Great cooking ideas many times arise from the abundance of ingredients. Pickles are one great example. This drink is another. I have posted my Thai basil fried rice mentioning that this is the best year for Thai basil since I have lived in Austin. I owe it to my beloved husband to turn our beautiful and nutritious compost and get our soil ready for each planting season. I also owe it to heavy rainfalls we had this year, including an amazing one today that dropped the temperature by 20 degrees.
There are many delicious recipes for aqua fresca out there including many from Matt at MattBites. I made his cucumber lemongrass (those are also the two ingredients that I have so much of) and it was so light and refreshing. You can probably go wild with it. I also tried cucumber melon, blackberry ginger, watermelon mint and ginger peach. The Thai basil lime is my most favorite. All these ingredients are at your local farmers' market, right now. These ingredients are the reason I long for summer and are the tools for me to get through summer.
The surplus of Thai basil this year inspired me to make this refreshing drink. I harvested 6 pounds of basil from my own garden the other day, six whole pounds. It's so easy and fast to make. You can of course make much less if you don't need to feed the customers at a Thai restaurant like I do.
Thai Basil Lime Aqua Fresca
4 cups Thai basil
1/2 to 3/4 cup lime juice
2 cup simple syrup (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, bring to a simmer or until sugar is dissolved)
put everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Strain it through cheese cloth or fine sieve. Top with sparkling or still water about 1/3 basil lime mix and 2/3 water/sparkling water.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Thai Basil Lime Aqua Fresca
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6 comments:
This sounds so refreshing!
We sometimes use kaffir lime leaves from Simmons Farm to make a lime-flavored simple syrup. Then we add lime juice and some Topo Chico and it makes a really delicious drink. My husband Darius calls it "70up" because it's like an amazing version of 7up sortof! Our recipe is here: http://www.feast-your-eyes.com/?p=1180 . I think adding the Thai basil to this would be wonderful!
We also make Thai basil tea by heating up some water and then steeping a few leaves in it for about five minutes. It's really good, especially if you're suffering from a summer cold like I am! Also works well with lemon basil and mint!
thank you Nicole. Your drink looks pretty amazing too. Gotta try that. I have been wanting to try something with kaffir lime leaves and now I think it's time to give it a shot. Thanks for stopping by.
I can't believ how delicious this drink is. I discovered it on my very first visit to Thai Fresh. It's now my very favorite drink and restaurant!! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
Hi Alecci, thank you for stopping by the blog as well as the restaurant. Introduce yourself next time you stop by the store.
Awesome...so refreshing!!!
Thank you for this recipe! Just had something very similar at the Austin Farmer's Market and was entranced with the flavor and color. Just got home with my lime and the basil--a gift from a friend with a garden like yours--has been waiting in my fridge for a while.
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