I recently hosted a dinner—a fundraiser, actually, where I auctioned off a “gourmet” dinner for four. Even though the high bidders were friends who would have probably been happy with hot dogs, I still wanted it to be a special meal. I served grilled chicken with an herbed orange tequilla glaze. The chicken was fine, but what made it special was the glaze. I concocted a syrup out of this and that, and this syrup was the result. I have since used the syrup on brie and even tried a couple of drops on a slice of extra old Cheddar cheese. Wow! Cathy told me it’s a keeper—to write down the recipe! So here it is as best as I can remember:
juice of 2 medium oranges (approx 2/3 cup)
juice of 1 lime ( 2 tbsp)
splash of lemon juice (1 tbsp)
1/3 cup tequila
1 cup sugar
2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 leaves of fresh basil, finely chopped
pinch of salt
Combine the ingredients and bring to a hard boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and reduce to half, until syrupy. Pluck out the thyme stems, but don’t worry about the thyme leaves left behind. Let cool and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.