nineteenth - how to make rhubarb cordial

Hello sweet peas,

I hope you've had a gorgeous day.

I was going to write about something different tonight, but then we made rhubarb cordial from that crate-ful we picked yesterday and now I can't think of anything else.

So just in case you find yourself with a clump or a bunch of rhubarb and your family are as sick of rhubarb cakes as mine are, I thought you might like to make some cordial yourself. 

As with most of the recipes I post here, this one is more of a guide than an exact science. 

Here's how we made it;

Gather

• a bunch of rhubarb  - we used 1.5kg
• a couple of lemons
• some sugar
• a couple of sterilised bottles

Make

• roughly chop your rhubarb into small pieces and pour into a saucepan
• add the zest of one lemon
• pour about a litre of water into the rhubarb 
• cook the rhubarb on low heat until it gets soft and mushy. stir it often to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the saucepan and add more water if it feels like it is
• set aside to cool for a bit
• strain rhubarb mush through a muslin cloth over a big bowl until most of the liquid has dripped through. we left it overnight
• pour the beautiful pink rhubarb juice back into a saucepan and cook over a low heat.
• compost the mush
• add the juice of two lemons 
• slowly add sugar to your taste. i think we used half a cup in the end or maybe a little bit more
• once the sugar has dissolved, turn off the heat and allow to cool a bit
• strain the liquid and pour into bottles
• make some cute labels and then you're done

Next time we make it I might cook the liquid for longer and reduce it into more of a syrup, but today we were making it up as we went along and were eager to get to the taste test bit of the process.

Late this afternoon, after the heat had finally broken, we sat outside in the garden and sampled our cordial. The girls drank theirs with icy cold water and we added vodka, a wedge of lime and some ice.  It was gorgeous. Exactly the tangy but sweet taste of summer that I'd hoped for.

Cheers!

And thanks you guys for the book recommendations. I'm excited to have so many to choose from.


Big smooches,

Kate
xoxox