PDX to PHX: Cucumber Mint Gimlet and Bacon Leek Tart

I realize that I have mostly been posting recipes on this little blog. I didn't intend for it to become a food blog, but honestly, cooking is the main thing that we do for entertainment around here. It works out nicely since I like to cook, we love food, and most of the restaurants around here suck. So without further apologies, here is your Friday happy hour post.

This week has been a long one, friends. It's one of those weeks where you start wishing that tomorrow was Friday on Tuesday. I don't really know what my problem is, I don't even have a job. Seriously, I am about one quarter of the amount of busy that I was when I lived Portland. But I still really look forward to weekends because it means I get to spend more time with K, and also this summer Stats class has really amped it up, so not having to do 4-5 hours of homework a night on the weekend is pretty awesome.

Anyway, to help take the sting out of the fact that it was only Wednesday, I decided to throw us a mid week happy hour. Since I still have ~~a bunch~~ some gin lying around from the Lavender Collins, I have been looking for some other gin cocktails to try. We also had a few ingredients from our CSA that I wanted to use up, so I came up with HH menu of a Bacon, Leek and Gruyere Tart and Cucumber Mint Gimlets.

App Happy

I was excited to use our cucumbers, and a cucumber drink just sounded so refreshing. I thought it would make it EVEN MORE refreshing if I incorporated mint into it somehow. I am really loving the idea of making flavored simple syrups since I discovered how easy it is, so I decided to make a mint syrup for this drink. Don't worry, this one is even easier than the lavender syrup from last week.

Mint Simple Syrup

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup of fresh mint, torn into large pieces

Directions
Place all ingredients in a small pot, bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Take off the heat and let it steep for about 20 minutes. Strain to remove mint. Makes about 1 cup.

Simmering syrup

Cucumber Mint Gimlet

Ingredients
3 oz Gin
1.5 oz mint simple syrup
Juice of one lime
1/4 cup diced cucumber

Once you have the syrup made, these come together pretty quickly. Peel, seed and dice 1/2 of a small cucumber (or all of it if you plan on having a few of these). Place the cucumber into your shaker with your lime juice and muddle. Add your gin, mint syrup and ice. Shake to combine and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a sprig of mint or a slice of cucumber if you want to get fancy.

Beautiful but Deadly: these guys are sneakily strong

Bacon, Leek and Gruyere Tart

I wanted to use puff pastry as the crust for this, but for some reason I couldn't find it whenever I was at the store. I saw some phyllo dough, and figured it was pretty much the same. It's not. Also, I now sort of hate phyllo dough, it's a huge pain in the ass to work with. So, if I make this again, I'm going to try it with puff pastry. But the phyllo did end up giving this a super crispy crust, which was nice.

Ingredients

2 small leeks, diced
2-3 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
2-3 oz Gruyere cheese, shredded
6 sheets of phyllo dough
2 tablespoons butter, melted

I would recommend having everything prepped and ready to go before working with your phyllo, as I said it is a pain in the ass and I totally burnt my bacon while I was trying to multi-task. To prepare your leeks, cut off the root and and the tops where the leafy green part starts. Slice into small rings, and put them in a bowl of water and swish them around to clean and separate some of the rings. It also might help to slice the whole thing lengthwise first, which I didn't do, but would have made cleaning them easier.

Start by placing one sheet of phyllo dough on a cookie sheet lines with parchment paper, brush with butter, and top with another sheet of phyllo. Repeat until you have about 6 layers. Sprinkle a thin layer of cheese, then top with the leeks and bacon, followed by the rest of the cheese. Place into a 400 degree oven for about 5 minutes. Watch carefully, this cooks fast. Remove when the edges are golden brown.