Just in case you thought this blog was abandoned, here I am! Life is busy in the summer and I don’t have much time or opportunity to cook. I actually first made this recipe from Delicious Days about six weeks ago. Since then, I have made literally gallons of the stuff, served at village events as a non-alcoholic cocktail. It has been a huge success with both adults and children — we’ve sold 10 litres in a matter of minutes — and it is so easy and cheap to make. This is a slight variation on the original recipe.
4 untreated lemons
about 1 inch fresh ginger, or to taste
300 g sugar
1 1/2 litres sparkling water
Wash the lemons and finely grate the zest. Squeeze all the juice — you should end up with about 150 ml. Finely grate or chop the ginger. Put zest, ginger, and juice in a pan with the sugar and 350 ml cold water, bring to the boil, and simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat. (At this point, Nicky steeps some Earl Grey tea in the syrup for a few minutes, but I usually don’t do this as I think it’s more appealing to children without.)
Pour the syrup through a fine sieve. If you are keeping it, pour into sterilised bottes and seal, otherwise just chill in the fridge for a few hours until needed.
To serve, top up the syrup with chilled sparkling water to taste — I find that 1/3 syrup to 2/3 water is a good balance.
Mmmmm……sounds delicious. We actually have a sunny day here – hurrah! – and this sounds just the ticket. However, I will probably just fall back on the bottle of lime cordial again, with some sparkling water and mint. The idea of this being served at some idyllic rural French village in the sun sounds irresistible – like Jean de Florette but without the death, LOL!
This is delicious and very refreshing. Next time I would use a bit more ginger though, but I do like ginger, so entirely to taste. Yummy.
yes, definitely adjust to taste! I love ginger too.