Get ready for a refreshing, relaxing recipe this week from our cookbook of the month, Rick Bayless’ Fiesta at Rick’s [read our full review here]. These watermelon mojitos are perfect for your weekend barbeque.
Watermelon Mojitos
4 cups cubed seedless watermelon—1/2-inch cubes are perfect here
cup Simple Syrup
Ice cubes (you’ll need about 2 quarts)
2 cups white rum (I like D’Aristi rum from Yucatan)
cup fresh lime juice
Sparkling water or club soda
Instructions
Set out eight tall 12-ounce glasses. Put the leaves stripped off a single sprig of mint into each glass—you’ll need about 10 leaves for each drink—and top with 1/2 cup watermelon cubes. Divide the Simple Syrup among the glasses (1 tablespoon per glass). Use a muddler (or the handle of a wooden spoon or a long-handle ice tea spoon—though neither is anywhere near as effective) to crush the mint and watermelon, releasing their flavor into the syrup—the more muddling, the fuller the flavors. Fill each glass with ice. Measure in the rum (2 ounces per glass) and the lime juice (1 tablespoon per glass). Use a long-handle ice tea spoon to mix everything together. Top off each glass with a little sparkling water or soda and you’re ready to serve.
Reprinted from Fiesta at Rick’s by Rick Bayless (c) 2010. Used with permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
This sounds like the perfect drink to toast the last days of summer.