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Recipes with cold still or sparkling water

3 recipes that use cold still or sparkling water, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Petel, takes 30 minutes. It is most often cooked with ice cube, sugar and citric acid.

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Hyldeblomstsaft

In Denmark the elder hedges flower from late May to the end of June, and picking the creamy umbels on a dry, sunny morning is one of the first rituals of summer. The flowers steep for a few days with sliced lemon, sugar syrup and citric acid, then are strained into bottles of hyldeblomstsaft, a non-alcoholic cordial that is diluted with cold still or sparkling water and poured at garden lunches, children's birthday parties and around the bonfire on Sankt Hans aften, 23 June. It tastes floral and honeyed, a little like muscat grapes, with a fresh lemony edge that keeps it from cloying. The mistake most people make is picking flowers that are already browning, damp or growing by a busy road; they give a musty, catty smell. Choose freshly opened heads that smell sweet, and shake out the insects instead of washing them, which rinses away the pollen and the flavour. The cordial is ready when it tastes clearly of elderflower and the lemon slices have softened. Chef's tip: snip the florets off with scissors right under the flowers, as green stalk makes it bitter.

40 minScandinavianDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Akajiso juice (red shiso cordial)

Bunches of red shiso fill Japanese greengrocers for a few weeks in June and July, mostly bought to colour umeboshi. Gardeners from Kyoto's Ohara valley to Kantō boil the surplus into this cordial and keep it in the fridge for hot afternoons. Simmering pulls a murky purple-brown liquid from the leaves; the magic is the moment the vinegar goes in and the whole pan flushes a brilliant clear magenta. Diluted with ice water or soda water it tastes sweet-sour and herbal, like a cross between blackcurrant, mint and cinnamon. The most common mistake is simmering the leaves too long or with the stems: it turns grassy and bitter. Strip the leaves, boil them for five minutes only, until they have turned green and limp, then lift them out. The cordial is ready when it is jewel-bright and clear. Bottle it in a clean, sterilised bottle and keep it in the fridge for up to three weeks; discard if it fizzes, clouds or grows mould. No fresh red shiso nearby? Japanese and Korean shops sometimes sell it in summer, and it grows easily from seed. Chef's tip: freeze some as ice cubes to drop into sparkling water.

35 minJapaneseDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Petel

A jug of petel on the table means summer in Israel: generations of kids have grown up drinking the bright red raspberry cordial in kindergarten, at kibbutz pools and at Shabbat lunches. The bottled kind is mostly colouring and flavouring; this homemade version simmers real raspberries with sugar and lemon into a fruity, tangy syrup you dilute with cold still or sparkling water. It keeps in the fridge for two weeks, or freezes in ice-cube trays. The common mistake is pressing the fruit hard through the sieve, which makes the syrup cloudy and pippy. Chef's tip: dilute one part syrup to five or six parts water, then adjust; it is meant to be light, not sticky.

30 minIsraeliDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with cold still or sparkling water