Thursday, September 3, 2009

Homemade Lemonade (pareve)


INGREDIENTS:
about 12 lemons, about 2 cups lemon juice
1 cup white sugar (or less, depending on your taste)
10 cups spring water
large bunch of mint (optional)

Having a good lemonade on hand reminds me of Mississippi, where lemonade is one of the staples you offer a guest who comes to visit before going out to the porch to talk about things. This recipe is so easy to make, you wont want to buy another store-bought lemonade that's chalk full of preservatives.

If you want a lemonade to serve that is already sweetened, go ahead and follow this next step. If you prefer and unsweetened lemonade, then skip this step. The benefit of having a pre-sweetened lemonade is that the sugar can be difficult to absorb in a cold drink, and often does not absorb evenly; ever get to the bottom of your drink and in your last gulp you discover that's where all the sugar you poured into your drink is! To have an even distribution of sugar in the lemonade, we are going to make a simple syrup that we will add to the juice of our fresh squeezed lemons. Take your cup of sugar and the spring water and combine is a small pot. Place the pot over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring often. Let boil for a few minutes before removing from the heat and allowing to cool to room temperature. This will be our simple syrup.

While the syrup is cooling to room temperature, take your lemons and roll them on a cutting board with the palm of your hands. Putting pressure on the lemons as you roll them helps bring the juices out and will make juicing easier. Cut each lemon is half and remove the juice. If you have a juicer, or lemon squeezer, that's great. If not, you can do what I do which is to squeeze the lemons into sieve and collect the juices in a bowl underneath. This way, I pick out the seeds after each lemon and add the pulp into the bowl. 12 lemons should produce about 2 cups of lemon juice.

Add the lemon juice to your pitcher and then add the cooled syrup to the lemon juice. If you like mint in your lemonade, you can add your washed mint to the pitcher at this time. Stir well and refrigerate until cool. Serve and enjoy!


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