:: Ginger, Lemon & Honey Cordial ::

I had a basket of lemons. Not grown in my backyard, but gratefully picked from someone elses (thanks Kirsten!) I wanted to make lemon cordial, but didn't want to use refined sugar. Other than rapadura, or raw sugar for my water kefir making, I don't cook with sugar anymore (not saying I don't eat it still). I have a small amount of honey in my tea, and I cook/ bake with honey too (can't wait to get our own beehives in November)! I Googled, and came up plenty of lemon and honey cordial recipes... with sugar in them too! I found this recipe on Well Preserved (one of my favourite blogs), and then remembered, that's right, I have ginger in the bottom of my fridge which needed using up. But I wanted to use a lot more lemons than just one. So I did. It goes great added to water kefir that has been second fermented with apple juice. I am also trialling using the Ginger, Lemon and Honey Cordial as the second ferment sweetness. Maybe all the good antibacterial/ antimicrobial properties of the ginger, lemon and honey won't be a good match for water kefir? And even though it sounds like a medicinal concoction for sore throat/ colds (which I am sure it could be), it tastes delicious!

Ginger, Lemon and Honey Cordial

Makes about 1 to 1.5L. It could be used in flat water, fizzy water, water kefir, cocktails, or even gargle it if you have a sore throat!

Ingredients

• 1 litre of water (I used filtered rainwater, because that is what we drink)
• 1 cup of honey (I use local, raw honey)
• 1 x 10cm piece of fresh ginger (approximately, which was about 1/2 cup of peeled slices of ginger)
• juice of 5 lemons (about 1 cup of lemon juice, and you can use the lemon rind to make a citrus cleaner or preserve them in salt)

Method

1. In a large saucepan, put the water and bring to the boil.
2. Add the ginger pieces, and simmer for about 10 minutes (or longer, if like me you are doing several things at once!)
3. Turn off the heat, add the honey and lemon juice. The heat of the water will gently melt the honey. Stir to combine.
4. I then poured the whole concoction into a large Pyrex jug I had, so I could leave the ginger pieces to steep for a while, until the whole mix cooled down. Or leave the ginger in overnight, just put it in the fridge, if you like.
5. Remove the ginger pieces, and perhaps keep them to use in something else, like a stir fry or cake!
6. Decant it into clean/ sterilised sealable bottles (I used Grolsch as we have those on hand for second fermenting water kefir), and store in the fridge.