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Cool jerk: artisanal soda

July 17, 2013 8 Comments Filed Under: Food, Recipes, Uncategorized

I was sent a Soda Stream machine this week, a 1970s relic which has been re-branded and updated, and boy have I had fun! Plus it couldn’t have come at a better time with the hot weather. 
Sodas or ‘fizzy drinks’ as we call them in the UK, were sold in drugstores in the USA because of a belief in the health properties of carbonated water. 
Artisanal sodas are bubbling up over in the states: Brooklyn, with its thriving food culture seems to be the epicentre of the home made fizz (www.brooklynsodaworks.com and  www.NonaBrooklyn.com to name but two companies)
Back in 2011, I visited the Brooklyn Farmacy at their stall at Brooklyn flea, now they own an actual drugstore. So cool!
Soda Stream comes with ready-made sachets of flavoured syrups but I thought I’d prefer to make my own artisanal syrups.

Obviously the great thing about making your own syrups is that you can reduce the sugar if you wish, you know it has no nasties in it like aspartame, and you can make unusual flavours.

You fill the bottle that comes with the machine with ordinary water then carbonate it in the Soda Stream. Then you add your syrup. It’s like having your own home soda fountain. Even the teen is impressed. Now all I need to do is pull on a tight sweater and hope to get discovered like Lana Turner.

Rosemary, Bay and Hibiscus syrup


Makes one small bottle, enough for two bottles of soda stream carbonated water.

A few sprigs of rosemary

5/6 fresh Bay leaves
5/6 hibiscus flowers
440ml (2 cups) water
400g (2 cups) sugar

Put the ingredients in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Keep on a low heat for 20 minutes. Then strain the syrup (with a cheesecloth and funnel or through a chinois) into a bottle.
Make 1 bottle of soda stream water, using their special bottle then add half the quantity of syrup. Or just add fizzy water.

One year ago: Spaghetti in a bag 

Two years ago: Tutti frutti mustard ice cream 

Three years ago: A revolutionary bouillon and a collapsing ancien regime croquembouche 

Four years ago: Dinner with Ravinder Bhogal and Hardeep Singh Kholi 

Five years ago: The wizards 40th birthday party 

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Comments

  1. Gloria

    July 17, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    When clearing my Mothers house earlier this year I bagged the original 70s soda stream. It may still be possible to buy the canisters but they have a limited number available and then no more.

    I fancy making syrup for tonic water from scratch but you need to extract the quinine from a bark that is not legally available to the general public in the UK. You can however buy it in the US.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      July 17, 2013 at 3:03 pm

      I'm ordering all the roots to make root beer… but yes tonic would be great.

      Reply
  2. Kavey

    July 18, 2013 at 8:11 am

    We used to have a soda stream when I was a kid – we loved it! Wish we still had it but my mum is the opposite of a hoarder…

    Love the sound of your home-made syrup…

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      July 18, 2013 at 8:29 am

      Thanks Kavey. I remember those little bomb shaped silver things for making the soda of the 70s one.

      Reply
  3. Joanna oyster

    July 19, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    I fizzed everything with mine, milk, red wine, advocaat.
    Thankfully, I'm over that phase now and settle for water maybe with a mint tea bag in it for Saturday morning head, but mostly served over vodka and ice. 🙂

    Reply
  4. drumshag

    July 20, 2013 at 4:36 pm

    E123 THX.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers

      July 20, 2013 at 4:59 pm

      ?

      Reply
  5. Sarah Moore

    July 31, 2013 at 9:08 pm

    I just bought a soda stream, currently just having it with homemade elderflower cordial but I'm pondering all the possibilities! I really want to make my own tonic water but it seems difficult.

    Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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