Monday 14 July 2008

Loopy with lemonade

What do you do when your neighbours enjoy a lemonade glut?

You ask for 1-2 lemonades and they give you a dozen.
You ask for 1 dozen lemonades and they give you a whole bag of them. (I am not complaining. Thank you so much! I really enjoy experimenting with them. Samples will be provided in the next few days.)

Lemonade peel is fantastic in stewed (or preserved) rhubarb. It turns very soft and delicious (not sour or bitter).

Then you can enjoy the juice of them in your fruit smoothies. That makes them very refreshing.

The funny thing with lemonade fruit is that you expect them to be sour, as they look exactly like lemons. However, they are sweet and can be eaten just like oranges.

Juice them, but don't discard the peel. Make candied peel!

Cut it into strips, put in a pot, cover with water, bring to boil, discard water. Repeat process. This is supposed to take away the bitterness of the pith (the white stuff on the peel).

Then simmer them slowly in heavy syrup (1 cup water and 1 cup sugar brought to a little boil until the sugar is dissolved), until the peel is translucent. Dry on a rack.

Coat with chocolate. This is not necessary as the peel is delicious by itself.

Or cut the washed lemonade fruit into thick slices, simmer for a few minutes in heavy syrup, then pile them into jars and fill up with syrup. Process in your preserver. Or (if you have a surplus of rum in your pantry) pile the slightly cooked slices in jars and fill up with rum. Let sit for a few weeks, then sample. Should be good over icecream, on cakes, or straight out of the jar.

This batch was made with heavy syrup.

2 comments:

Kate said...

Yum...this is good to know because my mother has hundreds of the lemonade lemons...I will get some on Thursday and try these ideas of yours.

ps I will have to get those cuttings and things from you next week as neither Glenys nor I can get there this week. Shame but never mind..

Veggie Gnome said...

Don't forget to make some marmalade and cordial! :)

I'm sure they'd make nice limoncello, too.