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The Claire Byrne Show

Making summer cordials and lemonades

09 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

1.887 - 17.823 Clare Byrne

The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. Summer is here or it's coming, depending on what you can see out through your window today. And who doesn't love a delicious cold drink on a summer's day?

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17.863 - 35.387 Clare Byrne

Well, Orla Drumgoole, the author of Irish Mammy Cooks, is here to give us some tips on how to make the best ones possible, like lemonade and cordials and unusual things that we've never seen before. But I have them here in front of me. Hello, Orla. Good morning, Clare. I love this because there is nothing like a kind of a sharp...

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Chapter 2: What are some refreshing summer drinks to make?

35.367 - 38.231 Clare Byrne

drink with a bit of sweetness in it on a hot summer day.

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38.771 - 48.504 Orla Drumgoole

Absolutely. And I need to put in a disclaimer, all of these drinks contain sugar. So if you don't like sugar. Fine. Yeah. It's only a little sugar sometimes.

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48.544 - 51.048 Clare Byrne

Only a little sugar and you need a bit anyway, don't you?

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51.068 - 51.288 Orla Drumgoole

Exactly.

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51.508 - 54.873 Clare Byrne

OK, so what are we going to start with? The fruity ones.

55.273 - 73.417 Orla Drumgoole

So we have three different types of drinks that you can make with fruits. So you have a thing called, it came from Korea originally, a thing called cheong, which was new to me last year. And it's really interesting because you can make it with offcuts of different things. So, for example, I make a banana cheong, but it's made with the banana skin.

74.198 - 89.978 Orla Drumgoole

So now I didn't bring it today because it takes kind of a week for it to mature. But if you wash your banana skins really well in your bread soda, a little bit of salt rubbed on, dry them. They're well cleaned, cut off the tops and bottoms, chop them up and you weigh them in a little glass jar.

89.958 - 99.936 Orla Drumgoole

And whatever weight of banana skin you have, you put in the same quantity of sugar and then you put it in the fridge and you let it work its magic. Just the sugar and the banana? Just the sugar and the banana skin, not the banana. Yeah.

100.377 - 119.871 Orla Drumgoole

And then you leave it in there and every day that you're at the fridge, you just look and you give it a little shake or you put a spoon in and you stir it and you get this thing called banana chung or banana extract. It is... Incredible. It will level up your banana breads beautifully. The banana one I wouldn't use as a drink. But you can do that with every single fruit.

Chapter 3: How can I make banana cheong using banana skins?

156.201 - 162.928 Clare Byrne

There's quite an amount of liquid here. So this is what you get from the peaches and the sugar. And you've got another one here as well, the raspberry one.

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162.908 - 163.689 Orla Drumgoole

Yeah, it's funny.

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163.709 - 166.734 Clare Byrne

It looks like jam until I move the jar and see it's quite liquid.

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166.874 - 174.947 Orla Drumgoole

And if you wanted to, you could reduce that down by heating it and you could make like a coulis out of it. But the smell of the fruit is incredible. It's delicious.

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175.067 - 180.175 Clare Byrne

Yeah, it's really good. Can I use this as a cordial then, this one? Absolutely. Or is it too weak for that?

180.391 - 186.84 Orla Drumgoole

No, but you would probably have to use maybe a quarter to three quarters water if you were using them.

186.92 - 188.663 Clare Byrne

What's this I have in the glass before me?

189.143 - 211.316 Orla Drumgoole

So the glass before you is homemade lemonade. Lovely. So and I'm not sure if it's to your taste or not, because it's very much how do you mix them? It's delicious. So basically you make a sugar syrup, which is equal quantities sugar and water. You heat that up and you cook it until all of the sugar dissolves. And then you set that aside and you allow it to cool.

211.537 - 234.419 Orla Drumgoole

And that'll sit in your fridge for six weeks. And that is what they use in cocktails. It's called sugar syrup. So that's our base product, is it? And then separately, when you want to make it. So last night I juiced my lemons and I put them into the fridge. And then you mix, I mixed half and half lemon juice and sugar syrup, but it depends on your own flavour profile in your mouth.

Chapter 4: What is the process for making peach syrup or cheong?

347.569 - 362.509 Orla Drumgoole

And he said to me, when you make cordial, just add a tiny bit of Irish sea salt. And a tiny pinch of Irish sea salt, because what it does is it enhances the flavour. Salt enhances the flavour of everything. Did you try it? I did. It's really good. Really good.

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362.629 - 365.892 Clare Byrne

So a pinch of salt after you've strained it or before you've strained it?

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365.912 - 373.819 Orla Drumgoole

After you've strained it. And you put lemon juice in too, because the lemon juice, you need the sweetness, but you also need a little bit of sharp. So the lemon juice and a little pinch of salt.

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373.839 - 376.442 Clare Byrne

But the lemon juice you don't add when it's on the simmer, do you?

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376.462 - 383.468 Orla Drumgoole

Absolutely not. What can happen? If you cook lemon juice, it can become bitter. So the lemon juice is always put in when it's off the heat.

383.448 - 389.655 Clare Byrne

So then once this is strained and ready, then you're putting it into a bottle and you're just using that as a... As a cordial. As a cordial.

389.695 - 402.33 Orla Drumgoole

And honestly, it is so refreshing. Raspberry, you don't get a great yield from. Strawberries give you a huge yield. And the beautiful part of it is you are left with... So I've brought your scones today as well, Clare, with the leftovers.

402.35 - 402.67 Clare Byrne

I see that.

402.97 - 422.69 Orla Drumgoole

Because we talked about sustainability the last time and freezer tips. And so what I did was I just dried the strawberries that were left over from making the cordial. I dried them in the air fryer for about an hour and a half on 70 degrees. Lots of air fryers have a dehydrate button on them or the oven would work as well. And then you can use those.

Chapter 5: How do you prepare homemade lemonade?

532.414 - 554.399 Clare Byrne

Thank you to everybody for listening and for getting in touch. If you missed anything, you can listen back on the Go Loud app. The team today, my thanks to Cormac McDonagh on sound, producers Dee King, Helena O'Toole and Alex Russo. Research by David O'Connor. Our broadcast assistant is Anne-Marie Kane. The Clare Byrne Show. With Aviva Insurance. Weekday mornings at 9. On Newstalk.

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554.519 - 556.487 Clare Byrne

Conversation that counts.

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