This Is the Easiest and Freshest Way to Make Bloody Mary This Summer.
Bloody Mary is a drink for all seasons, but there is something unpleasant about sipping thick soup-like mixtures when the temperature outside starts to rise. To beat the heat and still enjoy your favorite savory brunch shake, ditch the mixture entirely and make your own with fresh tomatoes.
Is it a little more difficult than unscrewing a bottle of filled tomato juice? Yes, but it’s no more difficult than making a smoothie – anyone can make a smoothie – and the payoff is huge. My main Summer Mary blend is just three ingredients (not including your alcohol), and its lighter, savory but not overly salty flavor makes it totally refreshing. It’s also an insanely customizable app, but we’ll come back to that in a minute. To prepare two servings of healthy food, you will need:
- 1 1/2 medium tomatoes, cut into quarters
- 1 half brine + 30 grams of brine (I like Clausen here)
- 1/4 lemon juice
Combine everything in a blender (you can also toss this into a large cup and use a hand blender) and purée. Add four ounces to an ice-filled shaker (along with 1 1/2 ounces of vodka, gin, or tequila) and shake until the shaker is too cold to hold. Strain it into a glass filled with ice, through a fine sieve – scrape off the strainer with a spoon while you pour to keep it from clogging – and decorate as much as you like.
Instead of the usual umami overload, pickled juice provides just enough salt, odor and smell to complement the natural sweetness of a tomato, while lemon brightens it even further. You can of course contribute. Horseradish, hot sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, lemongrass, Worcestershire sauce, and ginger are all great additions (though maybe not all at once). Just add any mixtures a teaspoon at a time, whisk again with a blender, let it taste and adjust as needed.
If you want something even fresher , replace pickles with straight cucumbers and make some of what I fondly call Jealous Mary. I found it to work especially well with fish sauce and ginger, and have included my mixing ratios below. To make this Lean Green Drinker, you’ll need:
- 1/2 medium cucumber
- 1/2 tomato
- Lime half juice
- 5 slices of pickled sushi ginger + 1 teaspoon of juice can
- 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
Mix everything together as described above, then shake four ounces of the mixture in an ice-filled shaker with half an ounce of liquor until the shaker is unpleasantly cold. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a glass and garnish as much or less as you like. Empty the glass and repeat as needed. (This is essentially green juice, so repetition is acceptable and even responsible.)