(for adults)
Ingredients
· some 30 ripe pieces of jujube fruit, compact and flawless
· 1 litre of ethyl alcohol 95%, for spirits or grappa
· 1 spoon of (brown or white) sugar for each piece of fruit.
· 2 spoons of light honey
· three-fourths of water (some 750 ml)
· Lemon or orange peel (without the white part) and some cloves, if of your liking.
Preparation method
Rinse the fruit in running water, and let it dry on a tea towel. Prepare the pieces of fruit: take off their stalks and pits, then cut most of them in half. Leave some whole.
Pour the jujube fruit into a clean water jar, add the lemon or orange peel, if you decided to add them, and cover it all with alcohol or grappa.
Close the jar and let rest for 15-20 days, in a cool and dark place.
Turn the jar upside down and shake it everyday.
When the fruit is marinated, mash the pulp with a fork and take the pits off the whole jujube. Boil some water with sugar and honey in a small saucepan, to make a syrup; when this is cold, pour it on the jujube mixture, close the jar again and let rest for about one week. When
this time is over, filter the mixture in the jar, add the marination alcohol, then bottle the spirit and leave it in a cool place for at least one month.
When it is finally ready, is best served cold.
Perfect as a digestif.
BRODO DI GIUGGIOLE
(for children)
Ingredients
· 1 Kg of ripe jujube, compact and flawless (around 30 medium-sized pieces)
· 10 spoons of sugar and 3 of honey
· 2 reinette apples
· 3 glasses of water
· Lemon peel (without the white part)
Preparation method
Rinse the jujube, take off their stalks and pits and cut them into little pieces. After this preparation, put the resulting pulp into a pot and let it cook on low heat for around half an hour, until soft. In the meantime, peel the apples, cut them into pieces and add them to the mixture with the lemon peel. Let it cook again for another 20 minutes, always on low heat. Then filter the fruit mixture and stir carefully. If the mixture is too thick, add some previously boiled water. Cook everything back for at least 15 minutes. Put the hot mixture into small bottles or jars, sterilise in a bain-marie for 20 minutes and seal the caps hermetically. Let the syrup cool and keep it in a dark and cool place.
It is an excellent cough remedy and one spoonful every night promotes a good night’s sleep