Jazz up any lingering leftovers with this pungent condiment
Cucumber, mint, honey, vinegar — sounds like a great salad. Fittingly enough, the Persian vinegar syrup known as sekanjabin is often served as a dip for crisp romaine lettuce leaves. However, it also makes a very refreshing ‘sharbat’ when mixed with sparkling water.
Of the many Iranian syrup-based drinks, sekanjabin is perhaps the most ancient. Originally a simple combination of honey and vinegar, is it now usually flavoured with mint, although orange blossom water, rose water, or other flavourings can also be added. It’s like honey and lemon for when you’re too hot, not too cold!
Other Asian and Middle Eastern countries have their own versions. In Pakistan and northern India, for instance, ‘shikanji’ or ‘shikanjabeen’ is made with lemon juice rather than vinegar and often flavoured with salt and pepper as well as sugar.
Having waited and waited for the Cornish summer to justify my making this hot-weather recipe, I am now tired of waiting! Anyway, it turns out sekanjabin works as a hot drink as well.
There are many different recipes for sekanjabin, but below is a simple one I adapted from LearningHerbs. You can learn more about sekanjabin in this episode of the excellent Gastropod podcast.
Ingredients
Method
— Beatrix Swanson
Jazz up any lingering leftovers with this pungent condiment
Shrub, a vinegar-based cordial whose history we covered in the last post, is extremely easy to make. All you need is three ingredients, and you don’t even have to turn on the hob.
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info@artisanvinegar.co.uk