Jamu

You wouldn’t go for long in Bali without seeing this powerful bright yellow tonic. With roots in Ayurvedic medicine, jamu is said to go back thousands of years as a medicinal brew. This is a gorgeous vivid tonic, something to sip as is or dilute. You may like to further sweeten it with honey. Enjoy cold, in a little shot glass or on ice in larger glasses.

Credit: Hardie Grant Books / Mark Roper

• makes

  1

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

As with all traditional drinks, recipes differ for each maker, but it will always be centred around fresh turmeric, joined by other roots, such as ginger, and bark, such as cinnamon, plus flowers, seeds, leaves and fruit. It’s imperative to source fresh turmeric, but don’t fret about the other ingredients – bringing it down to the basics of turmeric, ginger, a sweetener and something sour is fine. I generally only peel ginger and turmeric if a good scrub doesn’t clean it or if it’s a bit old.

Ingredients

• 2 jujubes (Chinese dates)
• 1 litre (4 cups) water
• 150 g (¾ cup) fresh turmeric root, roughly chopped
• 30–50 g fresh ginger, skin scraped, roughly chopped
• 5 black peppercorns
• 2 tbsp tamarind paste
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tsp coconut sugar
• juice of 3 limes

Infusion time: 30 minutes; 2–4 days if adding a ginger bug (see Note)

Instructions

1. Soak the jujubes in a cup of the water while preparing the other ingredients.
2. Chop the jujube, turmeric and ginger and blitz into a paste in a blender with the soaking water and peppercorns.
3. Pour the turmeric puree into a small saucepan and add the remaining water, tamarind paste, cinnamon stick and coconut sugar. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes with the lid on until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is aromatic. Cool and add the lime juice.
4. Strain into a bottle and seal. Refrigerate and enjoy.

Note

• If you don’t have a blender, just finely chop the ingredients and cook a bit longer (perhaps 45 minutes), then strain out the solids.

• To ferment, make a ginger beer mother and add to cooled jamu. Leave it in a jar, covered with a cloth secured with a rubber band, in a warm room for 2–3 days, checking daily and agitating or stirring regularly. Bottle, sit out to carbonate, and refrigerate.

Recipe from Wild Drinks: The New Old World of Small-Batch Brews, Ferments and Infusions by Sharon Flynn (Hardie Grant Books, $39.99), available in-stores nationally.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

As with all traditional drinks, recipes differ for each maker, but it will always be centred around fresh turmeric, joined by other roots, such as ginger, and bark, such as cinnamon, plus flowers, seeds, leaves and fruit. It’s imperative to source fresh turmeric, but don’t fret about the other ingredients – bringing it down to the basics of turmeric, ginger, a sweetener and something sour is fine. I generally only peel ginger and turmeric if a good scrub doesn’t clean it or if it’s a bit old.