature, I should by now have an entire greenhouse of watermelon plants in my belly. Unless I do which would explain my ever growing waistline.
For under $3 I picked up a watermelon over the weekend and besides cubing it as a fruit salad for Tehya and Caron, I opted to add a little “zing” to it and make a frozen drink. I figured if they made daiquiris with ripe berries, why not water melon? A quick search on Google confirmed my thoughts. So water melon daiquiri it is then…
Note: If you were to search for a watermelon daiquiri recipe online you won’t see then using the Angostura bitters as I did. Being Trinbagonian it’s part of my culture to add a dash or two of our world famous bitters to everything.
You’ll need…
4 cups seeded and cubed watermelon
1/3 cup rum (only use the over-proof stuff if you’re brave)
1/4 to 1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons orange liqueur (Cointreau)
4 teaspoons powdered sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
coupe drops of Angostura bitters (new orange flavour one is excellent).
* slice or lime or watermelon wedge for garnishing.
I sliced the watermelon into pieces (as big as ice cubes), then placed them in a freezer lock bag and set them in the freezer for about 4-5 hours. After which I placed the frozen pieces of melon in a blender, along with the other ingredients I mentioned above and puree everything together (about a minute). That’s it.. you’re done!
Looking back at my childhood it puzzles me as to what was our facination with imported fruits like apples, pears and grapes? It’s funny how when you move away from home you crave the things you took for granted. Like off-the-tree mangoes and oranges. Mangoes with such names as Julie, long, hog, dou dous (sp), belly full, Princess Town starch, calabash, donkey st*nes and turpentine to name a few. Today I’m stuck buying the flavour less stuff we get in the supermarkets. Mangoes that were picked green so they could last the journey to North America and still have some shelf life.
It must have been about 8 years ago, we were doing a walking tour of Havana (still remember all the people trying to sell us Cohiba cigars) when our guide, full of excitement said…” I’m about to take you for a drink in a very special place”. Turns out it was the old watering hole of none other than Ernest Hemingway. I don’t recall the name of the place, after-all we had just done doing a tour of a rum factory and I did give every beverage they make a special test. I do remember being asked to fork out $4 for a drink that looked like leaves in a glass. Turns out it was a Mojito and those leaves were the essence of the drink..mint!
