HOT N’
SWEET GINGER SYRUP (FOR ADULTS)
TO MAKE HOT N’ SWEET GINGER JUICE,
HOT N’ SWEET GINGER LASSI,
HOT N’ SWEET GINGER TEA &
HOT N’ SWEET GINGER COFFEE
Ingredients:
1) Peeled
ginger – 1 kg.
2) Sugar – 2½
kg.
3) Water – 1
litre
To Make:
Chop the ginger roughly to bits. Grind the ginger in batches
in your food processor by adding a little of the water to each batch to make a
fine paste. Use a fine sieve to squeeze out all the juice. If any water is
remaining, soak the ginger solids again and use the sieve to squeeze out the
final drop of juice.
Do not throw away the fibrous ginger solids, but set aside to
make nice hot n’ sweet ginger candy
(see my recipe). Transfer the ginger juice to a 5 litre stainless steel vessel
and set on high heat. Tip in the sugar and stir continuously till all the sugar
is dissolved. Once it boils nicely, switch off the heat and cover with a lid.
When cool, transfer the hot n’ sweet
ginger syrup to clean, sundried, airtight glass or polyethylene bottles and store in the refrigerator.
To make hot n’ sweet
ginger juice:
Simply pour
half an inch of hot n’
sweet ginger syrup into
a glass or a tumbler. Top up with ice water or ice soda. Add a dash of fresh
lemon juice or lime juice. Stir well and enjoy!
To make hot n’ sweet
ginger lassi:
Pour around
half an inch of hot n’
sweet ginger syrup into a glass or a tumbler. Top up with ice-cold,
diluted, slightly sour butter milk. Add a dash of fresh lemon juice or lime juice. Stir nicely
and enjoy!
To make hot n’ sweet
ginger coffee:
Prepare hot
black coffee, pour in enough hot n’
sweet ginger syrup to bring to the desired sweetness, stir and drink hot.
You will get good relief from a sore or itchy throat and also from cold.
To make hot n’ sweet
ginger tea:
Prepare hot
black tea (weak tea or ‘light tea’ as it is called in India is better). Pour in
enough hot n’ sweet ginger syrup to get your preferred sweetness.
Squeeze in a dash of fresh lime juice or lemon juice, stir and sip hot. Hot n’ sweet ginger tea will help you
control diarrhea, get good digestion and also soothe your throat. The
combination of ginger, lime, sugar and tea is excellent medicine for a queasy
or upset stomach.
Notes:
1)
You can vary the volume of ginger
syrup to create the right sweetness for your palate. So also, you can dilute
the thick buttermilk with water to capture the right balance of sourness and
hot sweetness when you make hot n’ sweet
ginger lassi.
2)
I have used ginger grown in the hills
of Wayanad to make this syrup since Wayanadan ginger is of exceptionally high
quality, both in terms of flavor and heat as well as in its medicinal quality.
Ginger helps soothe your throat and improves digestion. Ginger also helps
relieve pain in the gonads of adolescent boys who are going through the process
of puberty. Fresh peeled ginger is chewed and its juice is sucked slowly as a
traditional home remedy.
3)
People suffering from stomachache,
traditionally take ginger juice as a home remedy. The peeled ginger is crushed
with a little bit of salt in a mortar. Some fresh lime juice is added to the
ginger juice and is gulped down for relief.
4)
Please do not force small children to
drink hot n’ sweet ginger juice as
it is too hot for them.
5)
An Appeal: Last year, ginger was
in great demand and fetched a nice price. This year, too many farmers
cultivated ginger in Kerala and in Karnataka. Consequently, the wholesale price
has come down to just rupees 5 per kilo (less than 5 U.S. cents a pound). The
farmers, therefore, are unable to meet even the cost of digging up the produce
and a few suicides have also taken place. So dear viewers, do try to consume
more ginger this season and help the poor farmers. Moreover, you can make and
store lots of ginger syrup now when ginger is so cheap and use it all round the
year.
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