as in berries...
This summer, EVERYTHING seems to be BIGGER.
This quick post is for my littlest brother Pete, who is suffering up north of me in Portland with our outrageously muggy, sticky weather we are having here in Oregon. (Hi Petie !)
For this recipe you will need:
A large bag of fresh lemons (check out TJ's or Whole Foods)
Organic Cane Sugar
A bunch of basil from your garden or farmers market
A pint of blackberries (or raspberries, strawberries, etc)
A bottle of Sparkling Water
Crushed Ice
A large glass water jug or juice container
A saucepan
Juicer
Wooden Spoon
Food Mill (not necessary)
Homemade Blackberry Basil Lemonade
- Measure one cup of cane sugar into a small saucepan with one cup of tap water on medium/low heat until sugar is all dissolved and you have made a nice golden light syrup. Let cool in a large glass measuring cup or something preferably with a spout
- With your VINTAGE juicer, squeeze HALF of the bag of lemons straight into a large three cup glass measuring cup. (*Pop your lemons into the microwave for about 20 to 30 seconds before cutting to allow more juice to flow). Add the lemon juice to the above syrup
- Roll and slice up (chiffonade ) the basil with a sharp knife; toss this in a deep bowl. Clean berries and put them in the bowl with the basil leaves. Add about four tablespoons of the syrup to the berries and basil. Take your immersion blender and zip it a few times to make a thick berrylicious puree.
- Measure three cups of ice cold water and one cup of crushed ice
- In a large glass water jug or juice container; pour in the syrup with lemon juice, the berry and basil puree, three cups of cold water and *the crushed ice. Using a long slender wooden spoon, give it a good whirl until it's all mixed up. *Things will settle and float; if this bothers you; then before you add the ice, strain everything off OR run it through your food mill and into a large batter bowl. Clean out your glass water jug and pour it back in, THEN add the crushed ice
- Fill tall glasses with additional ice, fill three quarters of the glass with the juice concentrate and top it off with the sparkling water (or regular tap water if you aren't into bubbles)
ENJOY!
It really doesn't take that much work to make this AND it tastes so much better than anything you can buy in your frozen food section of your grocery store!
You may want to play around with the sweetness; if your berries are tart, you may want to add another few tablespoons of sugar when making your syrup.
Let me know what you think! (I swear, I have the shyest blog readers on the planet!)
Stay COOL!