We have often said that we’re both incredibly impatient people. There are things we know are going to happen, things we know we will end up buying or doing, and we ashamedly haven’t the will to wait; we want everything right away. Food and drink often lands into the same pitfall.
This impatience is a reason why we can only occasionally make ourselves endure the wait to relish the pay-off of the likes of slow-cooked pulled pork and rich beef brisket stew or ragu. Drinks are no different, and a cocktail recipe with four hundred steps is not going to quench our thirst in a hot second. On a hot summer’s day, and we all know how rare and quickly those jump upon us, you need instant refreshment, coolness and sweetening…
There a hundreds of recipes around for homemade lemonade, and a lot of them will depend on your taste. Cloudy or clear, bitter or sweet, completely homemade or some shop-bought substitutions – recipes and outcomes vary as much as the weather in the ‘summertime’ does.
Some recipes suggest boiling your lemons, others blitzing them. In our minds, boiling them does make sense, but then the time constraint comes into play. Boiling, then cooling, then waiting, then refrigerating, then drinking. Ain’t nobody got time fo’ that. Using a liquidiser is our preferred method. The boiling method does however ensure you can keep it in the fridge for a while. Our recipe on the other hand, is for an instant, cooling hit of sweet and sour refreshment.
Recipe: Cloudy Pink Lemonade
(Makes 1 litre)
Ingredients:
- 3 large lemons, cut into wedges (these must be unwaxed)
- 150g caster sugar
- 500ml cold tap/filter water
- 125g raspberries
- 500ml soda water
- To serve: lots of ice, and a couple of lemon slices, mint leaves, fresh raspberries
Method:
1. Put the lemon wedges and caster sugar into the liquidiser. Pour over the water and begin to blitz together. The aim is to get a very juicy yet pulpy mixture, and it doesn’t matter if the pips from the fruit are still there.
2. Take the raspberries and place them into the liquidizer. Watch now as the mixture goes from a pale yellow to a vibrant pink. Continue to mix until you feel it as smooth as it is going to get.
3. Pour the mixture into a sieve over a bowl and begin to strain through. Get as much juice as possible out of it. If you feel the pulp still might have a bit of juice still there, return it to the liquidzer with 100ml of water and repeat.
4. Once strained, place into a large jug and top up with the soda water. This means there is a slight fizz but nothing too overpowering. Top up with a tonne of ice cubes. Serve with lemon slices, mint and a couple of raspberries and a generous helping of sunshine.
5. You must drink this one virtually immediately. Because you are including the lemons rind in the process, it tends to go bitter if made well in advance and left in the fridge. This is a recipe for the impatient who want it now and will drink it immediately.
This recipe is the antidote to enjoy a full afternoon or warm evening in the sun. Take it for a picnic, have it in the back garden and it’s great for all ages. Adults can mix in a little white wine, Prosecco/Cava for some bubble or maybe some vodka or gin to add an alcoholic kick to the proceedings, it’s a fantastic homemade mixer and much better for you than all of those carbonated, chemical, overly sweet mixers/former medicine recipes from the supermarket.
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