00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Red, White, and Blueberry Lemonade.
00:08That's right, we're infusing our world-famous State Fair Lemonade recipe with fresh strawberries and blueberries
00:14to create an even more beautiful, possibly more delicious drink.
00:19And while we're posting this to celebrate the 4th of July, this would be good on other days, such as every other one of them.
00:26So with that, let's go ahead and get started with our Red, White, and Blue ingredients,
00:31which will include some freshly half strawberries, some blueberries, of course, followed by about half of our white sugar.
00:38And once that's in the bowl, we'll take a potato masher, and we'll give this a brief smashing.
00:44And we don't need to mash this into a puree.
00:47Pretty much as soon as we've broken all the blueberries open, we can stop.
00:51And yes, we could do this without adding the sugar first,
00:53but the friction from the sugar helps break it down and prevents splashing,
00:57and there's less chance you're going to have to change your shirt.
01:00But anyway, once our mixture is looking like this,
01:03we can go ahead and grab our lemons and a nice sharp vegetable peeler,
01:07and we're going to go ahead and peel off just the zest and add it to the bowl.
01:11And I do mean only the zest, okay?
01:13We don't want any of the white pith, since as we say in the State Fair lemonade business,
01:18if you see any white, this drink will not be right.
01:21And that's because all those beautiful fragrant lemon oils are in the yellow part of the skin,
01:26and the white part underneath is extremely bitter.
01:28And if too much of that stuff gets incorporated into this mixture,
01:31it's going to leave a very unpleasant aftertaste.
01:34So please take your time and make sure you're getting nothing but that yellow zest.
01:39And then what we'll do once we've trimmed off the zest,
01:41is we'll set those lemons aside, and we'll eventually halve those and squeeze the juice out.
01:46But before we get to that step, let's go ahead and dump in the rest of the sugar,
01:51and then give this a nice thorough mixing.
01:54At which point we're going to cover this, and let it sit on the counter for at least two hours.
01:58Right, that's the minimum.
02:00And if we can, we'll go even longer.
02:02And I want six hours this time.
02:04And by letting our fruit and zest sit in the sugar,
02:07it's going to draw out all those incredible flavors.
02:10And by the way, this process is called oleosaccharum, which means oily sugar.
02:13And it really is the secret to producing a perfect lemonade.
02:19And by the way, as this sits, you can give it a stir once in a while.
02:22Oh, and please note, when I rewrap this, I'm going to place the plastic over the top.
02:27All right, earlier I pressed it down on the surface out of reflex.
02:30But these juices are so precious,
02:32I don't even want to waste a few drops that attach to the plastic.
02:35Which, yes, I did lick off between shots.
02:39But still, better to place the plastic over the top.
02:42And that's it.
02:43Six hours later, my mixture looked like this.
02:46And I'll give it one last stir to show you what it looks like.
02:49And once the oleosaccharum step has been completed,
02:52we can head to the stove, where we have five cups of boiling water.
02:55And we'll transfer this mixture in, and immediately turn off the heat.
03:00And what we'll want to do is let this sit for about five minutes.
03:04During which time, we'll give it a couple stirs.
03:07And after about five minutes or so, all that sugar should be dissolved.
03:11Which, by the way, I referred to as melted one time.
03:13And a scientist actually sent me an email.
03:16And was not happy at all.
03:17And explained the difference between sugar melting and sugar dissolving.
03:21But anyway, the point is, after that long, the sugar should be fully melted.
03:25And the mixture will be ready to pass through a fine mesh strainer.
03:29And sure, we could do this right in the same bowl we did our oleosaccharum.
03:33Except I wasn't sure that glass bowl I used was heatproof.
03:36So I played it safe and used a metal bowl.
03:39And when we do this, we're really only interested in the liquids.
03:43All right, we can press and squeeze a little bit.
03:45But I'm really not wanting a lot of that pureed fruit to pass through.
03:48Which might thicken up the texture.
03:51Okay, no one's ever been drinking lemonade.
03:53And said, this is good.
03:54But I wish it was more viscous.
03:56So don't be too aggressive.
03:59And then what we need to do is let this cool down to room temp.
04:01Before we squeeze in our fresh lemon juice.
04:04Okay, I'm not exactly sure how big of a difference it would make.
04:07But it just seems like putting fresh lemon juice in a hot liquid is going to take away some of that freshness.
04:13And as far as how many lemons to actually squeeze in.
04:15We are definitely going to squeeze the six we zested.
04:17And then depending on how much juice we got from that, and how our lemonade's tasting at that point, we can always add a few more.
04:25So basically you're doing this to taste.
04:27I mean, you are after all the John Cleese of how many lemons to squeeze.
04:31And that's it.
04:32Once our fresh lemon juice has been added, and we're very, very happy with how this tastes, we will carefully transfer that into some kind of pitcher or other pourable container.
04:41And yes, I'm using a ladle, because every time I try to pour from a bowl, it spills everywhere.
04:47And trust me, as I mentioned earlier, you don't even want to waste one drop of this stuff.
04:52And that's it.
04:53We'll transfer it into the fridge until it's completely chilled.
04:57Before we serve that up in some nice ice-filled glasses.
05:00And I'm going to go ahead and pour two, one for me and one for Michelle.
05:05And maybe we'll garnish that with a little extra fruit, just to kind of remind people what they're about to enjoy.
05:11And that, my friends, really is an incredible lemonade.
05:15As much as I love our original State Fair lemonade recipe, I have to say, I might actually like this one better.
05:21Right, we get that little bit of extra sweetness and tartness from the berries, which, for very obvious reasons, work very nicely with the lemon.
05:29And, of course, never underestimate the power of color to affect someone's perception of what they're drinking or eating.
05:35Which is why when they do blind taste tests, and they have the exact same lemonade, and they put a few drops of food coloring in one and call it pink lemonade,
05:43that is the one that wins the taste test every time.
05:45And I know they're popular in the magazine shoots, and your assorted high-end food blogs,
05:51but I don't think you should ever use a straw for lemonade.
05:54Right, first of all, you're going to drink it too fast.
05:56And one of the best parts of the experience is that ice-on-lip contact, which is way more refreshing and bracing.
06:03So if there was ever a beverage that should be sipped, it's this one.
06:07Of course, having said that, drink it any way you want, as long as you promise to make and drink it somehow.
06:12Since I promise this will be one of the most delicious lemonades you've ever had.
06:17And I really do hope you give it a try soon.
06:20So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
06:24a printable written recipe, and munchbrainfo, as usual.
06:27And as always, enjoy!
06:31Bye-bye!
06:58Ooh!
06:59Bye-bye!
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