Refreshing sake mojito with crushed mint and a splash of lime, perfect for that warm spring day in the backyard.
I hope you had a great weekend. We had our daughter’s birthday party over the weekend (our little princess turned 4!) and it was pretty a chaotic weekend for us. Due to jet lag, my son still wakes up around 4 AM everyday and makes my day extra looooong. Therefore, needing some time to rest and write posts about my trip to Japan, my great blogger friend Laura from Family Spice came to rescue and blog-sit for me today.
I virtually met Laura sometime last year and we’ve been continuously discussing about how we can improve our blog. It’s been fun talking to her because she has a long blogging career and she’s very experienced. She’s knowledgeable and a little geeky “enjoying” coding and technical stuff. As we are both stay-at-home moms whose priority is our kids, we often struggle to find time for blogging (cooking + photo shooting + writing recipes/posts) between volunteering in school and driving the kids to extracurricular activities. She’s been really sweet and generous to support me and help my blog with all the technical knowledge, and I cannot thank her enough for her kindness.
On her blog Laura shares Persian recipes and a lot of family friendly recipes as she has 3 beautiful children to keep their tummy full and happy. You must check out these delicious Orange Barbecue Pulled-Pork Sandwiches and Persian Ice Cream with Saffron and Rosewater. Today she has a treat for grownups!
Now please welcome Laura with Sake Mojito!
Hi Everyone! I’m Laura and I’m the insomniac-stay-at-home mom over at Family Spice! I started my blog about 3 years ago as a way to document what I fed my family and to share recipes with family and friends. And of course, to keep my sanity while home with my babies! The only cooking class I’ve ever taken was 7th-grade home-economics some years back where I was traumatized after chopping up about dozens of chickens for a school banquet! My passion is a graphic design and I love to create new things, any new things from food to art to house projects for my husband. Lucky for me, he’s an engineer and loves to create, too, so we keep busy in San Diego with our three kids, The Professor (10), Middle-Child (8) & The Princess (6). I am a half-breed Iranian married to a full-breed Iranian so I share Persian recipes as well as everything else I come up with in the kitchen. My favorite ingredient? Pomegranates!
I am truly honored that Nami asked me to guest post on her blog. I virtually met Nami through comments I left on her blog and comments she left on mine. A short thank-you email has blossomed into a pen-pal friendship, where we talk about our kids, our husbands, our blogs, and how we try (unsuccessful at times) to balance it all! Nami has taught me so much about Japanese cooking, and how it goes beyond sushi and teriyaki sauce. I look forward to her posts & recipes, as I’m sure you do, every week!
But, with great honor comes great responsibility or something like that! I wanted to share something really special here, something that could hold its own compared Nami’s beautiful photography and creations. The other night, the hubby and I were watching “Modern Marvels,” the hubby’s favorite show. They were talking about rice, everything you never knew about rice: how it’s grown, how it’s evolved and the 101+ apparent uses of rice that goes beyond food!
And of course, I learned everything sake. Sake is made from fermented rice. The brewing process is similar to beer more than wine, and it is a colorless beverage. Sake is not for the faint at heart, with an alcoholic content of about 15%-18%, compared to beer which is significantly less. I also learned that sake in Japanese refers to any alcoholic drink, but here in U.S. we like to simplify things!
Sake dates back centuries where the monks began brewing sake for religious ceremonies. And now, you can find hundreds of different varieties of sake, of different qualities and prices, from $6 and up to $400 a bottle, priced here in the U.S.
So with all of this talk of Sake, you’d think I’m an expert or drink a lot. Honestly, the first time I drank sake was with my husband at a sushi restaurant. I wanted to impress my then-boyfriend and smiled as I drank the warm liquid and let it burn down my throat. Mmmmm! No, not really. I am a light-weight when it comes to alcoholic drinks. I don’t do beer and don’t care for wine. Most of the time I prefer Margaritas, Mai Tai’s and the sort – girly drinks. All alcohol puts me to sleep, so I keep to my 1-drink limit. Yes, I’m a cheap date.
This brings me to my next favorite drink and I’m proud to say, NOT a girly drink: The Sake Mojito!
You begin like you do with a regular mojito, crushing fresh mint leaves with chopped up lime and a bit of sugar. Mix in your sake. Do your dance while you shake and strain the liquid into your glass. Then top it with a splash of club soda and Salut!
This drink goes down like lemonade. The sugar and club soda helps the sake go down nice and smooth, which can be deceiving, so beware! It can go straight to your head pretty quickly!
And if you are making this for a party and don’t want to be crushing mint & lime all night, drink by drink, the hubby came up with a great solution. Put the sake and mint combo in the blender and pulse until coarsely chopped. Strain and pour into each glass, topping each with club soda.
So, raise your glass, and cheers to you all!
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Sake Mojito
Ingredients
- 6 mint leaves (fresh)
- 1 tsp sugar
- ½ lime (cut into small pieces)
- 5 oz sake
- Ice
- 1 oz club soda (2 Tbsp)
To Garnish
- 1 sprig mint
Instructions
- In a cocktail shaker, crush 6 fresh mint leaves, 1 tsp granulated sugar, and lime.
- Add and shake with 5 oz (150 ml) sake. Strain liquid into a glass filled with ice.
- Top with 1 oz club soda (2 Tbsp) and 1 sprig of mint.
To Make for A Crowd
- Add sake, mint, sugar, and lime for the quantity of drinks needed in a blender. Pulse until coarsely chopped and just combined. Strain liquid into glasses and top each with 1 oz of club soda & a sprig of mint.
