My lemon tree has been quite bountiful this year. One might say too bountiful. And with extra hygiene measures/lack of people-ing during the pandemic, I haven’t really gotten sick this winter (yet). But most years I love to drink Korean honey lemon ginger tea.
So why not DIY it, considering the ridiculous number of lemons I needed to use up?
Oh. Lordy.
I zested about 6 lemons before I gave up. That was probably enough, right? (Yeah, actually, but more would be fine too)
Then I juiced all the lemons. Thank goodness for juicer attachments on food processors! But be careful. Once you zest off the rind, those little yellow hemispheres are slippery buggers.
Anyway, a little over a litre later (maybe 10-15 lemons?) I had a big bowl of lemon husks and their seeds ready to go. Cover with a little diluted lemon juice (enough to cover them entirely) and leave them for three hours to release the pectin.
Next, pour the husks and their lemony water into a big pot and boil up the lot, keeping it at a simmer for around 20 minutes. It won’t look like much, but you’ll have a lovely pectin stew. Strain the solids out and return to the boil. Add the juice and zest. Boil for a bit longer while you peel and grate the ginger.
When selecting ginger, choose the piece that you think is way too big. It’s not. If you go for the small one you won’t really taste the ginger. Maybe that’s how you like it. You do you.
Peel the whole ginger before you start grating; you’ll need the whole thing. You want at least as much ginger as zest (by volume). Use the fine grater, the same one you used for zesting.
Add the grated ginger to the simmering zesty pectin stew. Add 1 cup honey and 4 cups sugar. Don’t think too hard about the volume of sugar, it’s needed to help the pectin gel up.
Simmer for another 20 minutes while you get the canning jars ready. Or longer, it’s fine. You will have around 2L of concentrate, so prep enough jars. Don’t go bigger than 2-cup jars though, or they might not process properly and risk botulism or something. Check out the Ball website for details.
Take the pot off the heat and let it settle for 10 minutes. Apparently this stops the zest from sinking to the bottom of the jars.
Ladle the mixture into your sterilised canning jars, leaving 0.5 inch headspace, seal them up, finger tight rings etc. and water bath them for 20 minutes. Again, check the Ball site if you haven’t done this before.
They will be pretty liquid when they’re done. Turn the heat off the stove and let them settle for 10 minutes before you remove the jars from the water bath. Take care not to tilt the jars as you remove them. Set them somewhere dry and stable to cool overnight. If any leaked, let them cool so they won’t break when you refrigerate them, and then refrigerate them. Better safe than botulism.
Once they have had a chance to set up, start using your honey lemon ginger concentrate! I dollop a tablespoon into hot water and drink it like herbal tea.
So much lemon juice, and I wasn’t even finished!
So much zest
Satisfying gloop, where you tip the jar sideways and most of the contents stay still 😍
