Watermelon Sangria

For the past couple of months, I've been making (and drinking) white sangria. It usually involves lots of white wine, calvados, confectioner's sugar, and any fruit lying around. One day some leftover watermelon chunks made their way into the sangria pitcher. It was a bit of an experiment, but it was very good. Soon there was a Google search and we found Andrew Zimmerman's recipe for watermelon sangria. Not Zimmern. Although I'd love to see what his sangria recipe would look like.

The process is a bit of a hassle, but the final product is worth it. I doubled the recipe and changed a few things.

Ingredients
- 1 orange
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2 bottles white wine
- 6 ounces vodka
- 8 ounces Cointreau
- 4 pounds of watermelon

The day before, make the citrus simple syrup. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a boil; simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and throw in the peel of an orange (no white parts). Cool and then refrigerate overnight with the lid on.



The next day, remove the orange bits. This should be about 1 cup.





In a blender, puree about 4 pounds of watermelon. There was no way to weigh this in my apartment, as I ended up buying a 15 pound watermelon. So i just eyeballed it and made 2 blender pitchers worth.



Blend blend blend



Pour through a fine strainer into a pitcher. Add white wine, vodka, Cointreau, and citrus simple syrup. Stir and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. This recipe made 3 gallons of watermelon sangria.



Stir again before serving and enjoy on a hot day while thinking of all the thirsty people outside.