Mint Sauce, Cape Style

Zurie's Note:

No roast lamb is quite perfect without home-made mint sauce on the side! Mint is a wonderful herb which aids digestion. (As an aside: the leaves can safely be steeped in boiling water like tea leaves, and a little added to colicky babies' bottles: works like a charm). This very simple mint sauce keeps in the fridge forever. When you have fresh garden mint, don't be without this condiment.

• Total Time: 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 2 cups

• 1 1/2 cups mint leaves, ordinary garden mint, firmly packed in
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Have a large enough, clean glass jar with lid ready. Rinse the mint, and shake or pat dry, but water on the leaves are fine.
2. Strip the leaves off the hard stems. Usually the soft tips can be used as is.
3. On a cutting board put bunches together, and slice thinly with a sharp knife.
4. Measure by packing tightly into the cup measure.
5. Alternately, snip finely with kitchen scissors.
6. Put the sliced mint in a jug with a pouring lip, and add the vinegar and sugar. Stir well.
7. Do not use the sharp spirit or other white vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is healthy and white vinegars are not.
8. I find that using sugar and vinegar on a 50-50 basis usually gives the right tang, but do taste and tweak! Do not worry about the amount of sugar: you use only about 1 dessertspoon of the sauce as a serving.
9. Ladle or pour the lot into a large enough bottle. The sugar will take time to dissolve, so can be kept on the kitchen counter and shaken a few times, before it goes to the fridge.
10. If the mint gets used up and there's quite a bit of the vinegar-sugar still left in the bottle, simply slice more fresh mint and add.
11. (The mint will lose its fresh green colour to an extent, which is normal).