Homemade Nutmeg Juice/Syrup (豆蔻水)

We all have tasted or used nutmeg one way or another, and most of the time, it's the spice that we use, which is produced from the seed. The flesh of the nutmeg, if we'd eaten before, will be pickled or shredded with sugar.

Have you tried the juice before? Not common in KL, but in Penang, most of the coffee shops served nutmeg juice, and two types are available, the white one (which is not boiled) and the red one (which is boiled). We'd tried both, and our preference is the red one. My eldest daugther, especially likes it when it's chilled.

I tried making nutmeg syrup last year after our Penang trip, and it's posted here. We just got back again from Penang a couple of days back, and I got more fresh nutmeg to make the syrup. This time, I brought back extra for my neighbour to make nutmeg enzyme.

♥Recipe to Make Fresh Nutmeg Syrup/豆蔻水♥
Make about 1litre syrup
You'll need
2Kg fresh nutmeg
700g rock sugar (the ones in cubes)

Method

1) Clean nutmeg and scrap off any dirt from its surface (I soak mine in garbage enzyme for a couple of minutes after cleaning)

2) Half the nutmegs, and pick out the seeds. You can keep the seed for future use especially for baking.

3) Smash the nutmegs with a pestle or the back of a knife.

4) Layer the nutmeg and sugar in a big slow cooker. 1 layer nutmeg, 1 layer sugar.

5) Turn on slow cooker at high, and leave it to boil for 3hrs.

6) Turn slow cooker to low, and boil another 6 hrs.

7) Sift the drink, and store the syrup in clean container.

This is how the boiled nutmeg looked. Deep reddish in colour. At this point, drawn by the aroma of the drink my eldest daugther came in, saw what I was doing and declared, "Oh mum, you are a wonderful cook."

If not using immediately, store the syrup in refrigerator. I actaully put the pulp back into the slow cooker, add 1.5 glass of water and boil it on auto for another 8hrs to get a less concentrated syrup.

8 ) To serve, mix syrup with water. The original recipe calls for 2Kg nutmeg 1Kg sugar, because I reduced the sugar in mine, the syrup is less sweet so when mixed with water, it's more concentrated.

This is the dark reddish syrup.

This is what the drink looked like after mixing with water.

We all think it taste best when chilled. My daugter thinks it tastes like a cross between Sarsi and Ribenna.