One of the things I love doing for a BBQ is making a couple of big jugs of cocktail to share around. They always go down well with the girls and I find it’s much easier than having to mix individual drinks for each guest, leaving you free to get on with the important business of cooking the sausages and socialising! Here’s a couple of my particular summer favourites…
Pimms and lemonade
The best thing about Pimms and lemonade is definitely all the fruit. I like to add generous quantities of fruit, then keep on topping up the jug with more Pimms and lemonade. The fruit steadily gets more alcoholic and is much nicer to nibble on than a plain old fruit salad.
If you run out of Pimms, this recipe is just as good if you use vodka instead.
Ingredients:
Pimms
lemonade
A couple of springs of mint
5 strawberries
1 orange
1 lemon
1 apple
Half a cucumber
Ice
Cut the strawberries into quarters after removing the green stems. Cut a couple of slices from the orange and cut the slices into quarters, then do the same with the lemon. Cut the apple in quarters, cut out the core from one of the quarters and cut it into thin slices. Slice off a few slices of cucumber and cut them in half. Gently crush some mint leaves to release the oil. Put all the fruit and the mint into a large glass pitcher and add about a glassful of crushed ice. Finally add the Pimms and lemonade in the quantities of 1 part Pimms to 3 parts of a good brand of lemonade.
For a low calorie version use diet lemonade – Schweppes is my favourite.
Mojito
I’m not a huge fan of rum in general but for some reason I can’t get enough of mojitos. I like the fact that the sourness of the lime juice means they aren’t as sweet as a lot of cocktails, which means you can drink more of them without feeling sick!
Ingredients:
3 limes
A couple of sprigs of mint
6 teaspoons of brown sugar
Bacardi
Soda water
Ice
Start by juicing the limes. Then put the sugar and the mint leaves into a large glass pitcher and mash together using a cocktail muddler, if you have one. If you don’t have one to hand you can use a pestle or the back of a spoon instead. I’ve found that adding a bit of the lime juice to the sugar and mint at this stage makes mashing it a bit easier. Then add the rest of the lime juice, a glassful of crushed ice and then the rum and soda water in the quantities 1 part rum to 2 parts soda water. Delicious!
