The unexpected component of the final refreshing lemonade

I admit: I don't like cardamom in most recipes. I grew up in Maharashtra and found green cardamom everywhere. Flavored desserts such as Gulab Jamun and Kheer, and are often placed in festive dishes and festive sweets. Appeared in ours Masala Chai And some meat theorems (though its smoky cousin, black cardamom, usually plays a bold role in meat dishes). He was always there, but I kept his arm length. Too many surprising encounters of a whole vagina hidden in my food convinced me not to me. Drive into a green cardamom vagina and the experience is mostly fragrant to me – as if someone turned the volume too high at the flower notes.

But does cardamom use with some care? This is another story. I like the Swedish breads where you carefully weave the dough and the oven. And I also appreciate the Indian drinks I grew up with, where it was steep and tense, and giving its floral scent without leaving sharp corners. This sweet and refreshing cardamom-infused lemonade is an excellent example of a perfectly balanced recipe where my cardamom shines.

Learn to love cardamom

Cardamom-infushed drinks in my home state are extremely popular. We love our strong, spicy and restorative drinks: some of my favorites are mangole soup made at the top of the summer; Masala Chaha (known as Masala Chai) containing milk, cinnamon and cloves; Chicory coffee with milk and nutmeg; And cardamom-infusion lemonade as the recipe shared below. This sweet cake, pleasantly floral lemonade is one of my favorite hot weather drinks. In this Indian lemonade, the green cardamom flower gives a flower and a delicious, candy -like taste. Since it is delicious or tension after flavoring, I don't have to worry about biting those crispy, bitter sleeves.

The secret in the syrup

The Marathi Lemonade recipe records the floral, citrusic elegance of cardamom, without punching or face intensity. The key lies in how to get the taste. I borrowed a technique from the editorial board of Serious Eats to achieve bold lemon aroma and fresh cardamom notes Daniel Gritzer ”S spicy chile lemonade– Daniel's trick to start the recipe with an oleo-saccharum, a syrup infusion made to macerate the citrus peel with sugar. As the sugar sits with the lemon zest, the sugar subtracts essential oils and water and forms a shiny, fragrant syrup.

In this version, I break the open cardamom pods and add it to the mixture so that their fat and water soluble taste is pulled into the syrup. The result is a lemonade concentrate that is layered, complex and unmistakably cardamommy – but without the intensity without the intensity of biting into a vagina or overdoing the ground spice.

Why the salt belongs to this sweet drink

The other secret to increasing the taste of the drink is salt. If you add a little salt to the sweet, spicy lemonade, balance your flavors. I keep going through my culinary students through this idea. Why contain all good chocolate chips -recipe salt? Because salt does not only make things salty, it improves sweets, removes bitterness and sharpens the taste. A little salt in such a sweet drink not only increases the depth, but also makes the drink more refreshing and balanced. In addition, due to a little salt, this drink makes it particularly refreshing after training or sweating on the hot stove. After all, salt is a key electrolyte belonging to sports drinks, and this lemonade is as tasty as the average sports drink.

The foundation of a fund with infinite potential

The base can be prepared in advance and keeps it in the refrigerator for days. You can relieve it with quiet or sparkling water, serve it on ice, or mixed in cocktails or shandies. And if you are a Cardamom fan, you can double my earthy sword before serving.

This recipe is a kind of reconciliation. This allows me to work with a spice in which I resisted and uses a method that is accurate and sensory: you break, you long, you wait. Syrup perfume in the kitchen. The scent of transformation before tasting it. This is the kind of cooking I like to share with my students – and with you.

Cooking method
(Keep on the screen awake)

• 18 green cardamom vagina (See notes)

• 3 pound (1.3 kg) room temperature citron (10-12 medium citron)

• 14 ounce sugar (2 cup; 400 g)

• 2 teaspoon Green cardamom seeds (See notes)

• 24 ounce cold water (3 cup; 700 ml)

• 1 teaspoon Diamond crystal kosher saltPlus more for taste; For table salt, use half a quantity

1. Use a mortar or rolling tap to gently break the open cardamom pods to release their taste and aroma. The seeds must be visible, but they do not appear. Set aside.

2. Roll the lemon firmly to the counter to soften the peel. Half and juice lemon; Pour fruit juice into a sealed container and cool. Cut the shell into 1 -inch pieces. In a large, non -reactive mixing bowl, mix the lemon zest well with sugar and cracked cardamom pods. Cover with plastic packaging or lid and allow to stand at room temperature, approx. Mixed every 45 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved, approx. 3 hours. (If necessary, let the mixture stand up to 12 hours.)

3. While the lemon macerates, use a spice grinder or mortar and mortar content to convert the cardamom seeds into a fine dust. You should get 2 and 3 teaspoons of dust. Set aside in an airtight container until necessary (see notes).

4. Stir in the lemon pieces once more, taste and fragrant the mixture to ensure that cardamom is aroma and taste.

5. Add water, 8 ounces (1 cup) reserved lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom to the macerated lemon (see notes). Mix well, then filter on a non -reactive fine mesh or cheese cloth into a glass or ceramic container and press the liquid; Discard the solids.

6. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom and salt into the liquid. At this point, the concentrated cardamom -limonade can be cooled for up to 1 week in tightly sealed glass or other non -reactive containers.

7. For serving, pour lemonade on ice and adjust the taste with additional water or lemon juice depending on your personal preference; However, keep in mind that the lemonade dilutes when the ice melts.

Special equipment

Lemon pressing or squeezing, mortar and dormant or spice grinder, cheese cloth or non -reactive mesh filter, 2 quarters jugs.

Note

I prefer a cake lemonade, so this recipe adds 8 ounces (1 cup) of lemon juice to the lemon syrup. If you prefer your sweeter lemonade, start with 6 ounces of lemon juice and taste it before adding it.

Green cardamom is usually considered sweeter and versatile, both for delicious and sweet foods, while black cardamom is used in smaller, more robust and usually delicious foods. Do not replace black cardamom in this recipe.

If the seeds of the green cardamom are not available, you can replace the ground cardamom and skip the spraying in step 3.

Make-Head and Storage

The concentrated lemonade can be cooled in airtight non -reactive container for up to 1 week.

Book all extra ground cardamom in airtight vessel at room temperature for up to 2 months.