Quick 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.

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.

QUICK GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large saucepan.
• Finely chop ginger in a food processor. Transfer to a large glass or ceramic bowl; add boiling water and stir to blend. Cover loosely with foil. Let the ginger mixture stand at cool room temperature 24 hours.
• Strain ginger liquid into large pitcher; discard the solids in a strainer.
• Add brown sugar to liquid and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice and pineapple juice.
• Fill glasses with crushed ice and pour ginger beer over ice. If you like, add a little club soda. Serve with lime wedge to squeeze over. Enjoy!

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.

GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Grate 2 tablespoons each of lemon and orange zest.
• Squeeze 1/3 cup lemon juice from 3 of the lemons. Set aside.
• In a food processor, pulse the ginger, honey, and sugar until just combined. Add the orange and lemon juices and process.
• Transfer to a large lidded container. Add the orange and lemon zests and 2 cups of boiling water and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours and up to 5 days.
• To serve, strain the ginger-beer base into a pitcher. Thinly slice the remaining lemon and orange to form circles. Add the slices and mineral water to the pitcher and stir. Serve over ice.

QUICK GINGER BEER

Steps:

• Bring 6 cups water to boil in large saucepan. Finely chop ginger in processor. Transfer chopped ginger to large glass or ceramic bowl; add boiling water and stir to blend. Cover loosely with foil; let ginger mixture stand at cool room temperature 24 hours.
• Strain ginger liquid into large pitcher; discard solids in strainer. Add sugar to liquid and stir until sugar dissolves. Fill glasses with crushed ice and pour ginger beer over ice. Serve each glass of ginger beer with lime wedge to squeeze over.