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Homemade Lemonade

August 2013

Makes 1.5 litres (2 and a half pints)

Ingredients

6 lemons (try and get unwaxed or organic, trust me it’s worth it)

4ozs of granulated sugar

Method

  1. Zest the lemons with a grater into a large bowl, doing your best to avoid the white pith because that will make the finished product bitter. Zesting the lemons straight into the bowl you intend to make the lemonade in will make sure you don’t lose too many of the delicious natural oils in the lemons.
  2. Pour 1.5 litres (2 and a half pints) of boiling water over the lemon zest and add the sugar.
  3. After the zest mixture has cooled slightly, add the juice of all the lemons.
  4. Cover the mixture and leave to steep in the fridge overnight.
  5. Give it a taste and add more sugar if you deem it necessary. Strain and store in clean bottles. It will keep in the fridge for at least a week.
  6. This lemonade can either be served neat or diluted with still or sparkling water, have a taste and see what you prefer. I like mine in a 50:50 dilution with sparkling water with ice and a sprig of zingy lime basil. Lovely. 

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The Pudding Bar

The easiest way of catering pudding for a large group that brings out the creative side in everybody.

The secret to the success of the pudding bar is keeping in mind texture and the balance of sweetness in the potential desserts your guests could make. Below are some examples of what people came up with:

We all remember the unbridled joy of unlimited ice cream sundaes at chain restaurants: a tiny china bowl and your choice of sprinkles and sauces. Well, I thought, why not scale up the concept? Instead of the stress of cooking 3 or 4 different desserts (with guests’ dietary requirements and foibles in mind of course) why not just make the components? And thus the idea for the pudding bar was formed.

So I thought, what makes up my favourite puddings? In my opinion, the best puddings contain 3 elements: something sweet, something creamy and something fresh. For my sweet selection I made brownies, meringues and shortbread biscuits.  My creamy constituents included cream (pouring and whipped), yoghurt and ice cream (chocolate and vanilla). For freshness I provided summer berries from the garden, blackcurrant coulis with cassis, chopped nuts and a bitter chocolate sauce.

Me and my selection from the Pudding Bar :brownie, berries, vanilla ice cream and nuts in case you were interested. 

This was the easiest pudding-making for 18 people has ever been and I got some of the most glowing compliments I have ever received. So for your next party, why not get people to assemble their own favourite pudding and take some of the pressure off so you can enjoy yours more too?