Sea Cucumber
Drink - non-alcoholic
Ingredients
∙ ½ ounce fresh lemon
∙ ¾ ounce simple syrup
∙ 1 ½ ounces filtered water
∙ Salted cucumber juice to top (see method, below)
Directions
Serve ingredients shaken or built, in a single rocks glass. To make the salted cucumber juice, take the salted cucumbers and put them in a blender on high for about a minute until everything has liquefied. Then strain the mixture through a fine strainer; you’re left with a vibrant green cucumber juice and cucumber pulp. The juice will be used to top the drink. If you’re feeling adventurous, use the pulp, too: At Providence, it’s seasoned and fortified, spread on a silicon mat and dehydrated to make a chip to garnish.
Notes
Stodel is also known for his “zero-waste” cocktail program, which aims to work in tandem with Providence’s kitchen to reimagine a new liquid life for produce that would otherwise end up as food scraps. The Sea Cucumber drink repurposes leftover cucumbers that were first used in a sashimi-style dish at the restaurant. “The cucumbers are salted and then a tiny melon baller is used to cut out small perfect orbs of delicious cucumber for the dish,” Stodel says. “What’s left is mine, which is to say, salted cucumbers with holes in them.” He blends them and uses both the juice and the pulp to make the cocktail.