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And tomorrow's cooler will be...
Cloudy Lemonade - with a little lime
There's a saying "when life gives you lemons... make lemonade". Well I didn't get offered any free lemons this week but it was blisteringly hot and I fancied a few cool glasses of cloudy lemonade tinkling with ice.
My first experiment was completely off the cuff... four lemons, three large teaspoons of brown sugar because I'd run out of white granulated and a litre of water. I had an idea that boiling the sugar in water to dissolve it was a good start and I also vaguely recalled recipes for ginger beer that called for some grated lemon zest so I grated some into the pan as the water was simmering... In the meantime I squeezed the lemons and dropped the shells into the simmering water for good measure so that maximum flavour might be extracted. I strained the water and sugar mix into a litre jug, added the juice and topped it all up with cold water before leaving it to cool. The result tasted lemony although a little insipid and I decided to go online to see what the real recipes suggested...
The general gist for a litre of lemonade was one US cup of sugar dissolved in a pan with a US cup of water to which one US cup of lemon juice was added and then topped up with water. One writer suggested adding some lemon extract for perfect flavour. Sounded easy enough so I took myself to the shop that evening to buy six lemons, white granulated sugar and a little bottle of lemon extract.
Now some readers may be surprised to learn that I possess a set of US measuring cups - what the heck is a Brit on the edge of London doing with these? Well, when I first began to read recipes online way back in the 20th Century I found many were by US writers who naturally provided measurements in US cups. This was frustrating as conversion sites had not yet been invented at this point so when a kind friend was heading off on a trip to New York I asked her if she might bring me back a US measuring cup... A few weeks later I became the proud owner of a lovely set with full cup / three-quarter / half and quarter cup scoops... Now I can follow US recipes without getting irritated...
Anyway, the one cup each of water and sugar mix for syrup was easy enough - five minutes simmered at low heat did the trick - and six lemons comfortably produced a cup of juice. All went into a litre jug, topped up with water and a couple of drops of lemon extract for good measure...
The result tasted good but was a little too sweet so the following night - which was even hotter - I made another jug, this time using just three-quarters of a cup of sugar, grating a little zest into the simmering water/sugar mix which gave it a satisfying yellow hue and substituting one of the six lemons for the largest lime I could find. While I was about it I set up a photo for a challenge on The Daily Shoot I was pleased with lemonade and the photo... next time I may try just a half cup of sugar - must watch the waistline...
More simmerings
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