do you ever have a meal that you just remember for years and years? i have had a few of them but they are rare. one was on a business trip in dallas texas to a restaurant called smoke. which tragically closed last year due to a sale of the building. i had the most amazing wood shed margarita and coffee rubbed steak i’ve ever had, and i do not order steak at restaurants because we raise cows it in my dads backyard. it was absolutely heavenly. i had friends over this past weekend for a cinco de mayo party because none of us were actually available on cinco de mayo. but we can pretend.
there are two keys to the success of this margarita… fresh lime juice and time. the longer you have to soak the tequila the heavier the smoked wood flavor the drink will have. i had 24 hours so that is about as heavy as it got. you could still taste the cedar but typically i like to give it a good 48 hours.
i bought my cedar wood planks from world market as well as a jar with a wide enough lid to fit the plank in. i used a tequila reposado in this recipe and it took up the entire fifth to make the pitcher which served up 6 margaritas. (served in mason jars).
i am also curious if I would have used my juicer instead of my citrus press if i would have had more juice from my limes but either way it worked to get the cups of lime juice i needed.
after you let your tequila soak at room temperature for a few days you combine all the ingredients in a pitcher and serve over ice. salt the rim too! it is a real crowd pleaser. you might want to make an extra pitcher…
you can buy the book Smoke on amazing as well as the restaurants original recipe.
ingredients
750ml tequila
Cedar plank
1 1/4 cup of simple syrup
1 1/4 cup of fresh squeeze lime juice
5oz of Cointreau
remove the cedar plank and strain the tequila. mix in the simple syrup, lime juice and cointreau. serve over ice and salt the rim if you’re in to that sort of thing. garnish with a lime. enjoy!
Wonder what putting a slight char on part of the plank would do??