Squash in!
Whether you are mixing up drinks for the grandkids or offering a glass to your pool boy (hey, I don’t know your life) there is nothing like a homemade cordial in the summertime. Not only can you make the most of whatever summer fruit you have a glut of but you can control the flavour combos and level of sweetness to your tastes and dietary demands.
This lemon concentrate is a riff on how my grandmother made lemon squash; I think it is very good.
Lemonade
2 lemons (lisbon are good) 2 cups of water
1 cup of sugar
10ml citric acid (optional)
Peel the two lemons with a vegetable peeler and add the peel to the water in a small saucepan. Let boil for around 5 minutes – until the water has reduced by about half. Strain into a jug and add the sugar, stirring until it is dissolved. Leave it to cool and then add the juice of the lemons, and – if you like it tart – the citric acid. Dilute with sparkling water at a ratio of 1:4 of concentrate to water.
The following method for making cordial can be applied to just about any soft stone fruit or berries. The citric acid here works as a preservative but you can leave it out if you don’t have any and are going to be drinking the cordial straight away.
Blackberry cordial
2 cups blackberries 150 ml water
100g sugar
1⁄4 tsp citric acid (if using)
Rinse your berries and place them in a saucepan with the water. Bring them up to a simmer and cook them for about 15 minutes on a low heat, squashing with the back of a spoon to get the juice out.
Strain through a muslin-lined sieve, again squashing the fruit to get out as much liquid as possible. (You don’t need to chuck the fruit at this stage – sweetened up, it is lovely with some yoghurt for breakfast.)
Measure your juice and add the sugar – you need about 100g sugar to every 500ml of juice, but you can sweeten it according to your taste and using whichever sweetener you prefer.
Return the juice and sugar to a saucepan and stir gently over a low heat – you want the sugar to dissolve but you don’t need it to boil.
Take it off the heat and add the citric acid, if using, and pour into a sterilised bottle (use a funnel to avoid mess). This will keep in the fridge for about a month, but it is doubtful it will last that long.
Now that you’ve got the basic method down, you can get inventive – hard spices such as cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods and anise all make good additives.
And try different combos of your fruit: peach and raspberry is a classic that makes a delicious drink. – Laura Macfehin