Clarified Ginger Syrup

There is a glut of ginger root in our house, it’s stupid cheap at the moment and well I’m going through a phase, delicious Pho noodle phase so no complaints, and well one morning when getting a the stock pot on and filling it up with bones and the like for ramen that night I spied the ginger and had a hankering for ginger soda, I thought about a couple of ways I could tackle it, grate a bunch of it and squeeze it through a cloth, juice it (but I lack a juicer), then I thought of the ol’ kava trick, blend it with water until liquid and strain, best way to prep kava for a good kick. Half the problem solved, just as with kava root I was left with a liquid with a lot of suspended sediment, not really that pleasant to drink unless you’re going to get a face numbing out of it, and it would do it’s best science fair volcano impersonation if added to soda.

So I was left with a liquid which was pretty useless, thought about a coffee filter but that would clog up too quickly to make it practical, but then I remembered reading a while back on Cooking Issues about quick agar clarification, and thankfully I have a copy of Dave Arnold’s book Liquid Intelligence where he covers the process, saving me time trolling through old posts to find the relevant one. So the agar was whipped out from the pantry. It’s a pretty simple process, as about whiz up ginger and water, boil up some agar in water, combine the two, place in an ice bath, break apart and strain.


500 ml water
250 g ginger root

Blend until the ginger root is completely obliterated. Pass through a cloth and measure the liquid, I ended up with 650ml.


250 ml water (or roughly half of the above amount)
2 % agar agar (by total weight, above + 250g for this water, about 2g)

Put the water in a pot and and sprinkle in the agar whilst whisking, do not add the water to the agar it will clump. Bring to a boil while whisking. Keep at a boil for 4 minutes to hydrate the agar. Remove from the heat and add the cold liquid to the pot, the combined liquid should be slightly warmer than body temperature.


Set up an ice bath with a bowl in it and pour the liquid into the bowl. Set it aside to set, do not stir, swirl or interfere with it. It will set up pretty quickly. You can test by gently touching the top, and slightly tilting the bowl to check.


Using a whisk gently break the set gel apart, run the whisk through to cut it apart not mix it up, it should resemble curds.

Strain through cheesecloth, gently, gently massage the sack to expel the liquid, take care not squeeze any of the gel through. Be patient and you’ll end up with a good yield.

Weigh the liquid, pour into a pot and add an equal amount of golden caster sugar, heat gently until all the liquid is dissolved.

Store in a jar in the fridge, serve with ice cold soda/carbonated water and a squeeze of lime or lemon.

Creaming soda syrup

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I am a convert to the flavour of creaming soda, and have set about trying to make my own homemade version of the syrup. It’s a strange flavour for a soft drink, a lemonade ice cream float/soda/spider, whatever you want to call it, minus the dairy. I think that’s why it took me so long to warm to it, along with the substandard brands I had previously tried.

Ingredients
200 grams sugar
200 ml water
5 ml vanilla extract
Juice of half a lemon

Take 50 grams of sugar, a splash of water and place in a pot over a medium heat. You want the sugar to caramelise and almost burn, get it to the point where you see a small spot or two, turn a bit too dark and give off a puff or two of smoke, when it’s at this stage, immediately pour in the remaining water. When the caramelised sugar has dissolved, add the remaining sugar and stir to dissolve. Stir in the vanilla and lemon juice, remove from the heat and let cool.

I use the above syrup at a ratio of 1 part syrup to 3 or 4 parts carbonated water.

Rhubarb creaming soda

Nothing beats ice cold soda on a hot summers day, sun beating down, creating hazy mirages on the asphalt. OK, so we’re in the throws of winter, and the only thing beating down is rain and the haze has been replaced with actual pools of water, but nothing is stopping you from cranking up the heater and pretending!

I have rediscovered creaming soda, I recall having it several times throughout my youth, but always with disdain, a kind of “What the hell am I drinking!”, but I think it was the brand and low quality of the drink rather than the concept of creaming soda itself. But now a complete convert having tried proper creaming soda, tasty almost burnt sugar with strong vanilla. Having a carbonation rig at home (à la sodastream), I set about creating my own creaming soda syrup with—seeing as it’s winter—a rhubarb twist.

The below measurements could easily be multiplied up if you wanted to make a larger batch.

250 grams of rhubarb sliced
150 grams of sugar
50 grams of sugar
250 ml of water
5 ml vanilla essence, or replace the sugar with vanilla sugar
half a lemon

• Macerate the sliced rhubarb with the larger batch of sugar, and leave it for about an hour, or until it has softened and given up its juices.
• In a pot set over medium heat melt the smaller batch of sugar (with a dash of water) until it has turned a dark caramel and is mere seconds away from burning. Halt the cooking by carefully pouring in the remainder of the water.
• When the caramel has dissolved into the water, add the rhubarb, juices and all.
• Simmer over a medium heat until the rhubarb has completely broken down, about 10 minutes.
• Pass through a cheesecloth lined sieve into a bowl, add the lemon juice and vanilla and stir.
• Let it cool, bottle, or jar the syrup and refrigerate.
• Add the syrup to sparkling water, adding more or less of the syrup depending on how much of a sweet tooth you are, a 1 to 5 ratio seems to work well for me

Sangria Blanca

When there are no clouds in the sky and there is no escape from the heat, nothing beats a ice cold glass of Sangria Blanca. It has become my favourite drink this summer, not too alcoholic, not heavy like beer, and you can pretend it's kind of good for you (it's got fruit in it).

The best Sangria is made the day before, or at least a few of hours before you intend to drink it. Fill a jug two thirds full of wine (I like Sauvignon Blanc), slice up some fruit (nectarines, apricots, orange and lemon are good) and put in the jug, cover and chill.

When you're ready to drink, pour in ginger ale to fill up the jug (yes, wine and ginger ale, don't ask me why this works it just does).

Simple pleasures

Ice cold soda the morning after an over indulgent night.


Egg in a hole fried in far too much butter, and strangely my favourite part is the fried hole.


Fresh tomato dressed with olive oil and sea salt on grilled cheese.


And finally purchasing a BBQ.