Frozen strawberry margarita

Mexicali rose: authentic Mexican cooking, 160pp.
by Lori Horton
New Holland Publishers, Sydney, 2009
Cooking on page 132

This is the first of two cookbooks by Lori Horton of Mexicali Rose Restaurant in Melbourne. Her second book, Mexican authentic cooking, came out last year.

Mexicali Rose has been around for 35 years. While Horton has owned it for the last 12 years, she and her family have a long history with Mexican food and cooking.

Drinks don’t pop up often on page 32s, but this book has a margarita recipe. Oh yum! Especially because it’s red and Christmas.

Frozen strawberry margarita

Ingredients
sugar for frosting glasses
3/4 cup (180ml) gold tequila
1/2 cup (125ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
60ml (2 fl oz) triple sec
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/4 caster sugar
8 cups ice
fresh strawberries for garnish

Method
Place enough sugar onto a saucer to cover the base to about 2mm deep. Run a lemon wedge around the rim of each margarita glass and dip each glass in the sugar to lightly coat just the rims. Set the glasses aside upright.

Pour the tequila, lemon juice, triple sec, ice, strawberries and caster sugar to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into the prepared glasses. Garnish with fresh strawberries.

Serves 4.

How it played out
I’ve been hanging out to make this recipe for holiday drinks and reckoned Christmas was the perfect time. Strawberries were luscious and on special at the markets yesterday afternoon, so I bought a pound of them for A$6. I used just under half for this recipe.

Made as written except that I don’t own a blender, so had to use the food processor, and I used regular tequila (not the gold version). Oh, and I was a tiny bit short of ice.

I don’t own proper margarita glasses, but I have some lovely dessert goblets that were fine for the job. They hold just over 5 ounces each (160ml), so the recipe made 6 drinks, rather than the suggested 4.

Verdict
Confession: I’m not a big fan of cocktails, but I’ve always enjoyed a standard margarita with a salted rim. I wondered if this sweeter version would live up to my expectations, and I can report that it did in every way.

We all enjoyed this festive drink. It was totally delicious, colourful and perfect for Christmas Day drinks. But, trust me, you don’t have to wait for a holiday to enjoy this.

Travel
Christmas is a time for joy, as well as sadness. It’s a chance to think of those who are no longer with us, and remember happy and sad times of the past. Syria will always have a place in my heart at Christmas. Libby, our first daughter, was born in Damascus, and had her first Christmases there.

In 2009, we were lucky enough to celebrate one more Christmas in Syria—before the war began. My heart still breaks for the people of Syria. If a Syrian family should come to your community as refugees, please welcome and support them. They are good people—whether Muslim or Christian.