My husband, Speedy, was so roused with the unlikely idea of making a cocktail drink with celery juice. I found it a bit odd but, heck, why not? It never hurts to try something so totally out of our comfort zone.
Celery julep turned out to be one of the best cocktail drinks we’ve ever had since we were old enough to drink alcohol.
The flavor of this drink relies heavily on celery juice. To make it, puree fresh celery with a bit of salt and sugar. Use a cheesecloth to press out the juice then heat the strained juice with more sugar to make your celery simple syrup.
Depending on how much juice you are able to press, you might have leftover celery simple syrup after mixing the drink. Leftover celery syrup can be kept in the fridge in a covered container for a week.
Celery julep
Ingredients
- 4 stalks celery leaves discarded
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ teaspoon celery seeds
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup Kentucky bourbon or Tennessee whiskey (Speedy used Jack Daniels)
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- club soda
- celery tops with the leaves, to garnish
Instructions
- Cut the celery into small pieces.
- Dump the celery in the food processor with 1 tablespoon sugar, the salt and celery seeds. Process to a puree.
- Fold a cheesecloth into four layers.
- Place a cheesecloth over a large bowl.
- Pour the puree into the cheesecloth.
- Gather the corners of the cheesecloth and press the juice from the puree into the bowl underneath.
- Pour the celery juice into a pan.
- Add the rest of the sugar.
- Heat gently just until the sugar dissolves.
- Fill four glasses with ice cubes.
- Pour in a ounce of bourbon or whiskey, a tablespoonful of lemon juice and about two tablespoonfuls of the celery syrup into each glass. Stir.
- Top with club soda.
- Drop in a celery top for a stirrer and serve.
