Sometimes inspiration is sought, and sometimes inspiration appears before you and you must figure out what to do with it.  I like both avenues in which it is delivered.  Often the later is challenging, but and can also give witness to some of the best creativity one has to offer.  We have recently begun to import Organic Ginger form Peru.  We are proud to support local indigenous growers in and around the Amazon while they sustainably raise and farm ginger organically for export.  Thus ginger has suddenly appeared in my life in large quantities than ever before. Suddenly I use ginger often in my life; I cook with it, bake with it, use it in drinks and even make some bath and beauty recipes with it. That being said I had never worked with it on a grand scale.

I recently brought to the culinary center a pretty substantial amount of ginger.  The ginger is so fresh it drips when you cut it open, it is the yellow variety (there is also a white variety of ginger) and the skin is super soft as it is so fresh.

As we are generally against wasting, we can sometimes be found sitting around wondering what to do with all kinds of things and we found ourselves with ginger on the brain. It wasn’t a far stretch to come up with cool refreshing drinks, as its been hot out and we are all pretty thirty around here, and were looking for things that are truly thirst quenching as opposed to just wet.  We were tired of lemonade and regular old iced tea.  So I remembered the ginger lemon iced tea that I had when I was on the Island of Mauritius and that is where the inspiration began.

We decided we would experiment with ginger drinks; spicy & cooling and ultimately refreshing.  The end result our Recipe(s) of the month!

Enjoy!

Ginger Lemon Iced Tea
Makes 1 large pitcher

2 chunks of fresh ginger the size of a medium sized hand each
2 whole lemons, sliced thin
½ -3/4 cup honey
water

Wash and scrub ginger well, remove skin by scraping ginger with a spoon, not worrying too much about getting all peel off.  Chop Ginger up into medium chunks, like chopping an onion roughly.  In a large metal bowl or metal picther, place ginger, lemons and honey, pour boiling water over and let steep for about 2 hours.  Stir well making sure all honey dissolves.  Strain liquid off and discard ginger lemon mixture.  Let cool to room temperature and add more or less water and more honey to desired sweetness. Chill. This recipe is also amazing served hot.

Ginger ale
Makes 1 large pitcher

2 chunks of fresh ginger the size of a medium sized hand each

1 cup sugar
1-2 limes juiced
1-2 liters seltzer water
2 cups water

Wash and scrub ginger well, remove skin by scraping ginger with a spoon, not worrying too much about getting all peel off.  Chop Ginger up into medium chunks, like chopping an onion roughly.  In a medium sauce pan place ginger and 2 cups water and bring to a boil, let simmer for about 30 minutes.  Take off burner and let rest until room temperature. Strain out ginger chunks and discard ginger.  Add 1 cup of sugar and place back on burner, bring to a boil and then reduce temperature to simmer about 5 minutes.  Cool mixture completely.

In a pitcher combine ginger syrup and  lime juice and 1-2 liters of seltzer water, until desired sweetness and taste.  Chill & serve over ice.