muzzbie

Enjoying my homemade Lemongrass drink. Healthy and soothing ~.~

Lemongrass aroma is easily can be found in Thai food and drink. That’s why lemongrass drink  idea also came from Thailand. It’s full of benefits in disguise. I think we call it “Preventive Medicine” as well. It grows easily almost everywhere, even on dry soil. You may even found it on the road side sometimes. Lemongrass has been used to help in recovery fever, flu, cramps, flatulence and arthritic pain as well as aid digestion especially in children. Its citral makes fresh lemon scent and repent insects. Researchers have found that 1000mg intake of citral reduces or prevents chances of cancer cell growing and helps conquer depression.

As an insect repellent, it’s cheap and 100% natural. No chemical-added. You may rest-assured that there is no chemical residue harming the kids at home if you make it by yourself. Just crush it and rub it on your skin to annoy the insects or bugs. The other way, you may slice it into small pieces and put some in a hot water on an aroma therapy burner. The other thing that I’m going to try is to cut it into pieces, put it on a plate (plastic plate or you can use glass plate if you want to have a better appearance), and then display it on side table or coffee table. It creates nice aroma and sweep away bad aroma at home.

Some Asian like to use lemongrass in the dishes such as curry, fish soup, seafood soup like tom yum soup, or even stir-fry dishes. Besides these, it’s giving a citral aroma in the food and it’s believed that lemongrass could help in fighting cancer. This is the easiest way of consuming lemongrass if you think that you are too busy with works. Wash and cut about 4 stalks of lemongrass, put it on a deep saucepan with about 3-4 litres of water and 1 or 2 pandan leaves to enhance the aroma. Bring it to simmer for about 15 minutes and then switch off the fire. Some sugar to taste or even honey. Let it cool down, scoop away the lemongrass and pandan leaves and keep it in the fridge. You may drink it when it’s cold or re-warm it again if you want it warm. Just like what i’m doing here.

Cold Lemongrass Drink

Re-warmed Lemongrass Drink

There are many other benefits of Lemongrass for our health so start it from this drink!!!

^.^   EnjoY…!!!!

I have searched pineapple jam recipe online but mostly they included jell fruit pectine to enhance the jam appearance and taste. Although it’s a crucial ingredient for making jam but it still contains some other things that we are unsure.

Pectin is a soluble gelatinous polysaccharide that is present in ripe fruits and is extracted for use as a setting agent in jams and jellies. So basically ripe fruits already contain pectin. For appearance and volume purpose, maybe you can try to replace it with jelly powder but not too much cos it will harden the jam. I never tried jelly powder for jam, I rather use basic ingredients. As I found Martha Stewart’s posted on her website so I think it should be alright.

Here you go:

1 big ripe pineapple (peel,clean and cut)

1 cup of water

1.5 cups of pure raw sugar

1.5 limes juice

1 pandan leaf (clean it)

Methods:

Make the rough pineapple puree with food processor. add in a lil bit of water if you feel it’s hard to blend it. Put it on the saucepan and add in the rest of the water, lime juice, and pandan leaf. Cook in medium-low heat. Stir when necessary. cook for about 30-40 minutes, add in sugar. Cook until it’s thickened. Let it cool and keep it in glass jar. Store it in the refrigerator. It can last long for about 8-9 weeks.

Here are the pic of the methods that might help:

Pineapple puree + lime juice + water + panda leave

Let it simmer for 30 - 40 minutes

Add-in sugar

Cook until it turns thickened and let it cool

Keep it in a glass jar

** I used to keep some glass jar from mayonaise, jam, or honey jar. After finish using them, wash and dry it but you must sundry its cover or put it on hot stove (but no fire, such as: after cooking and the stove is still hot) to dry it and place it upside down in the middle of the stove for about 5-10 minutes. This is to prevent the cover from rusting or fungus growth.

HaVe fuN!!!