AWARD winning Keelham Farm Shop has come up with a delicious and easy recipe to quench the thirst on the hottest of days - and with any luck, we will shortly be enjoying a return to the balmy days we experienced last month.

ON a hot summer’s day, there’s nothing more refreshing than a tall, chilled glass of home-made lemonade. Our simple recipe adds a pop of seasonal strawberries into the zesty mix, to create the perfect pink thirst-quencher. You can even swap the sugar for sweet apples and pears to create a low sugar alternative. This versatile recipe can also be frozen into ice cube trays for a fruity addition to any summer cocktail or frozen into moulds with water for super-cooling ice lollies. For an alcoholic twist, add the cordial to Prosecco to make lemon and strawberries blinis. Cheers!

Ingredients for the cordial

1 punnet ripe strawberries

10 lemons (juice and zest)

300g sugar, or three sweet apples and two ripe pears, diced

1/2-pint water

To serve

Chilled sparkling or still water

Method:

1 Put all the ingredients into a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring slowly to the boil.

2 Simmer for around one hour on a low heat until the mixture thickens slightly. If all the liquid disappears as it simmers, add more water.

3 Taste comes first, so regularly check the cordial to make sure it has the right balance of sweet and citrus. Keep in mind that it will be used as a cordial so it should have a strong flavour.

4 Take the mixture off the heat, press it through a fine sieve and catch the liquid in a bowl. The pink cordial should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

5 Use the cordial and top-up with sparkling water to make fizzy lemonade or with water for traditional flat lemonade.

The fruity cordial can also enhance a range of mouth-watering summer desserts. Simply stir into crushed meringue, whipped cream and fresh strawberries for a tangy twist on a classic Eton mess or drizzle over vanilla cheesecake – easy, peasy lemon squeezy.