This is a sweet, refreshing lemonade with a touch of heat from jalapenos that will be great for a summer barbecue. Serve it ice cold, or spike it with some tequila! Dont be afraid of the jalapenos in this recipe, they add a mild, and very pleasant flavor. And you can make the lemonade as hot or mild as you like.
In case you are curious about this jalapeno water splash photo, here is the exif info:
Shutter speed: 1/1250
Aperture: f/18
ISO: 800
Exposure: manual
Lens: Canon 60mm macro
Setup: A bowl of water by a window. Camera on tripod, set to ‘continuous shooting’ mode. I dropped jalapeno slices into the water while continuously shooting. I think I took about 100 photos to get to this one.
In order to capture the splash, you need to set your shutter speed very high (1/1250 in this case). Because the shutter speed was high, the camera lets less light in; to compensate for this I had to bump up the ISo to 800.
Squeezing a few lemons and mixing with water and sugar is so easy, I really dont know why we buy lemonade in the store!
What does jalapeno lemonade taste like? When you first sip it, its just like regular lemonade. When you swallow, the mild spice will hit your throat. This recipe is very mild. Use 2 jalapenos if you want it spicier.
Here is a similar recipe for jalapeno lemonade on serious eats inspired by Crate & Barrels jalapeno lemonade mix. My recipe is slightly different – i used a pinch of salt, which brings out the sweet and hot flavors in the lemonade; I also made my jalapeno lemonade less sweet. Here is another jalapeno lemonade recipe on kalamazoo gourmet that doesnt require boiling the jalapenos in simple syrup.
Jalapeno Lemonade Recipe
makes about 8 cups
for jalapeno sugar syrup
1 jalapeno, cut into 4 pieces (remove seeds for a milder lemonade)
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/8th teaspoon salt
other ingredients
1 cup lemon juice (juice of about 6 large lemons), strained
6 cups water
Place the chopped jalapeno and 1 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Continue boiling till about half the water has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Then add sugar and salt and stir. Reduce heat to low and simmer just until sugar has dissolved, about 2 minutes. Let the syrup cool for about 5 minutes.
Place a strainer over a pitcher. Pour the jalapeno sugar syrup, lemon juice and 6 cups water through the strainer into the pitcher. Stir well. Serve chilled over ice cubes.
For tequila spiked jalapeno lemonade recipe: follow the recipe above, but instead of 6 cups water use 5 cups water + 1/2 cup (or more!) tequila. Serve on ice.
Wow amazing clicks….esp the splashing effect
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Sala! The pics are gorgeous! And wll you pretty please send me that lemon squeezer details for MMKT? It looks very cute and quite handy.
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Wow! nice idea.
And as soon as I started wondering how you took that splashing picture you explained it all.
Thanx for sharing! You’ll soon see a similar picture in my blog
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
July 27th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
cant wait to see it!
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stunning clicks n such refreshing drink.. lovely !
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Absolutely amazing. Love how refreshing these photographs are. Love the first photograph. Wonderfully fresh and nice composition.
Thanks for sharing with us.
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This is so great! I love that you can have the refreshing coolness of lemonade with a spicy kick.
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Awesome clicks and beautiful, refreshing drink for this summer. Wonderful shots ….
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A wonderful drink! So refreshing.
Your shots are fantastic. I really love that 3rd shot!
Cheers,
Rosa
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Love the clicks..wonderful colours used ..specially the blue!
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Lovely fresh photos, very nice!
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Love the water splash photo and all pics in ur website infact! All ur recipes look incredibly delicious. How I wish i can get to taste ‘em
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Sala, you take the most amazing photos and then you are so kind to share that knowledge and info. Thank you! I took a floating pic thanks to your floating cranberry post
Jalapeno lemonade sounds a little dangerous, especially with tequila, but what fun!
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Fab shots dear ..looks real gud and adding jalapeno in lemonade is new to me …
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Loved all the pics Sala. But the second one is esp beautiful…the colors are so soothing and the yellow of lemon is compensated by the blue in the pic…that has to be my fav. Nice work!
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Woww lemonade looks fantastic…beautiful clciks especially the second one..awesome!
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beautiful! I hope you will submit it to Finding Vegan!! ~Kathy
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Jalapeno lemonade – new to me, and I think my husband would love it! Love your photos, too. Especially the second one – it is stunning!
do you follow strobist.com, by chance? I love his site, but you’d probably get a lot more out of it than I do since you already understand so much about photography. For me, most of his info is way over my head, but I still think he makes learning about photography very accessible.
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This looks beyond refreshing, Sala. I’m a sucker for spicy things inclusive of drinks. Great capture of the water splash and thanks for the exif info. Sadly, I don’t know if my camera can do well with the ISO that high. What camera do you use, if I may ask?
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
July 29th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
I use a canon rebel. You could afford a lower ISO if you used brighter lighting. Or you can compensate for the high ISO induced grain, with the ‘reduce noise’ feature in photoshop.
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very beautiful pics sala….want to ask u, how do u get so bright pics? especially the backgorunds>
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Sala @ Veggie Belly Reply:
July 29th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Shabs, thankyou! I place the food near a bright window. And sometimes the food is on a white table cloth or white foam core..that makes things bright. In camera, a wide aperture setting will let more light in.
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Shabs Reply:
August 7th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Thanks sala. You are so kind.
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Oh it is so hot out right now, this drink looks absolutely refreshing. I love the addition of jalapeno, it would add such a nice, yet mild, kick. Also adding tequila would bring it right up into my new top fav drinks. Awesome photos as well!
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Wow, I would never have thought of adding jalapeno’s to lemonade. It definitely sounds like an interesting combination to try.
By the way, I love the splash photo!!
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Made this yesterday for a BBQ – was a HUGE hit, I’ll be making again. Next time I’m going to try adding some Thyme as well! Thanks!
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Sooooo cooooool recipe…..:)
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