STRAWBERRY LEMONADE

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE

MAKES 1½ CUPS POWDERED MIX, FOR & CUPS LEMONADE

For a few years, Chef Omar Tate, a Philadelphia native and founder of Honeysuckle Community Center, gifted me his homema "Kool-Aid" for luneteenth. Before COVID-19 shut down NYC, I witnessed Omar's ceremonial unison of water and powder ma from ground dehydrated fruit. He was hosting a supper club and one of the guests was the late Quandra Prettyman, cork collector, professor of Black literature, and Barnard's first Black full-time faculty member. Finally, I asked him to share his recip If your family picks strawberries in spring, you can dehydrate and store them. Otherwise, Trader Joe's sells freeze-dried and dah drated fruit, and the citric acid can be found online.

½ cup (12g) freeze-dried strawberries

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon citric acid

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons), plus 3 lemons for garnish

1 cup fresh strawberries, plus more for

garnish

8 cups water

Ice

Combine the freeze-dried strawberries and sugar in a mini food processor and blend until they become a fine powder. Transfer to an airtight container, add the citric acid and salt, and stir to combine. (The strawberry powder can be stored in the airtight container at room temperature for up to several weeks.)

Juice the 4 lemons and slice the remaining lemons into thin wheels. Set aside.

To make a large batch of lemonade, combine all the strawberry powder with 8 cups water and the lemon juice in a large pitcher. Stir using a wooden spoon until the powder is dissolved completely. Add more water to taste, aiming for the lemonade to be on the sweeter side (the ice will dilute it slightly). Strain the lemonade through a fine-mesh sieve, if necessary, and chill until ready to serve. To serve, add the lemon slices and fresh strawberries to the pitcher and top it off with ice.

For an individual serving of lemonade, mix 2 tablespoons of the strawberry powder, 1 cup water, and 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a tall glass. Stir with a spoon until the powder is dissolved. Add ice and garnish with lemon slices and a couple of fresh and rinsed strawberries.

TIP: A dehydrator is a convenient way to take the abundance you have when the fruit is in season and extend it into those months when fresh fruit is rare. If you wish to dry your own fruit, like the strawberries for this recipe, or grapes, or oranges, slice them into 4-inch-thick slices and use a dehydrator to dry them according to the manufacturer's instructions, 6 to 8 hours, depending on the machine. Store the dried fruit in an airtight container, with plenty of air to breathe at the top, at room temperature for several months.