A Delicious Holiday: Clementines+ Limoncello = "Clemoncello"

With the new year approaching, I've been contemplating goals for 2016. As I was wandering around the garden with my morning coffee, I couldn't help but admire the Clementines draping off the trees and the Meyer Lemons just asking to be picked, made into something tasty. They look like little orbs of edible sunshine, and my brain went straight to Limoncello as a way to do citrus-y justice for them.

Limoncello is traditionally an Italian liqueur made by infusing lemon zest with a high-proof alcohol for a while, then mixing the infused alcohol with a simple sugar syrup. After a hefty dinner, there is nothing like a little glass of chilled limoncello to help with digestion and give you the zest to overcome a potential food coma.

 With homegrown lemons, I started my very first goal of 2016 - make limoncello! Pretty sweet goal, eh? I enjoy making it. Friends enjoy drinking it. Everyone wins with this goal.

Except instead of regular limoncello (because I can never make anything just regular), I also add a delicious twist into my mix with the garden Clementines. So what shall this hybrid creation be called, you ask?  CLEMONCELLO!

This Clemoncello can take anywhere from 4 days to 1 month to make, depending on how robust of a citrus flavor you want. Most of the flavor infusion happens the first 4 days, but the longer the lemon and clementine zests sit in the alcohol, the bolder the citrus flavor will be.

So technically, you could make this right now and have it ready for New Year's Day dinner, or you could host a New Year's Day Clemoncello-making party with your buddies, and have this tasty digestif ready in time for Valentine's Day to share with your special someone...OR YOU COULD DO BOTH! (Just sayin'.)

Either way, as you get the ingredients and stuff for this fun recipe, here are some important tips:

• Use vodka that is made from grapes. This type of vodka is considered one of the cleaner, more neutral tasting vodkas.
• Meyer Lemons are the best, but regular lemons are good too. Meyer lemons cost a little more than regular ones, but they'll give the Clemoncello a "sweeter" lemon taste and make the liqueur more fragrant. Using regular lemons are good too, and will still give you a great flavor.
• Pick lemons and clementines that have thick skins, if possible. The thicker the skin, the more zest you'll have for the infusion. Thin skins will run the risk of accidentally getting the white pith into your infusion, and the smallest trace of white pith from the fruit will yield a bitter taste in your Clemoncello.
• Make sure to really scrub those citrus fruits clean before using. It's super important to scrub off any pesticides or wax that is on the outside of the fruit - the alcohol will pull every flavor out of the zest, and you don't want any of that nasty stuff in your infusion. Better yet, buy organic if you can, but still scrub to the fruit to get the wax off.

Since I just decided to start this delicious adventure today, you could call this a "Clemoncello-along". We can embark on this journey together. :)

Clemoncello Liqueur
​(Clementine Limoncello)

Ingredients:

• 12 lemons, washed/scrubbed very well
• 8 clementines, washed/scrubbed very well
• 1 750-ml bottle of vodka (80-proof)
• ​2 cups granulated cane sugar
• 2 cups water

Culinary Dance Steps:

1. Using a zester or microplane, remove all the zest from the lemons and clementines. Be careful to not zest too deep and get the white pith that is underneath the zest. Any white pith that gets into your alcohol infusion will give the finished Clemoncello a bitter taste.
2. Place all the zest into a large glass jar, and pour the vodka over the zest. Make sure the liquid covers all of the zest.
3. Seal the jar, and set the sealed jar in a cool place, out of direct sunlight. Let the mixture steep for at least 4 days, up to 1 month. (Trust me, this is safe! The alcohol will kill any germs and prevent anything weird from growing)
4. After you reach the desired steeping time, strain the liquid through a cheesecloth into a large mixing bowl, removing any citrus zest particles.
5. In a small saucepan, heat the water and sugar together to a boil, with all the sugar dissolved. NOTE: Feel free to play with sugar and water ratios if you fancy. If you like things on the sweeter side, you can always add more sugar to the pan. If you want to dilute the alcohol base, you can add more water. Just don't go any higher than 3 cups to the sugar or water levels - things get bland and wonky after this.
6. Once the sugar water reaches a boil, turn off the heat, and let the syrup cool to room temp.
7. Add the simple syrup into the steeped alcohol, and mix well.
8. Strain the Clemoncello once more through a cheese cloth.
9. Pour the finished Clemoncello into bottles. Serve chilled. Clemoncello can be stored in the refrigerator for a month or in the freezer for a year.