Easy Peasy Ginger Beer Food

EASY PEASY GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Ginger beer is one of my favourite things in the world, especially blooming good in the summer when it's getting hot. I can't think of anything more sexy than having a big jug of iced ginger beer on the table with a barbecue on a hot day. The classic real ginger beers use a starter, and these are fantastic but slow, so here's my shortcut for getting amazing results taking hardly any time.
• First of all you need to grate your ginger on a coarse cheese grater - you can leave the skin on if you like. Put the ginger with its pulpy juice into a bowl and sprinkle in your muscovado sugar. Remove the rind from 2 of your lemons with a vegetable peeler, add to the bowl, and slightly bash and squash with something heavy like a pestle or a rolling-pin. Just do this for 10 seconds, to mix up all the flavours. Squeeze the juice from all 3 lemons and add most of it to the bowl. Pour in your fizzy water or soda water.
• Allow to sit for 10 minutes and then taste. You may feel that the lemons are slightly too sour, therefore add a little more sugar; if it's slightly too sweet, add a little more lemon juice. To be honest, these amounts are always a little variable so just follow your own taste. Pass the ginger beer through a coarse sieve into a large jug and add lots of ice and some sprigs of mint.

GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Prepare the ginger: Chop the ginger into small cubes, leaving the skin on but removing any impurities. Add half of the ginger to the blender, along with the water. Blend until smooth, and then strain into a bowl, pressing the ginger pulp to get all of the flavor. Return pressed pulp to the blender, along with half of the remaining ginger and the strained liquid. Strain and repeat, and then do it once more with the remaining ginger. This method will extract maximum ginger flavor and should be done a total of 3-4 times. Taste for flavor and "zing" and repeat the process again if desired.
• Finish the ginger beer: Make the ginger beer by adding lime juice and sugar to the ginger water. Stir and taste for sweetness. Add more sugar if desired. To serve, add ice cubes to a tall glass, follow with ginger beer, and top it off with soda water. Stir again and serve.

EASY GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Combine the ginger, sugar, allspice, cloves spices, and crystallized ginger, and 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover and let steep for 45 minutes. Prepare a large bowl set over an ice bath. Strain the ginger syrup into the bowl, pressing out all the liquid from the ginger. Cool to room temperature.
• Just before serving, stir together the ginger syrup and seltzer in a pitcher. Add the lime juice if desired. Serve over ice.

EASY PEASY GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Grate the ginger on a coarse grater.
• You can leave the skin on if you like.
• Put the ginger with its pulpy juice into a bowl and sprinkle in muscovado sugar.
• Remove the rind from 2 of the lemons with a vegetable peeler, add to the bowl, and slightly bash and squash with something heavy like a rolling pin or a pestle.
• Just do this for 10 seconds to mix up the flavors.
• Squeeze the juice from all 3 lemons and add most of it to the bowl.
• Pour in the fizzy water.
• Allow to sit for 10 minutes and then taste.
• You may feel that the lemons are slightly too sour, therefore add a little sugar.
• If it's slightly too sweet, add a little more lemon juice.
• Pass the ginger beer through a coarse sieve into a large jug and add lots of ice and some sprigs of mint.

GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Wash ginger root but do not peel. Chop roughly and process in food processor until reduced to a textured paste. Put ginger in a large non reactive container and pour boiling water over it. Stir in the lime juice, zest and cream of tartar. Cover and stir occasionally as mixture cools. When lukewarm, mix the yeast with the warm water, pressing out lumps, and add to container. Cover and let stand for 6 hours. Stir the sugar into the ginger beer until completely dissolved and immediately pour into sterilized bottles, making sure the stoppers are well sealed and airtight. The ginger beer will keep for 3 to 4 days in a cool place. To keep longer, add rum.
• To serve, strain and pour into glasses (over shaved ice if desired), with a sprig of mint and thin slice of lime.

GINGER BEER LIME RICKEY

Steps:

• Fill 4 tall glasses with crushed ice. Combine the ginger beer, club soda, lime juice and grenadine in a pitcher. Pour over the ice. Garnish with lime rounds and/or cherries.

EASY PEASY GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Grate the ginger on a coarse grater; you can leave the skin on if you like. Put the ginger with its pulpy juice in to a bowl and sprinkle in your muscovado sugar.
• Remove the rind from 2 of your lemons with a vegetable peeler, add to the bowl, and slightly bash and squash with something heavy like a rolling pin or a pestle. Just do this for 10 seconds, to mix up the flavours.
• Squeeze the juice from all 3 lemons and add most of it to the bowl. Pour in the fizzy water.
• Allow to sit for 10 minutes and then taste. You may feel that the lemons are slightly too sour, therefore add a little more sugar; if it's slightly too sweet, add a little more lemon juice.
• Pass the ginger beer through a coarse sieve in to a large jug and add lots of ice and some sprigs of mint.

CHEAT'S GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Put the ginger and lemon in a bowl, pour over 300ml water and blitz with a hand blender until very smooth. Strain through a sieve into a bowl, then press the pulp to remove as much liquid as you can. Add the sugar to the bowl and blitz again.
• Decant into a bottle. Chill until ready to use. Add the lemonade or sparkling water to dilute before serving.

HOMEMADE GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Put the ginger in a saucepan set over a low heat with the lemon peel, sugars and 500ml water and stir until the sugars have dissolved. Increase the heat to medium, then simmer for 15-20 mins, or until reduced and syrupy. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.
• Strain the syrup into a jug through a sieve lined with muslin. At this stage, you can transfer the syrup to a small sterilised bottle or jar and keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.
• Pour the ginger syrup into a large serving jug. Tip in the lemon juice, fill with ice and top up with the soda water. Serve garnished with a few mint sprigs.

TENNESSEE MULE

Steps:

• Stir sour mash and juice with ice in a large glass or mug.
• Add ginger beer; stir briskly.
• Add a dash of peach cordial, if desired.

HOMEMADE GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Take a 1.5-liter plastic bottle of spring water and empty it into a clean pitcher. Use some of it to make simple syrup by stirring 1/2 pound sugar into 1 cup hot water until fully dissolved.
• In a large measuring cup, mix all ingredients and stir well. Funnel back into the plastic bottle and cap tightly. Store in a warm, dark place for 24 to 48 hours. (I put mine inside a box, to contain it if it should blow.) The top of the bottle will expand and become tight. Check it and very slowly release the pressure if it's looking groaningly tight. Some people ferment it with no top, or with the top on loosely, to allow gas to escape. I suppose if you wanted to get fancy you could spend $1.50 on a fermentation lock and stop worrying about it. If the temperature is quite warm, above 80F, a single day may be sufficient. The longer you let it ferment, the drier the final mix will be.
• After 48 hours, refrigerate it to stop the fermentation. Once chilled, you can strain out the pulp and dead yeast, which will have made a sediment on the bottom. Makes 1 liter and will keep up to a week in the refrigerator.