Ginger drink

Here is how to make a refreshing ginger juice drink, a West African recipe from Ivory Coast. After drinking some chilled ginger drink in an Afro Shop run by an Ivorian lady the other day, I decided to find out how they make it. This is roughly how it goes …

Ingredients

  • 1/2 kg fresh ginger
  • 4 oranges
  • 2 lemons
  • 300 grams sugar
  • 2 liters water
  • 500 grams pineapple ((canned used in this case))
  • For: 6 servings
  • Preparation: 30 min
  • Ready in: 30 min

Instructions

  1. This is what we shall use, in addition to lemons
  2. Peel and wash the ginger. We are going to use a juicer. If you have none, pound the ginger or use a food processor to crush it.
  3. Add the crushed ginger to about half of the water and mix to extract as much juice as possible. Use a sieve or clean piece of cloth to filter the juice into a large bowl.
  4. Cut the pineapple into small pieces and pound and extract the juice like above, adding it to the bowl.
  5. Extract the orange & lemon juice into the bowl.
  6. Add sugar and the rest of the water. Add more water if necessary so you have a total of about 3 liters
  7. This extracts more juice, at least in some cases.Extracting juice with a juicer
  8. Chop the ginger, the peeled oranges and pineapple into pieces the juicer can use and let it extract the juice.
  9. Add the extracted juice to the 2 liters of water, add the lemon juice and mix well with the sugar

Notes

Serve chilled! You may want to add some water …or make some refinements.
Remember ginger is hot, so expect something in that direction.
Using a juicer seems to extract more juice from the ginger. The pure juice from the ingredients was about 1 liter.

Ginger is widely used as a kitchen spice and is believed to have some medicinal properties in some places. In East Africa, pounded and cooked with tea (chai), for example with milk and sugar, gives it a great flavor.

Read more about Ginger from Wikipedia => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger

Refreshing Ginger Juice Drink