Sherry's House of Soup

Cucumber Blossom Cocktail v1

DON’T eat flowers unless you are absolutely certain that they are safe to eat.

Yesterday morning I was drinking coffee and milling around in the garden. The cucumbers are just beginning to flower heavily, setting a few fruit. The pumpkins had just begun sending up their first male blossoms, and I remembered Grandma talking about her mom and her Aunt Virgie frying pumpkin and squash blossoms. I had asked her about killing all the new fruit, and she shrugged and said she guessed that they must have had enough in her lilting Grandma way.  My grandma was a great flower gardener, but I don’t remember seeing her working in anything edible other than the rhubarb patch. So, I don’t know if she forgot or if she didn’t know, but pumpkins and squash have both male and female flowers, and for well over a week, they produce only male flowers. So eating male flowers makes good sense.  And they are delectable!

I turned back to the cucumbers, wondering if their flowers are edible since the flowers and growing habits are so similar to the squash family. I decided to try one. I licked it first and waited to see if my tongue did anything to signify that I had made a terrible mistake; it didn’t. I didn’t know for sure, but I was thinking I had read that they are edible because I also knew NOT to eat eggplant and gourd flowers. I specifically remember being told repeatedly as a child not to eat tomato flowers, as they are members of the “deadly nightshade” family, and the flowers are poisonous. I don’t know the degree of harm that any of those flowers will cause the average person, but I know I’m not supposed to eat them, and I don’t.

However, I did eat the cucumber flowers, and they are delightful. They have the freshest, lightest cucumber taste. I love them. I immediately knew that I needed to invent a cocktail—a cucumber blossom martini.

I set about designing my cocktail. I quickly committed to using gin. I made a batch of Citrus 75’s, over Labor Day weekend with our first batch of limoncello, and the gin mixed beautifully. I wanted to play with gin a bit more, particularly since it is the original Martini base. Also, I have been reading about Hendricks gin lately, so that had an influence on my decision to pair the gin with cucumber.

I wanted something clean, and tending toward the traditional Martini. I adore a salty, savory Dirty Martini, preferably with Ketel One or Grey Goose, and I thought that a bit of salt would work well with the cucumber. I scouted olives. We keep a well-stocked pantry and refrigerator, but our green olive situation was dismal. I thought about capers, but we are out of those as well. However, I am preparing to make our Solstice batch of limoncello, so I’ve got lemons. Lemon and cucumber is a nice combination. I had found my direction.

I pondered gin. I had my choice of a full bottle of Beefeater, or quarter bottles of Bombay Sapphire and Tanquerey. I wanted the most straightforward and was pretty sure that would be Beefeater, but I gave each a healthy whiff to be sure, Beefeater it was. It’s a more simple gin. After all, my plan was to perform all kinds of vegetable-aromatic magic on this gin. I feel strongly that messing with the beauty of Bombay Sapphire would be terribly disrespectful. So, Beefeater was my base. And dry vermouth seemed pretty much a no-brainer. Compari presented itself as a natural choice to me; it’s amazing with soda and lemon, and it’s bitter freshness seemed like it would be a fit.

I tinkered as I cut garnishes and chilled glassware and finally decided upon the following recipe for Cucumber Blossom Martini v1.1:

2 oz gin

½ oz dry vermouth

1 oz Campari

½ oz lemon juice

1 small cucumber, washed, sliced, and chilled.

20 male cucumber blossoms, washed, with stamens removed, and chilled

1 small, approximately ½ inch square, piece of lemon zest

1 pinch of Kosher salt

In a lidded shaker glass, combine the gin, vermouth, Campari, and lemon juice.

Reserve several slices of the cucumber for garnish.  Vigorously muddle the rest of the cucumber, the cucumber blossoms, the lemon zest, and the salt in a Boston Shaker, a mixing glass and tin. Pour a bit of the alcohol mix into the shaker and shake without ice. Pour entire contents into shaker glass.

Top with crushed ice and shake well.

Strain into a frosted Martini glass. Garnish with lemon zest twirl and sliced cucumber. Go to the garden where the cucumber blossoms are from and celebrate.

I’m happy to report that this was a delightful cocktail, and I enjoyed it immensely. It is the first time that I remember drinking alone, no, the second but the first was wine in a dorm room when I was 19, and most of my recollection of THAT is of the hangover, yikes! To guard against that sort of nonsense, I cleaned up my bar before I began drinking so that it was terribly inconvenient to decide to have a second, or a third.

The drink smelled wonderful with lots of clean vegetable mid-tones and a strong, fresh whiff of lemon as a pleasantly astringent top note. The Campari seemed to act as a bridge between the two.

The taste, while good, wasn’t quite as positive. While the salt helped establish the cucumber as a strong presence and played nicely with the gin, the Campari was a bit more bitter than I wanted. By the end of the drink, I was questioning that judgment, but I feel that the drink should be more acid and sweet, less bitter.  I truly enjoyed the drink, but I know that it needs some tinkering if it is to become a seasonal signature for my garden parties.

I’ve got big plans for tonight!