Note:
My friend Clare made the most delicious cordial the other day and brought it to accompany a pot-luck lunch. I recreated the magic for the Preserving Workshops of The Complete Urban Farmer course at CERES. I reduced the amount of sugar from her recipe as I like my cordial a bit bitter, so feel free to play to achieve the taste you desire (you might want to play around with the ginger too). My brother says it would go well with gin or vodka but I like mine with soda water and lots of mint garnish.
This recipe makes about 250ml of cordial concentrate.
Ingredients:
160g of caster sugar
120ml of water
1 large knob of fresh ginger, unpeeled and grated
5 sprigs of mint, torn
Juice of 4 large lemons
Instructions:
1. Sterilise your bottles or jars before you begin.
2. Put the sugar and mint in a saucepan with 120ml water and bring to the boil.
3. Turn the temperature down (so there are no bubbles) and cook for about 5 minutes. This makes a sugar syrup (it’s very hot so be careful).
4. Add the ginger and lemon juice. Let the mixture heat through for another 5 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat and let cool for a minute or two.
6. Pour the warm liquid into a warm sterilised bottle OR let mixture cool and pour into a cool sterilised bottle.
Note: If you don’t like ‘bits’ in your cordial, sieve the mixture to filter the ginger and mint particles.
7. Once the glass has cooled, store bottle in the fridge.
Shelf life:
It never stays around long enough for us to find out!
Hi everyone,
I’ve tried this recipe again and again with all the lemons that are growing on our tree. It never fails to disappoint! I’ve actually started using half the sugar in this recipe for more of a ‘bitter lemon’ cordial and it’s still really delicious.
Hope you’re enjoying it too
Hi
I live in the tropics. would u know of a cordial recipe that you can store in the cupboard. high humidity and temperature. lemon ginger.
Hi Barb,
I think that this cordial recipe would be fine in the tropics… as long as you sterilise your jars and then keep the contents out of direct sunlight. You should be able to keep the cordial in a cupboard for at least 3 months. Let me know how you go