Jo Walton ([info]papersky) wrote,
2009-08-18 11:08:00

Summer Lemonade

This recipe has got far enough away from the original that it's worth writing down so I remember it next year. It's also ridiculously easy.

3 lemons
4 limes
1 orange
3 ounces vanilla sugar
3 basil leaves
3 mint leaves.

Squeeze lemons, limes and orange into 2 litre lemonade jug. You'll need to use a sieve for the lemons unless you like pips, but you don't need it for the others.

Put sugar and herbs into pyrex jug, add enough boiling water to entirely dissolve sugar. Add to juice in jug. Add 1 tray of ice cubes. Top up with cold water to fill jug. Refrigerate until needed.

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  • 31 comments

[info]ailsaek

August 18 2009, 15:13:14 UTC 2 years ago

That sounds delicious. I need to make some vanilla sugar.

[info]desperance

August 18 2009, 17:42:17 UTC 2 years ago

Put sugar in container, add vanilla pod, attach lid.

Actually I'm thinking that you knew this, right? Just, be assured: it really is that easy. And you can top up almost ad infinitum; I just changed my pod after a scary number of years, and I wasn't really sure that I needed to...

[info]sdn

August 18 2009, 15:36:50 UTC 2 years ago

i will be making my own variation of this later, i suspect.

[info]flickgc

August 18 2009, 15:46:27 UTC 2 years ago

The versions we had were lovely! Thank you, and thanks for being a bag drop!

[info]fledgist

August 18 2009, 15:46:47 UTC 2 years ago

Why the basil? Just curious.

[info]papersky

August 18 2009, 23:21:08 UTC 2 years ago

[info]txanne said she'd had basil lemonade and it was delicious. So...

[info]fledgist

August 18 2009, 23:36:46 UTC 2 years ago

Oh. That makes sense. The orange and the mind made intuitive sense, as did the vanilla sugar. A bit of cinnamon might work too.

[info]fledgist

2 years ago

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[info]minnehaha

August 18 2009, 15:57:05 UTC 2 years ago

Mine's less complicated but also pretty good: Cup of lemon or lime juice, cup of sugar, 2 cups of water. Taste. Put some more water in until it tastes right.

There's been some terrible problem with my mint patch this year. It seems to maybe be recovering. I hope it does.

K.

[info]don_fitch

August 19 2009, 06:40:23 UTC 2 years ago

Usually -- at least in warmer climates -- most mints are much more thuggish than people really want. But I have found that they do sometimes languish and die back considerably. I harbor the suspicion or theory that the plant exhausts some element from the soil, and have always found that they bound back if bits are replanted in another location (or potted in fresh soil, if they're grown in a container).

[info]fledgist

August 19 2009, 12:15:45 UTC 2 years ago

In Jamaica, we had mint growing (I want to say ferally) in the shade of the verandah. Came in quite handy.

[info]bohemiancoast

August 18 2009, 16:13:48 UTC 2 years ago

This was unbelievably delicious, and quite the perfect thing when we'd been slouching round Montreal all day in that heat. I was going to ask if these were lemony-type limes or lime-type limes, but then remembered that every lime I had with g&t or tequila in Montreal was a perfectly lime-type lime, so I guess that's my answer.

[info]papersky

August 19 2009, 00:13:18 UTC 2 years ago

They're the kind of limes they call limettes and sell at six for a dollar. The lemons are the kind they call citrons and sell at three for a dollar, which is quite reasonable as they are at least twice as big.

[info]rosathome

August 18 2009, 16:58:30 UTC 2 years ago

I am intrigued to know how you squeeze an orange without getting the pips in.

[info]jinian

August 18 2009, 17:33:21 UTC 2 years ago

My people use an orange squeezer with built-in filter. A separate reamer and sieve should work too.

[info]jinian

August 18 2009, 17:34:34 UTC 2 years ago

(Oh, I see why you asked now. Never mind!)

[info]papersky

August 19 2009, 00:15:19 UTC 2 years ago

They were pip-free oranges. If your oranges have pips, sieve them too.

[info]galeni

August 18 2009, 17:05:47 UTC 2 years ago

Vanilla sugar? Hmm.

[info]desperance

August 18 2009, 17:43:11 UTC 2 years ago

See my comment above. It are the easiest thing in the world, ever...

[info]galeni

August 18 2009, 18:00:00 UTC 2 years ago

Hmm. And I know a place I can buy just a single vanilla pod, too. Of course, the same store also carries Vanilla Sugar, so we'll see.

Thank you. (Makes notes.)

[info]desperance

August 18 2009, 18:08:51 UTC 2 years ago

Oh, don't buy vanilla sugar. Honestly. You will feel far more fabulous for making your own, and it will be nicer, and you will get much much more for your dollar...

[info]galeni

2 years ago

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[info]casacorona

2 years ago

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[info]desperance

2 years ago

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[info]galeni

2 years ago

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[info]papersky

2 years ago

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[info]desperance

August 18 2009, 17:43:58 UTC 2 years ago

Thanks for this, Jo. Now all I need is the summer... *stares bleakly out at weather, which stares bleakly back*

[info]goljerp

August 19 2009, 11:07:02 UTC 2 years ago

You want some of our summer? 92F, high humidity? You're welcome to it...

[info]desperance

August 19 2009, 11:20:42 UTC 2 years ago

Yes, please. I'm funny that way, I find: spent most of my life profoundly believing that I did not like the heat, then suddenly discovered that I adore it. Sticky or otherwise.

[info]dichroic

August 19 2009, 02:05:33 UTC 2 years ago

Yum.

[info]aitchellsee

August 20 2009, 16:00:42 UTC 2 years ago

I'll echo the "Yum", even if I was forced to substitute due to the absence of vanilla beans or vanilla sugar from my market, and the exorbitant price of basil and mint bunches if you know from experience that you'll only get around to using the three leaves of the recipe, wherefore I was forced to use dried herbs and 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract to one cup of sugar and then use half a cup to approximate 3 oz (lacking, again, an accurate UK dry measure-by-weight to US measuring cups).

How might the substitutions be fine-tuned so as to more closely resemble the original?

(Sip. Yum.)
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