Brazilian Limeade (Limonada)

This drink is especially good in summery weather, but it can be enjoyed year round. Buy limes that aren't thick skinned and firm as they likely don't have as much juice in them. Contrary to what I usually write about not buying sweetened condensed milk when I list "canned milk," this time you want SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK in a can. If you aren't familiar with it, it is thick and sweet, and a bit off-white in color. It is a commonly used by many people to make fudge. 

 

This drink is called "lemonade" by many, because in Portuguese (the language of Brazil), the word "limão" is often used for both "lemon" and "lime," and this drink, made with limes, is called "limonada," which can be translated as "lemonade," but it is more accurate to translate the drink name as "limeade," because of the fruit used to make it.

 

Ingredients (5 to 6 servings):

 

5 limes, washed and then each lime cut into 8 pieces

1/2 cup to 1 cup sweetened condensed milk, depending upon how tart you want the limeade

4 cups cold water

10 to 12 ice cubes

some lime pieces for garnish

Wash the limes well to remove any pesticide, wax and bacteria. (Wax is often put onto fruits and vegetables to help preserve them and to make them look shiny to shoppers.) Cut each lime in half lengthwise, then halve each of those pieces, then halve those pieces. Into a blender or processor, add the lime pieces and two cups water. You don't want to obliterate the lime pieces, just extract much of their juice; so, "pulse" the lime pieces about 15 to 18 times (that's what I do with my blender, but your blender may only require 12 pulses, so use some judgment). Anymore than that and the drink can become bitter. Strain the lime juice into a pitcher and add the other 2 cups water and stir. Add 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk and stir well to mix, then taste the drink to see how much more, if any, of the sweetened milk you want to add. So add any additional sweetened condensed milk, always stirring to mix it into the drink well. Add ice cubes and take a few of the lime pieces from the sieve you used to strain the juice and add them to the pitcher. 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Twinge-This word is related to "thong," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Twinge" goes back to Indo European "twengh," which had the notion "to press, to put pressure on, to squeeze," and this gave Old Germanic "thwangjan(an)," with essentially the same meanings, but including "to pinch." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) the verb "twengan" meaning "to pinch," and the form then became "twengen," with the further meaning "twitch," then it became "twingen," before becoming "twinge," from which the noun "twinge" was formed in the mid 1500s, and it became more common in usage by the early 1600s, meaning "a pinch, a twitch, a sudden sharp pain (often, but not always, in the abdominal area), which causes one to wince or otherwise to show sudden discomfort (with a figurative use about sudden shock from hearing about or witnessing some bad event, or from feeling a sense of remorse or sympathy about something)." The verb "twinge" had become outdated by circa 1600. German has "zwingen" (pronounced as if 'tsvingen'), meaning "to force or compel" (from the notion of "to press or to put pressure onto someone/something"). The German form has had numerous spellings over the centuries including: "dwingan," "thwingan," "twingen," "dwingen," and even the unusual "quingen;" Low German and Dutch have "dwingen," also meaning "to force or compel," West Frisian has "twingen" (to force), Swedish has "tvinga" (to force), Danish and Norwegian have "tvinge" (to force) and Icelandic has "þvinga" (þ=th, and word meaning "to force").