Strawberry ginger lemonade

I mashed-up several recipes to get one with everything I liked and nothing I didn't, this is the result. No blender required, just a saucepan, a sieve, and a grater.

Ingredients:

• 8oz strawberries, washed and chopped
• 4tbsp honey
• zest of two lemons
• juice of 4 lemons
• fresh grated ginger, start with 1tbsp

Keep your hands well away from the hungry plane of the grater at all times. Use cut-resistant gloves. The grater wants to damage you. Don't let it win.

Put the grated ginger in a mug with 1/4 cup of boiling water. Let it infuse for 10 minutes then strain into a container. If you want more gingery goodness, stick the grated mulch in the jar. You can also increase the amount of ginger in the infusion. You do you.

Zest two lemons and add the zest to the ginger infusion. Juice all four lemons, strain the juice and add to the ginger and zest. Set this mix aside in a jar.

(Nota Bene: You can zest the lemons before or after juicing. If you do it before, they may fall apart while you're juicing them, if you do it after it's slightly more awkward on the grater but still possible. Experiment and find your favourite way. I tried both, I prefer juicing before zesting.)

Put 2 cups of water and the 4tbsp of honey in a saucepan, add the strawberries and bring to the boil. Boil for at least 10 minutes, squishing the strawberries with a spoon. The liquid will get foamy, this is normal.

Using a sieve and a large bowl, strain the strawberry mix and use a spoon to press the pulp and get all the liquid out. You'll be left with a delicious strawberry paste, which you can eat with a spoon.

Put the strawberry liquid in a jar and cool. You can now vary the amount of strawberry, lemon, and ginger to your taste, start with a 1:1 dilution of lemonade mix with water or tonic water. If you have a strawberry-sensitive person, they can skip this syrup.

You can strain the lemon ginger mix if you don't want the zest in your drink, but it does add a bright flavour to the mix.