It’s hot and I’ve been thinking about lemonade. And not just any lemonade. I chef’d a party in June at the Taft Museum and I got to serve this insanely beautiful spiced lemonade. It was made by someone I used to work with, Danni Browning, the sous chef at eat well, and while she didn’t give me the recipe, she told me what the spices were: cardomom, clove, and cinnamon. It was really amazing — the spices lifted the lemon and citrus notes up, complimenting them and enhancing them; you couldn’t really identify individual spice notes. And so, don’t you know, I thought I’d reverse engineer it here at Rancho Deluxe Corporate Headquarters. I have a nicely workable and simple recipe below.
Please note: this is a recipe for a drink base. It is not as dilute as something you’d want to drink by the glass. If you aren’t inclined to drink alcohol, you’ll want three parts base to one part dilutant (such as water or for some summer fizz, club soda), over some ice, of course.
If you are so inclined to take a drink now and then, as they say, then please, add some club soda and a shot or two of the liquor of your choice: gin, rum, vodka, or bourbon work well.
Also, I think there is plenty of room to experiment with this recipe. Things I expect to add to the mix:
- lavender (a natural with lemon – when I roast chickens whole, I put a lemon and some lavender sprigs inside)
- ginger
- orange peel
- orange flower water
- blueberries
And w/o further introductory fanfare, the recipe:
Summer Spiced Lemonade
by Dan Tudor, tartare.org*
Ingredients
- 1C water
- 1C sugar
- 2 cinnnamon sticks
- 6 cloves, whole
- 1 t cardomom, ground
- 1C lemon juice, fresh squeezed and seived
- 3C cold water
Method
- Add sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and cardomom to water in a non-reactive saucepan. Heat, stirring, over medium heat, until ingredients are dissolved.
- Once ingredients are dissolved, move syrup off heat and let cool until room temp.
- Strain syrup, discarding strained spices.
- Mix syrup with lemon juice and cold water.
- Refrigerate until service time
And if you enjoy it or should you experiment with it, let me know how it comes out.
* - with a hat tip to Danni Browning
{ 2 comments }
The mister has been mixing store-bought lemonade with his latest new vodka (Absolut Boston = black tea inspired). I think I should be getting him to mix it with this recipe. Merci!
Glad to be of service. Black tea infused vodka? Sounds like an awesomely Southern cocktail. I might have to try that out.