After interviewing these amazing chefs around Austin and letting you know about them, we also want to give you a taste of what they do. We asked Chef Darci for a recipe for her brighteningly sweet watermelon lemonade. After leaving I have to admit I left the watermelon slice in there, and it flavored my water all day as I refilled it.
Watermelon Lemonade Recipe:
2 qts. Sugar
2 qts. Rainwater
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
* stir& bring to a low boil.*
This is Simple Syrup! 🙂
– you can add: lavender, blueberries, rosehips, strawberries, jalapeños or any combination of these for an extra level of flavor! I really like Ginger & Watermelon! 🙂
The juice of 1 giant Texas Watermelon!
* Peel you watermelon & run through a juicer. IF you don’t have a juicer handy, you can purée your melon & drain the fresh juice from the pulp with a fine mesh strainer or cheese-cloth! Yield: 1/2 gallon of juice*
35 to 40 lemons.
* Juice *
– I like to do 24 liquid oz. (3 cups) of pure lemon juice to 1 gallon of simple syrup to 3 1/2 gallons of pure rainwater.
So for 5 Gallons of Watermelon Lemonade
1 gallon Simple Syrup
3 cups Lemon Juice
1/2 gallon Watermelon Juice
3 1/2 gallons Rainwater
Lemonade is all about the ratios! You want plenty of citrus, but not too sour, and you want it sweet, but not sugary. And just enough fresh water to achieve the perfect balance. You can always add a little less water to account for adding ice!
– Chef Darci
A Lick of Bliss 