Orange Squash

When summer started, I planned on making many types of fruit squashes but I made only this. Orange squash has been in my to do list for long. My mom gave me a book which has hundreds of recipes. It has a section for juices and squashes. They have listed all types with the accurate proportion of ingredients. And one of my readers has been asking me to post recipes for bottled fruit squash. So after so much of thinking, I tried making squash with orange. And I made nearly 2 lts of the it. Hubby dear liked it so much that he never missed to have it every single day. And my two litres of squash vanished within a month. 

The method of preparation takes nearly half a day but after preparing the syrup, it is very easy to mix the juice. It hardly takes a minute and even your kid can do it. For 1 part of the squash add 3 parts of water and a few ice cubes, give a nice stir and serve immediately. Isn't it easy? Now let us prepare the main syrup. I used 2 kg of oranges for making 2 litres of squash. And I didn't waste the peels. I made candied peel and have a jar full which makes it very easy for me to add orange flavour to my bakes. So I spent a whole day with these oranges. For preservation KMS is used. You can skip this and refrigerate the squash. Even though I added it, I refrigerated the squash as Madurai is being extremely hot for the past three months. 

Makes 2 lts of squash

Ingredients:

Orange Juice-1 lt ( I used 2kg of oranges)

Sugar-1.7 lt

Water-1.3 lt

Citric Acid-5 tsp

Orange Essence-4 tsp

Orange Food Colour- 1/2 tsp

K.M.S-3/4 tsp

Procedure:

1. Peel oranges, quarter them and remove seeds.

2. In a juicer jar, grind the oranges to make a pulp.

3. First pass this pulp through a fine sieve (I used the one to extract coconut milk)

4. Then transfer the pulp to a cloth lined sieve.

5. Gather the cloth and squeeze it to remove as much as juice as possible.

6. Now add a tbs of sugar to the juice to avoid bitterness.

7. In a pan, mix together water, sugar and citric acid.

8. Add in the food colour and bring it to boil.

9. Once it starts boiling, remove from flame and strain it through a sieve.

10. Allow it to cool completely.

11. Add the juice to the syrup.

12. Mix K.M.S with a little warm syrup and mix until it is not grainy.

13. Add this to the syrup along with essence.

14. Pour into sterilised jars/ bottles leaving a little gap at the top.

15. Cover and keep in a cool and dry place.

16. While serving, mix together 1 part of squash to three parts of water and a few ice cubes.

17. Enjoy!! 

Peel, quarter and de seed the oranges.

Grind it in a juicer jar.

Until it forms a smooth pulp.

Pour it through a sieve.

Pour the pulp into a cloth lined sieve.

Hold it together and squeeze.

Prepare the juice.

Measure the juice in a measuring jar.

Mix together sugar, water and citric acid.

Add food colour.

Bring it to boil.

Mix together K.M.S and a little of warm syrup.

Strain the syrup and allow it to cool completely.

Add the essence and K.M.S solution.

Pour into bottles.

Mix it and enjoy!!!

This was my hubby's favourite drink for the past two months.