Posts Tagged ‘vegan recipe’

Recipe – Making Real Lemonade

Thursday, June 18th, 2009
As you walk along the long aisles of soft drinks in shops, it’s like hunting for a needle in a haystack to find real drinks that aren’t made with chemicals and don’t contain artificial sweeteners.  Even such national treasures as Schweppes Tonic Water are now adulterated with artificial sweeteners.  
 
There’s something wrong about using ersatz chemical sweeteners and we do everything to avoid them for our children and ourselves; while we have no proof for it, we have the feeling that some time over the next 20 years, scientific evidence will show that these artificial sweeteners are bad for health.  Our basic principle is that if you cannot make it at home, be wary about it.


Back to soft drinks – we love real lemonade; not the fizzy, soda water that’s been flavoured with industrial citric acid and perhaps a twist of real lemon, to aid the marketing.  No, I mean freshly made lemonade from lemons, water and sugar.  If you do a taste test of one to another, there really is no comparison; everything’s different: colour, taste, texture. 


We make 2 versions of lemonade, which we give below.  Both of which are worth the effort.

 

Quick iced lemon 


1                      Unwaxed lemon
2 – 3 tbsp          Sugar, to taste
850ml (1.5pts)   Ice and water (about 600ml/0.25 pint water if using ice, or all water)
1                      Free range egg (optional – see note below) 1.       Wipe unpeeled lemons and cut into quarters, being careful not to lose any juice.2.              Put the diced lemons into a blender together with the sugar and egg.3.              Strain and serve immediately.

Old fashioned lemonade 

3                      Unwaxed lemons
3 tbsp               Sugar
1.1 ltrs (2pts)     Water, freshly drawn then boiled
1 sprig               Mint, freshly picked is ideal (I prefer apple mint to spearmint for this)
Glass-full           Ice cubes (optional)
1 or 2                Extra slices lemon (optional) 1.       Wipe unpeeled lemons and cut into dices, being careful not to lose any juice.2.       Put the diced lemons into a jug together with the sugar.3.       Pour on boiling water and leave for 15-30 minutes until strong without becoming bitter.4.       Strain.5.       Put the mint into a serving jug with ice and the slices of lemon and leave to cool for and hour before serving. 

Note: we like to add the egg to the quick lemonade as it gives extra body and froth to the lemonade.  However, if you have been told not to eat raw egg or are wary of doing so, please just exclude it from the recipe.

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Recipe – Elderflower Cordial from the Hedgerow

Monday, June 15th, 2009

 

Sunday morning found me walking along a small cutting down to the River Ure hunting flower heads, or corymbs, from elder bushes.  The common elder flowers in June and July over about a 6 week period.  It is fairly widespread, being a bird-sown weed and is best found on wasteland and in hedgerows.  I try and find trees that are fairly hidden down rarely-used lanes or in woodland as these are less covered in the fumes and dust from traffic.

 

I carefully collected a whole basketful of these sweet wine smelling white flowerheads.  You need to try and minimise the number of insects on them and yet find those that are flowering – that is not in bud – and where the petals are not falling off.

 

I then like to make our own elderflower cordial.  It tastes a lot nicer and more flowery than the shop bought cordials, although I never make enough so we need to resort to one of the brands later in the year.

 

My recipe is as follows:

 

24         large elderflower heads (or as many as you want so long as it’s more than this)

4          large unwaxed lemons

1.8kg    granulated sugar

1.5ltrs   water

 

Slice the lemons moderately thinly, discarding the ends, and put the slices into a large stainless steel pan.  Pour the granulated sugar into the large pan.  Add the water.  Bring this sugar solution gently to the boil, stirring occasionally to ensure that the sugar dissolves fully.  This is your sugar solution.

 

While the sugar solution is heating up, sort through the elderflower heads, getting rid of any insects by gently shaking the corymbs over a bowl,  This ensures that you don’t lose too many of the little flowers as you can then get rid of the insects that fall in and keep the flowers.  I also clip off any excess stalk and any remove leaves.

 

Bring the sugar solution to the boil, then remove from the heat.  Add the flower heads and stir into the sugar solution.  Put a lid on the solution and leave to steep for at least 24 hours.  We leave for about 3 days.

 

Strain the cordial, then bottle in clean bottles.  It should be stored in the fridge as it does not last long.  We use plastic bottles that have been saved or glass bottles with screw on lids.  We part fill the bottles and freeze them; you can take them out the freezer and defrost as and when you want them.

 

To use, simply dilute with water.  A little cordial goes a long way so do not put much in a glass.

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