Ginger Ale Syrup

On reading one of my new books i.e. the Fat Pig Farm book "Not Just Jam" by Matthew Evans he being one of the Gourmet Farmers and based in Tasmania.  He uses this cordial as a hot toddy during the winter months and as a refreshing cool drink in summer.  A Cordial that will be useful all year.  This one sounds as though it ticks all the boxes and being as I bought a lot of root ginger at the veggie shop on Saturday and I already have the  lemons and honey in the pantry I thought why not.   Apparently it makes about 400ml/14 fl oz of cordial.

Ingredients: 

• 100g/ 3 1/2 oz fresh root ginger
• 4 lemons scrubbed
• 2-3 tablespoons of honey
• 3-4 tablespoons of raw caster sugar

Method:

Wash and sterilize a 500ml/17 fl oz/2 cup bottle

Scrub the ginger well making sure that you get between any tight bits so that you can get rid of any dirt.  Snap it at the joins if need be.  Bruise the ginger with the back of a knife (which means squishing it) or cut it into slices.  Pop into a large saucepan with about 400ml/17 fl oz of water and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and barely simmer for about 1 hour.

Juice the lemons reserving both the juice and the peel.  Add the peel to the pot topping up enough water to make sure it is covered and bring back to a simmer.  Cook like this ensuring that the water level stays above the lemons and weighing them down with a saucer or plate if need be for about 30 minutes.  It is possible you may need to top up with more hot water from the kettle.  Turn the heat off and let the ginger and lemon steep in the liquid - you can leave it for longer if time is short.  Strain the liquid into a clean saucepan.  Heat it slightly add the honey and the sugar and stir to dissolve.  Add the strained lemon juice and adjust the flavour with the sugar to taste.  (you may also need to add more honey).  It can depend on how floral your honey is.  When it tastes "gingery" and "lemony" and not over sweet then it is ready.

Transfer the syrup to the sterilised bottle and seal and keep in the fridge for up to one month.  I will hot water bathe the bottle(s) though in my baby steriliser using smaller bottles.

Apparently the syrup is a little concentrated and it  may need watering down  slightly to drink it.  In summer soda water or ordinary chilled water and in winter cold water added to the syrup and then heated up and you can add a tot of whisky to it to pep it up a bit.

This one is definitely on the cards here as well.

Cordials are not just for drinks you can use them on puddings and on ice cream as well.Might make this one night in the week.  Should not take too long especially if I use the baby steriliser for hot water bathing the cordial.  I prefer to do this as it makes the cordial last longer and means I do not have to keep it all in the fridge.  Only the bottle thst is opened.  One of the reasons I use smaller bottles I tend to use the hex sauce bottles as they are an ideal size for keeping cordials in without wasting any of the cordial.  This cordial would also nicely pep up a fresh fruit salad.