Strawberry and geranium cordial

Summer

This lovely, refreshing, summery cordial is made with ripe strawberries and infused with rose geranium, an easy-to-grow plant with the most aromatic, scented leaves. You can buy rose geraniums from most good garden centres and they do well in pots. In fact, they’d be perfectly happy on a sunny kitchen windowsill. If you can’t get hold of rose geranium leaves, you can use rose petals instead; they’re all edible. Failing that, use a splash of rose water.

Makes 1 large bottle

Ingredients

250g (9oz) ripe strawberries
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
200g (7oz) granulated sugar
a nice handful of fresh, scented geranium leaves

Method

Trim away the green strawberry stalks. Slice the fruit thickly and pop it all into a large, heavy-based saucepan along with the lemon zest and juice and the sugar. Add 500ml (17 fl oz) of water to the pan.

Set the pan over a medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring once or twice to help break the fruit up a little. Cook the strawberries gently for 6–8 minutes, or until they are soft. Switch off the heat, tear the geranium leaves up roughly to release their essential oils and drop them in. Give the mixture a stir then leave it to cool to room temperature.

Set a sieve (strainer) over a large jug and line it with a piece of clean muslin (cheesecloth) or thin cotton cloth. Pour the cooled mixture into the lined sieve and leave the liquid to drip through into the jug. Pour the strained cordial into a large bottle. It’ll keep for 3–4 weeks in the fridge.

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