Lemon Ginger Tea

I feel like I've had the plague for awhile now - I caught a cold about two months ago; then got tracheitis (a throat infection) from which I never quite recovered. Still not feeling well a week after the antibiotic course finished I went back to the doctor. Sinusitis was the next diagnosis leading to a longer antibiotic course, which finished a few days ago. Towards the end of last week I felt like I was coming down with something while still on the antibiotics. So the prescribed medicine is now finished with and I have a horrible cough and cold still. Time for lemon ginger tea. Actually, I made a nice batch of ginger and honey to put in the fridge for any time. Here's the simple recipe. 

Peel the ginger handily with a spoon.

Whizz the ginger, using the pulse setting.

The ginger is nicely mashed and ready to put in a jar.

Honey is a great preservative, so mix in with the ginger. This lasts at least a month in the fridge (usually it is consumed before that). The mix should be a little runny. Add about a spoon (or to taste) of this mix to boiling water and a dash of lemon.  Lately I have been simmering it with a twig of turmeric for about 5 minutes.

fresh ginger tea mix

As part of a collaboration project in my college course I somehow got appointed "hospitality manager" (among a number of other things). Last week people involved with Grizedale Artist Residency in the UK were at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) and we hosted them in the Statecraft project spaces, letting them know about our project and giving them some mint-lemon-honey-ginger herbal tea as refreshment. It was a little bit hairy grating fresh ginger on site, so at the weekend I decided to do a bit of advance prep work for the hospitality station. I found out there is less wastage if ginger is peeled with a spoon!

I grated the ginger by machine. But the machine always leaves some end lumps when grating.

So I switched to the chopper blades and added a bit of honey.

This is a standard honey jar, almost half full with the ginger honey mix. I brought it in to class at IMMA and made some tea. Per cup I used about a third of a tsp, a little bit of lemon juice and a mint leaf. I didn't add extra honey, as I don't like things too sweet. The tea was just right!