Chilli and pink grapefruit rum punch

I love chillis. I love rum. I love cocktails. So when I met Saira Hamilton (an alumni from MasterChef 2013) at CarFest South this year, and she made this cocktail up on stage, I knew we were going to be firm friends. After her demonstration we drank the spoils of her hard work back-stage and spent the night rocking out to Rick Astley and Alison Moyet; it was a great evening. This drink is now one of my favourite cocktails, it’s refreshing and warming in equal measure and dangerously easy to drink. You can check out more of Saira’s amazing recipes at her two websites: sairahamilton.com and smallaubergine.com – thanks for the recipe Saira!

Serves: 2

Difficulty: Easy

Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

1 lime, cut into 8 wedges
plus extra slices to garnish
A fresh red chilli
(such as jalapeño or serrano)
2 tsp golden caster sugar
60ml light or golden rum
300ml pink grapefruit juice
50ml sparkling water
Fresh mint sprigs
Ice cubes (to serve, optional)

Hints and Tips

Heat test!

I learnt this neat trick from Saira and now I tell it to everyone as I think it is just brilliant. Every chilli, even when you purchase the same variety, will have a different level of heat. Some will be incredibly mild and then you will stumble across the odd one or two which will blow the roof off your taste buds! Now I quite like the Russian roulette approach to chilli tasting, however, if you want to ensure you are adding just the right quantity to your dish then this is an easy way to measure it’s heat without having to take a bite and suffer the consequences.

Simply cut the tip off the chilli and rub the exposed end on the back of your hand. Give your hand a little lick and you will have be able to tell straight away if you have a hot or a mild chilli to work with. You can then just adjust the quantity you use accordingly.

Chilli and pink grapefruit rum punch

Method

Slice the chilli into 5mm thick slices (you can choose to deseed them if you like) but the idea is to add a gentle heat to the punch which will warm you from the inside out.
Place the chilli and lime wedges into a jug or cocktail shaker and mix together well with the back of a large spoon. Make sure the limes are nicely squished in order to get out as much juice as possible.
Add in the rum and sugar and stir well until the sugar dissolves. Finally pour in the pink grapefruit juice, add the mint sprigs and stir well.
You can strain the chilli out before serving if you prefer; remember the longer you leave the punch to steep the more the chilli heat will develop. If you are a chilli fiend like me leave it for at least 20 minutes to get a nice kick to the punch.
When you are ready to serve, pour into glasses and top up with a dash of sparkling water. You can garnish with lime slices, fresh mint or a slither of chilli… if you dare.

rum_cocktail

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