Ingredients:
5-6 thumb size chunks of ginger.
1 stalk of fresh lemongrass.
1 bottle of sparkling water
Thin slices of lemon and/or lime
Recipe:
To make the fermented ginger, peel and thinly slice the ginger. Place into a medium sized clean, empty jar and add ½ a cup of sugar to the ginger. Fill the jar with chlorine and fluorine free filtered water. Store away in a warm place (e.g. on top of the fridge, in a cupboard next to the oven). Gently shake the ferment every day and after a week you should start to see bubbles occurring in the liquid due to gas produced from the ferment.
A good idea is to leave the lid on loosely so that any built up gas can easily escape from the container. After two weeks where lots of bubbles are present try the liquid. It should be on the sour side and ready to use, if it is still quite sweet then leave it to ferment for a bit longer if you like.
If you want to keep the ferment going you could empty ¾ of the liquid out of the jar and add fresh sugar and filtered water.
Take your lemongrass stalk, cut off the stalk so about 2 – 3 inches of the bulb part remains. With the bottom of a chopping knife or pestle bash the bulb of the lemongrass and place it into a jug.
Strain your fermented ginger using a plastic sieve and add the strained ginger to the jug with the lemongrass. Top up with sparkling mineral water and add a few slices of fresh lemon and lime.
Santé’
Please check out our last recipe for a Warming Autumn Baked Pumpkin