The Short Version

I made a Moscow Mule with added rhubarb syrup.

It was pretty and delicious.

For those of you with more time on your hands…

The Long Version – with added Instagram*

A few weeks ago I was on a photo shoot and took along props, herbs and spices to help add life to the photos. In my bag of tricks was a large chunk of ginger. We tried to use the fresh ginger in the shots of ginger cake, but it just looked like a sun-wizened hand or slices of new potato. So it came home with me and lay around in the fridge, looking lost and abandoned.

Then one afternoon I remembered a David Lebovitz recipes for ginger syrup, so out came that forlorn hand of ginger and within an hour it was a rich, peppery syrup that made the house smell cozy and warm.

Meanwhile I had been viewing @whojulookingat‘s travels on Instagram and Twitter as she travelled across Spain, drinking Moscow Mules in the sun.

She suggested we made a Moscow Mule with the ginger syrup.

We did. I liked it.

George had also made focaccia…that Ed later made into crispy bread to go with the ‘Mules’. Various worlds collided to make for a very good happy hour.

Then, the Yorkshire rhubarb season was upon us, so at the first sighting of those pink stems appearing in the shop I bought some to make into crumbles, cakes and cocktails.

As always, the bonus from this is a surfeit of rhubarb syrup that instantly transports you back to your schooldays of eating rhubarb and custard sweets. If you have never made this…get your skates on as glorious forced rhubarb is only around for a few weeks. Then I’ll stop banging on about it.

So…back to the non-specific task in hand. I thought I’d better share the deliciousness. Because that’s what I do.

To write something up on things{we}make I feel I need to take a ‘proper’ photo, with my ‘big’ camera. Not just this iPhone/Instagram business.

I made some massive ice cubes (after boiling the water twice to try to make perfectly clear cubes – which btw doesn’t work – so don’t waste time on THAT one) polished up my glasses and found a corner of the living room that looked appropriate. I then made another couple of cocktails for photographic purposes.

Now, I have learned my lesson when it comes to drinks. It’s better to make ‘virgin’ cocktails for photos, otherwise, when you slurp some from the glass to get the levels right, or to add more fizziness to the soda or other such faff, it us easy to inadvertently get tipsy. This leads to spilling of drinks and smearing of lenses and is generally not conducive to good photos. So the photographs in this post are just rhubarb, ginger, lime and (mostly flat) soda. Simple as that.

But, let me tell you this is the most wonderful fizzy pop imaginable and one that I would more than happily select, even when hard liquor or beer is on offer.

The retro, fruity rhubarb, warm and spicy ginger and tang of lime, all in one fizzy pink drink is all sorts of excellent.

All hail the rhubarb syrup.

From all this talk, must fall some recipes which coincidentally you can find below:

Things{we}make Rhubarb Syrup

• 500g fresh chopped forced rhubarb
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 split vanilla pod

Put the chopped rhubarb in a shallow oven proof dish, sprinkle on the sugar and add the split vanilla pod. Cover with foil or a lid and bake at 180 degrees c for 30-40 minutes until tender. Cooking it this way keeps the pieces whole and stops it being stringy.

When it has cooled drain the juice into a jug to use for cocktails like the one below or a Rhubarb Martini or on ice cream and use the pieces of soft fruit for Rhubarb Cakes, crumble or pie.

Things{we}make Rhubarb Crumble

• 5oz plain flour
• 3oz butter

Rub these together then stir in:

• Add 1 or 2oz Demerara Sugar
• 2oz Soft Brown Sugar
• 2oz Rolled Oats
• 1oz flaked almonds

Put on top of your rhubarb in an oven proof shallow pan.
If you saved the ginger from the syrup making you can add some of this too (just take the skin off)

Bake for 25 minutes at 180ºc

Things{we}make Ginger Syrup

• 120g fresh ginger, unpeeled
• 500ml water
• 200g sugar

Cut the fresh ginger into thin disks, then chop roughly into small pieces.
Add the ginger to the water and sugar in a non-stick pan.
Bring to the boil then simmer gently for one hour.
Allow to cool, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve or muslin.
Store in a clean bottle in the fridge.
This makes about 2 maple syrup sized bottles full.
You can use the leftover pieces of ginger to add to crumbles etc.

Things{we}make Pink Moscow Mule

• Ice
• A shot of vodka
• A shot of ginger syrup
• A shot of rhubarb syrup
• A good squeeze of lime
• Top up with Soda

Things{we}make Rhubarb Ginger Lime Soda

• Ice
• A shot of ginger syrup
• A shot of rhubarb syrup
• A good squeeze of lime
• Top up with Soda

*Ed and I both love Instagram and our ‘Instagram Clan’ so I have started to add a few ‘grams to our posts as they capture the real moments so much better as, rightly or wrongly, our phones are always by our sides.