Remedy for: Soothes Stomach. Improves Circulation.
Ginger Syrup
4 cups Water
2 cups chopped Ginger Root
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 cup Turbinado Sugar
1/2 to 1 ounce Vodka
Cheesecloth or Fine-mesh Strainer
Funnel
Peel ginger (optional; we didn’t do it). Cut Ginger into slices and then add to a blender or food processor. Lightly blend or process until mulched into coarse, chunky pieces. Make sure you have at least 2 cups of the chopped Ginger. Bring water to a boil and add 2 cups chopped Ginger. Cover with lid. Reduce to low temperature and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring often to prevent scorching. Turn off heat and allow the mixture to cool down to room temp before placing the pot (filled with ginger mixture, and covered with a lid) in the refrigerator overnight. We allowed our Ginger brew to steep for 24 hours because our day was a little hectic and we forgot to finish the recipe at the 12-hour mark.
When you’re ready, remove the ginger-infused water from the refrigerator. Strain the water through a cheesecloth to remove all of the ginger pieces. Squeeze cheesecloth to milk the ginger pieces for all of the juice and water they’ve absorbed during steeping. You can reuse the ginger pieces for brewing tea, making marmalade, or baking. After squeezing the ginger root, we had 3 cups of liquid, which means we lost 1 cup of water during the reduction and steeping process. The liquid should be dark and cloudy like an aged ginger beer.
Once you have completely separated the ginger-infused water and the pieces of ginger root, place the ginger water in a medium saucepan and slowly bring to a soft boil or simmer. Add 1 cup Turbinado Sugar and stir until sugar completely dissolves. Remove from heat.
Medicinal Mixology’s recipe is an intensely spicy ginger brew with subtle sweetness; in fact, we used far less sugar than most recipes demanded. Traditional simple syrups are 1:1 ratio of water to sugar, or a heavy syrup (preferred by many bartenders) is 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water. Our Ginger Syrup recipe is 3 cups water to 1 cup sugar. Sometimes we decrease the sugar to 3/4 cup for an even spicier concoction. It’s up to you.
Once the Ginger Syrup has cooled to room temperature, add 1/2 to 1 ounce of vodka and lemon juice to prolong the syrup’s shelf life. Store in refrigerator.
As a side note, if you have a juicer you can just juice the ginger and mix the fresh ginger juice with sugar and hot water instead of poaching the root as we did above. A juicer does speed the process significantly, but our kitchen does not have such equipment, so we have to make do.
Add to hot water for a excellent ginger tea, or add to sparkling water for a ginger beer beverage that has less sugar than commercial ginger ales and ginger beers. Of course you can also use Ginger Syrup to mix healthy cocktails such as the:
Drink to good health!