The tomato water depending on your patience and method (pressed through a fine-mesh seive or allowed to slowly gather through cheese cloth) will render the essence of the tomatoes without the "fuzzy thickness" of commercial tomato juice.
You could serve this as a gorgeous shot for a simple or elegant dinner party with single shrimp or a tiny dot of creme fraiche and a dot of caviar. Serve as a first course, ladled into a soup bowl to provide the clear but delicious base for a fine confetti of cucumber, tomato, zucchini and fennel, garnished with micro basil and thyme and dusting of flaky salt and pinch of grated lemon rind.
YIELD 4 Cocktails
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE TOMATO WATER
4 cups, beefsteak or roma tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 cup cucumber, chopped
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons Taste#5 Bomba! XXX Tomato paste
1 teaspoon DIY harissa paste
1/4 red onion, roughly chopped
3-inch piece of lemongrass, roughly chopped
juice of one small lemon
small pinch sugar
large pinch salt
FOR THE BLOOD MARY
16 ounces tomato water
6 ounces vodka
GARNISH
Celery and cherry tomatoes for garnish
METHOD
FOR THE TOMATO WATER
Place the tomatoes, onion, celery, cucumbers, parsley, pastes and lemon grass in a blender and purée.
Pour the purée into the center of a square of cheese cloth and suspend over a non-reactive bowl and place in the refrigerator and allow to sit overnight. Squeeze the last bits of liquid from the remaining solids in the cheesecloth. Discard this and transfer the remaining liquid to a pitcher.
If your in a hurry for that cocktail, pour the purée in to a fine mesh sieve and press the liquid, leaving the solids behind.
Add the juice of the lemon to the tomato water. You should have about 20 -30 ounces or 2 1/2 - 3 cups of liquid, enough for 4 cocktails.
FOR THE BLOOD MARY
Fill 4 cocktail glasses with ice. In each, combine 4 ounces tomato water and 1 1/2 ounces vodka and stir. Garnish with cherry tomatoes. This is very elegant served up in a martini glass. If you choose to serve this "neat", then keep you vodka in the freezer so there's no dilution from melting ice.
