With rhubarb in the garden ready for the picking and spurred on by the successes of the elderflower cordial and ginger beer I made from Susy Atkins’s new book How To Make Your Own Drinks, I decided to try my hand at some cordial of my own using one of my favourite flavour combinations; rhubarb and ginger. The result, a glorious refreshing blush pink drink, great with fizzy water.
The cordial will keep in a sterilised glass bottle in the fridge for a few weeks. You can also freeze it in a sterilised plastic container. Leave plenty of room in the container for the liquid to expand as it freezes.
Makes approx 500ml
Ingredients
250g caster sugar
275g rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces
300ml cold water
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
juice of half a lemon
Method
- Put the sugar, fruit and water into a heavy bottomed pan.
- Set on a low heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat and bring to the boil.
- Allow to boil for 3 – 4 minutes before turning off the heat.
- Carefully break the fruit up a little with the back of the spoon then set aside until the liquid is cool.
- Strain through a muslin and transfer to a sterilised bottle.