Strawberry Syrup/Cordial

Yesterday morning I went to the greengrocers for my usual Saturday morning top up of fruit and veg.  I always check in the bargain basket as they often have tomatoes, peppers, apples and grapefruit as well as other bits at a reduced price of 50 pence a bag; I find this very helpful as at this sort of price I can managed to put goodies up for The Pantry and the Winter months for next to nothing.  I always have a chat, as you do with the ladies who own the shop we always have a bit of a banter and Tyson my ginger tom camps out there during the day.  They were saying that  because it has been extremely warm strawberries have not been keeping well because of the heat and I was asked if I wanted a couple of punnets.  I said yes - they thought they would be useful for Jam but I thought syrup - something different that I haven't really had a go at before.  I was therefore given a bag of strawberries that they couldn't sell not because they are not edible just that they are not at their optimum level and in the spirit of waste not want not I have therefore made some strawberry cordial syrup with them.

Simmer fresh hulled strawberries with sugar. For every 100g of fruit that you use add 1 tablespoon of sugar.  Add lemon juice and a good squeeze of lemon( as strawberries are low in pectin) until the fruit is starting to go "mushy" and soft and at this point I introduced the potato masher to extract as much colour and juice as I could.  Then strain through a sieve. And secondly  re-strain the syrup through fine muslin.  Pour into warm sterilised bottles and seal.  I then popped the steriliser on  and put the bottles in until it was up to temperature and then processed in the steriliser for 15 minutes to help remove any air within the bottle thus enabling longer keeping quality of the syrup. Otherwise process by the hot water bath method to extract the air.

 Use as a cordial or with a fizzy wine or champagne or as a syrup for ice cream or pancakes. Can also be used diluted with ordinary water or fizzy water for a squash type drink.