Brazilian Lemonade

After a first time visit to Tucanos Brazilian Grill I came home inspired to look up recipes for Brazilian lemonade.  Besides the enormous salad bar, this beautiful beverage was my favorite part of the meal. They had many flavor combinations to choose from but I ended up selecting the mango-lemonade...delish.  It came to the table looking a little weird and milky for lemonade and after searching through recipes I now know why. 

For this recipe you will need:

4 smooth, thin-skinned limes
1 c. sugar

6 c. cold water

6 Tbsp. sweetened condensed milk

So you are probably thinking the same thing I did when I looked at the recipe, why call it lemonade if it's made of limes? Let's just roll with it. Also,I accidentally used regular limes instead of the thin skinned and found the taste to be a bit bitter so you would be doing yourself a favor to buy the correct lime.

The first thing you are going to do is cut the limes in quarters. Mix the water and sugar together. Now put half the cut limes in a blender (still with the rind on) and pour half the sugar water in. Pulse the mixture five times.  Pull out a fine mesh strainer and pour the limey sugar water into the pitcher you are serving from. Use a measuring cup and push on the limes to get out every last drop of lime juice from the strainer. Repeat this process with the remainder of limes and sugar water. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and that's it!  You can add your own flavor twists by blending some frozen fruit of choice with the limes and sugar water.  

It really is like drinking summer.  All I need now are some chips and guacamole!