Indian Cocktail Update
Friday night we had our dinner club meeting and I had decided to stick with the cocktail I talked about a few days ago, the Diwan-e-Khas. There was one particular ingredient in that recipe, khus syrup, that seemed to be in many Indian beverages and even food recipes and so I assumed that it was a common ingredient. I had been able to find it in several places online.
Well, you know what they say about assume… Having had a rather busy month, I’d been procrastinating a bit and when I started looking for this ingredient in our usually well-stocked ethnic markets around town I came up empty-handed. Not even just empty handed but the folks I talked to at a couple of Indian markets didn’t even know what I was talking about, although that may have been a communication issue as these were phone calls and sometimes conversations can go awry.
At my local Central Market, which has more interesting ingredients that you can even imagine, the clerk actually went searching around the store with me, contacted the the buyer for the Asian foods area, suggested we talk with the natural products people in case we just knew it by a different name, etc. I love those people at Central! Anyway we still couldn’t find anything.
According to my research khus-khus is a grass found in India and khus syrup is made from grinding the roots. As explained on the ABCD Lady Magazine:
Khus syrup is prepared by distilling the juice extracted from the roots of the khus plant. It is dark green in color and used commonly in the preparation of drinks.
Anyway, since the recipe only called for a “dash” I decided to just forgo the khus syrup but still make the cocktail. It turned out very well - fruity but not too sweet, perfectly refreshing for a summer’s day. The one caveat is that this stuff packs a sneaky punch - drink with care. The recipe as provided makes two cocktails.
I know you get that! I might have kept searching if anyone had even seemed familiar with the syrup. It may be that it’s more popular in certain regions and I’d need to find someone who came from that particular region or something. 
That looks like it might be a bit sweet for my tastes.
I’d bet that one of the Indian groceries on the Eastside would have had the khus syrup.
Agreed about Central Market though - what a great store. I do most of my shopping there or at the somewhat smaller Ballard Market - great produce at good prices, and very good service.
Oddly, (good) beer and cheese are usually cheaper at PCC and Whole Foods. Go figure.