Your WINTER RECIPE
Award winning author, Mark Diacono shares a few of his delightful recipes
With Christmas approaching, it’s a great time to make something special to drink using perhaps the last pickings from herbs until they start growing properly next year. You can use regular thyme for the switchel or lemon thyme if you have it, and after this mild autumn, there should still be lemon verbena leaves in the garden if you grow it. If not, this is the excuse to give yourself a gift voucher for Christmas to buy a plant or two in late spring to make this drink as an early summer treat.
Ginger and lemon thyme switchel
■ Switchels are fine comings-together of sugar/honey and vinegar - ready to drink with little wait, and very adaptable to what’s in season. The classic switchel of honey, lemon and ginger in vinegar became popular in 1800s America, a workplace refresher, also known as Haymaker’s Punch, but you don’t have to work up a sweat to enjoy this.
If in season, or I have some frozen I will use raspberries, but they are a delightful change rather than essential. Lemon verbena, lemongrass and ginger rosemary are excellent variations on the lemon thyme.
Limoncello
■ If you have been to southern Italy, you may have become enchantednted with limoncello, a delightfully enliveningng liqueur, heavy with lemons, usually served cold as divorce, after a meal. You may also have returned home, enthusiastically bought a bottle to relive those hot days away and found supermarket limoncello closer to toilet cleaner than the real deal. This recipe is the antidote.
Enjoy cold as a digestivo or (if you intend to sleep where you are sat) diluted with sparkling wine.
● 500ml vodka (or gin if you prefer)
● 2lemongrass
● zest from 3 unwaxed lemons
● 3 good sprigs of lemon verbena
● 500g white sugar
Makes 1 litre
Pour the vodka into a 1 litre jar, add the zest, lemongrass and stir well. Leave for
