Lemongrassade

This is a delightful variation on the traditional lemonade usually made with lemons, sugar and water.  We ran out of lemongrass after the first kitchen class and substituted a variety of other flavourings including lemon verbena leaves and kaffir lime leaves.  The kids nick-named it ‘Witches brew’.

Season:  All year

Type:  Drinks

Difficulty:  Easy

Serves:  6 at home or 30 tastes in the classroom

Fresh from the garden:  lemongrass, lemons, mint

Recipe source: Emma Lupin, Kitchen Specialist, Alawa Primary School

• kettle
• tea towel
• metric measuring cups
• chopping boards & non-slip mats
• 1 large knife
• colander
• wooden spoon
• a large saucepan
• grater
• juicer
• serving jugs

• 8 stalks lemongrass
• 2 knobs ginger, about 10 cm each
• large handful mint leaves
• 8 lemons
• 8 green tea bags
• 1 ½ cups honey
• 5 L hot water
• fresh ice and lemon slices, for serving

• Set out your equipment and ingredients.
• Turn the kettle on to boil the water.
• Cut the dry root end off each of the lemongrass stalks and trim off the top half (save these tops for stir sticks). Remove any damaged or brown outer leaves and place them in the compost bin.
• Cut each lemongrass stalk into 4 pieces.
• Using the back of a wooden spoon, bruise the lemongrass pieces by giving them a whack or a hard press.
• Place the lemongrass pieces into the large saucepan.
• Peel and coarsely grate the ginger into the saucepan.
• Wash the mint and pluck the leaves off the stems.
• Juice the lemons and add tea bags, lemon juice, mint leaves and honey to the large saucepan.
• Pour the boiling water into the large saucepan.  (You may need to boil the kettle more than once.)
• Cover the bowl with cling wrap.
• Leave the mixture to steep for 20 minutes, then put the saucepan in the fridge to chill.
• Strain the punch through the colander into your jug and serve with ice and fresh slices of lemon.