We took a fabulous vacation last November back to Costa Rica. I loved all of the fresh fruit juices that were everywhere to drink. They were very light and not nearly as sickly sweet as most of the juices we have here. One of my favorites was watermelon agua fresca. As summer rolled around, I started to look for recipes. I blended a few recipes I found and here’s and easy way to make my new favorite summertime drink. You can adapt this many ways, the key is to infuse the water with fruit essence without turning it into a smoothie or slushy drink. My husband (who doesn’t like to see anything go to waste) came up with the fruit leather recipe below while thinking about ways we could use all of the pulp from the making the drink.
Watermelon Agua Fresca
1 Seedless Watermelon
2 Cups of Good Quality Limeade (I like Newman’s Own)
4 Cups of Water
Cut the watermelon flesh from the rind. In a blender, process half the watermelon pieces until smooth. Pour through a strainer into a pitcher. Repeat the process with the remaining melon. Set the strained pulp aside and below there is a recipe for a quick and easy homemade fruit leather. Add juice to a large pitcher, combine with water and limeade. You can add more limeade or water to taste.
Watermelon Agua Fresca Cocktail
This was a hit at a dinner I had for some friends recently. Follow all of the above steps. Add ice to a cocktail shaker, a shot of Ketel One Citroen Vodka, and the juice from above. Shake and pour into a tall glass. Garnish with a skewered watermelon ball and a lime wedge.
Watermelon Fruit Leather
Pulp from the Watermelon Agua Fresca above
¼ Cup of Superfine Sugar
1/8 Cup of Lemon Juice
Non-Stick Cooking Spray (Plain, mine was Sunflower Oil)
Preheat your oven to 170 degrees. Mix all of the above together. Very lightly spray a 9 X 13 baking pan with cooking oil. (tip- place the pan on the open door of you dishwasher before you spray and you’ll have no mess to clean up on your counter) Wipe up any excess oil. Pour the mixture from above into the pan, it should only be a very thin layer about 1/8 of an inch thick. Place in oven until the fruit is completely dried out and not at all sticky to the touch. In my oven on convection, this took about three hours. I think it would take about 4 ½ hours in a standard oven. When it has cooled, you can peel it out of the pan and cut into strips.
