18 June 2009

Recipe - Making Real Lemonade

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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.