There are lots of lemons around in Melbourne at the moment. Even my tree which I have been dutifully cutting them off, so it can concentrate on growth, has one on it. Its not ready yet but until it is, or rather until my intended bumper crop next year, I will just have to keep on getting them from mum & dads trees. They have a Eureka Lemon and a Meyer Lemon, and I enjoy fruits from both. I make my usual salad dressing from the juice of Meyer lemons, I regularly add the rind to pasta dishes and I use the Eureka Lemons regularly with fish. I often make Lemon Butter (or curd as it is often known) and I love lemon icing on cakes. But this week I fancied making them into a drink. When I was at my parents place this week I grabbed a large bag of fruit, more than enough to make cordial. As its my mums fruit I have used one of her recipes – I’m not sure where it originated but it is very good.
I love this cordial, partially because I love mint but also because it is wonderfully refreshing mixed with water and is equally good with some soda and a splash or two of rum. The other good thing is that the kids aren’t actually that keen on it (not sure why) so I get to drink more of it and I don’t have to feel guilty about giving them too much sugar – its all upside !!!!
For this recipe I have used a decent whack of mint – about 40 or so large leaves, if you prefer a more lemony cordial reduce the number of leaves.
Lemon & Mint Cordial (makes about 1.25 litres)
- zest of 6 large lemons (you are going to strain it later so keeping the zest in large pieces is preferable – I do this by using a potato peeler to remove it from the lemons.)
- 500g sugar
- 500ml lemon juice (around 10 lemons depending on size and volume of juice)
- 500ml water
- 40 large mint leaves ripped into pieces
Place the sugar, water and zest into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil for about 30 seconds and then leave to cool. Once fairly cool add the lemon juice and once again bring to the boil. Remove from heat, add the mint and leave to cool. Once cool strain and bottle.
To serve dilute with about 1 part cordial to 6 or more parts water, to taste. I tend to store this cordial in the fridge and I have to admit it is usually drunk fairly quickly so I’m not sure how long it would store for.
I am sharing this recipe as part of the Garden of Eden’s Thursday Kitchen Cupboard series.