Loquacious Cocktail

I want to tell you about loquats again because the first time I told the story, it was four years ago and I was probably the only person who read it. It's the story of how I didn't grow up with loquat trees, but I fell for them immediately after moving to Austin and seeing them everywhere. So, of course we planted a loquat tree in our backyard. Some years are better than others regarding how much fruit the tree produces, and some years are better than others regarding how many loquats the birds let me have. They're usually very fast to steal the fruit as soon as it ripens, but this was a good year and the tree was laden with enough fruit for me and the birds. Our tree is tall now, so I was standing on a ladder, holding a bowl, picking the little, orange fruits, and popping a few directly into my mouth when I remembered reading about the Loquacious in the book The American Cocktail. This drink was invented by David Alan, the Tipsy Texan, also from Austin, and it involves muddling seeded loquats in a cocktail shaker.

Loquats have big seeds for their size, but the seeds slip right out when you cut the loquats in half. For some uses, you also need to peel loquats, but here they were just seeded and quartered. About six loquats were used per cocktail, and they were muddled in a cocktail shaker with some simple syrup. Vodka, preferably Tito's of course, limoncello or Paula's Texas Lemon, and I had some homemade limoncello on hand, lime juice, and ice were then added to the shaker. The cocktails were shaken and double-strained into chilled glasses.

The flavor of loquats is like mild apricot, and the limoncello and lime juice accompanied it nicely. And, the pretty orange of the fruit gave the cocktail great color. Our tree has been picked clean of fruit for this year, and who knows if the birds will share next spring, but it was fun to toast the tree with a cocktail of its making while I could.

Fruit Salad with Limoncello and Yogurt Sauce

Is it just me, or is strawberry season far too short? It’s an especially short season for locally-grown strawberries in Austin. We’ve been getting pints of them in our CSA from Farmhouse Delivery, and I’ve been buying them at farmers’ markets. Just yesterday, when I bought some at Boggy Creek Farm, I worried they might be the last of the local season. Yes, I worry over strawberries. I worry over homegrown lemons too and how to best use them, and that could be why I decided to combine the two in a dessert. This fruit salad is from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, and the recipe is also available online. Fresh berries were mixed with limoncello and topped with a yogurt sauce made with lemon curd.

The recipe actually suggests using purchased lemon curd, but I had a last bit of frozen meyer lemon juice, so I made my own lemon curd. I also still had some of the limoncello I made earlier in the year. The lemon curd was whisked into some Greek yogurt along with honey and vanilla. For the salad, I used only strawberries and raspberries rather than the recommended mix of berries and bananas. The berries were tossed with a pinch of sugar and a few tablespoons of limoncello and allowed to sit at room temperature for five minutes or so. The macerated fruit was topped with the yogurt sauce and chopped mint.

I don’t think I’d ever tried limoncello with strawberries before, but it’s a combination that’s very worth remembering. In fact, I see a cocktail created with strawberry juice and limoncello in my future. And, the lemony, tangy yogurt sauce made the dessert more special than you would expect a fruit salad to be. I may not have much time left to repeat this dessert with local strawberries this year, but I might try it again when blackberries make an appearance.

Limoncello Cheesecake Squares

I went on and on about my lemon trees the other day, and when I have a good year for lemons like I just did, I love getting to make limoncello. Limoncello is a simple liqueur involving lemon peels, vodka, and simple syrup. Every recipe I’ve seen seems to suggest a different number of days for the lemon peels to sit in the vodka (three days to 10) and then a different quantity of simple syrup to add at the end (two-thirds cup to three cups for 750 ml vodka). Whichever recipe you use, once it’s ready it can be mixed into all kinds of cocktails, and my favorite is a simple combination of limoncello and club soda over ice. Limoncello can also be used in all kinds of desserts. As I was waiting for my lemon peels to steep in the vodka, I was busy trying to locate a recipe I had seen before for some kind of limoncello cheesecake. It was a year ago if not longer that I had seen this, and I have no idea where I first saw it. In my search, I came upon Giada’s recipe for limoncello cheesecake squares, and that may even have been what I was remembering in the first place but I don’t think so, and I ended giving them a try.

In Giada’s recipe, biscotti are used to form the crust, but I used graham crackers in their place since I had some handy. The graham cracker crust was formed with melted butter and lemon zest, and it baked until golden and was allowed to cool. The filling was made from ricotta, cream cheese, lemon zest, sugar, limoncello, vanilla, and eggs which were combined in a food processor. The filling was poured over the cooled crust, and it baked in a water bath for about an hour. After cooling on a rack for an hour, it was refrigerated overnight. It was very simple to prepare, and since it baked in a nine inch square pan, there was no need to wrap foil on the bottom to prevent water from entering.

The square pan was easier for baking, but I was unsure how easily the cut pieces would be to remove from it. Actually, it was one of the easiest desserts ever to cut and serve from the pan. The crust held together well, and there was no sticking at all. The limoncello flavor was delightful but was not at all overpowering. This was a rich and creamy cheesecake that wasn’t as dense as others. I’ll have to try it again someday with the biscotti crust, or maybe I’ll eventually figure out which recipe I was looking for in the first place.