Pook's Pantry: Thai One On... Again (and once more after that).

I am starting to think I missed my calling as a mixologist... I enjoy coming up with new drinks and playing around with flavors to see what the end result is and there is no pressure to get it right because I'm just having fun. Luckily there have been no casualties as of yet and surprisingly no bad drinks either.
The "Thai One On" post featured the flavors of Thailand and I adore those flavors. They are complex yet so clean and they hit every part of your palate. I thought "Why not make a drink with that flavor profile?"

So I started thinking of what goes together and what flavors I enjoy... It is fairly straight forward, nothing too complicated, yet unusual.

This is a drink I plan to break out when I want to impress. It is light and goes down quite easily... perhaps a little too easily.

Ginger Lemon Fizz

First thing is to start with the simple syrup:

1 whole piece lemongrass, cut into 4
10 quarter-sized slices of ginger
4 leaves fresh basil
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar

(I used the thinnest piece of the lemongrass as a straw. Waste not, want not and it looks cool. To do that, peel the outside layer of the thin part of the top off to make a straw BEFORE you bruise the lemongrass)

With the BACK of the knife blade, bruise the lemongrass pieces. They should be slightly beat up, not pulverized.
To take the skin off of the ginger, use a spoon and scrape down. The skin will come right off.

Once your lemongrass & ginger are ready to go, put everything in a small pot and bring to a simmer, then shut off the heat & let it steep for 15 - 20 minutes. Strain and chill the syrup.

Use a lemon to wet the rim of your glass and dip it in sugar. Fill the glass with crushed ice & add:

2 shots limoncello
2 shots simple syrup
1 shot lemon seltzer

These last few days have been so warm again that I wanted something frozen. I am NOT a frozen drink kind of girl but sometimes you just have to have one. I had plenty of the simple syrup left from the drink above, so I decided to make this one a 2-fer.

A colleague gave me a bottle of Pama and I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with it and like I said before, making drinks is just fun for me so I decided to throw it in with the syrup & limoncello and a STAR was born. This drink is soooo good I may have to re-think my stance on frozen drinks.