My mother dug up a vintage ginger beer jar in the garden the other day and so I thought I’d try my hand at making the towns local specialty. The word ‘fiery’ in the title is there for a reason as it certainly sets your taste buds alight, but is much better than the sickly sweet versions you get at the supermarket.
Taken from Jamie Oliver
Ingredients:
- 140g fresh ginger
- 4 tablespoons muscovado sugar
- 2-3 lemons
- 1 litre soda water or sparkling mineral water
- A few sprigs of fresh mint
- Grate the ginger on a coarse cheese grater – you can leave the skin on if you like. Put the ginger with its pulpy juice into a bowl and sprinkle in your muscovado sugar. Remove the rind from 2 of your lemons with a vegetable peeler, add to the bowl, and slightly bash and squash with something heavy like a pestle or a rolling-pin. Just do this for 10 seconds, to mix up all the flavours. Squeeze the juice from all 3 lemons and add most of it to the bowl. Pour in your fizzy water or soda water.
- Allow to sit for 10 minutes and then taste. You may feel that the lemons are slightly too sour, therefore add a little more sugar; if it’s slightly too sweet, add a little more lemon juice. Pass the ginger beer through a coarse sieve into a large jug and add lots of ice and some sprigs of mint.
Directions for use: Add a glug of vodka to really step up the heat!
