ginger tea (aka: how to cheer up a sick neighbor)

If you live in Fairfield County, CT, and you catch a winter cold, chances are you've treated yourself to Aux Delices' Ginger Tea. Really, there's nothing more soothing and delicious, when I am out and about on a chilly Fall or Winter day. This tea is definitely "food crush" status. 

This past week, my neighbor and I ran into one another at Aux Delices, both of us under the weather, and each of us having driven to the next town for some of this liquid gold. Now, I sometimes make a normal ginger-lemon tea at home, but there's something special about Aux Delices'. So today I decided to master the brew at home... No sooner had a filled my big stock pot, when there was a knock at the back door. And there stood my neighbor, with a large cup of the goodness in hand. {Little did she know, I had planned to surprise her, with a tub of my homemade brew!}

The recipe was very simple. The only difference between my normal ginger-lemon tea and Aux Delices' appears to be copious amounts of honey. The labor intensive part was grating the fresh ginger. I grated about 6" worth...then got tired of grating and just chopped it into bits I'd strain out later.

Then I zested and squeezed a bunch of fresh lemons. For a soup pot filled with about 12+ cups of water, I added 6 zested and juiced lemons. If I'd had them, I would have added a few more.

And then I added some honey... I started with about 1/2 cup.

 And then I moved on to another jar in my pantry, and added at least another full cup. So, this brew required a lot of honey to get to the taste of Aux Delices' Ginger Tea!!

I gave everything a quick stir, and let it simmer for about an hour on medium-low. It reduced by about 1/3. It's delicious {and potent} as is, but since I now know how much honey is in the brew, I've been drinking it all afternoon by filling my tea cup with 1/2 of the homemade concentrate + 1/2 water from our instant hot faucet.

Best part of concocting this at home {aside from the fact that I don't have to drive a town over to fill my cup}? Leaving a few tubs-o-joy on my neighbor's back porch. For those who want the recipe for the chicken soup base pictured above too, that was simply this recipe and this last time I made a big batch I made it with rotisserie chickens (that still had the meat on them) so the frozen soup has shredded chicken in each container. When I-- or my neighbor-- reheats it, I just add some more fresh veggies (celery, carrots, etc) while it's defrosting in a saucepan, then bring it to a boil and cook noodles in the broth before serving. Easy way to get the best chicken-noodle soup ever!