March 2013 Update – you can read the second part of this recipe in this post
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Recently I was talking with a friend about the grey days of January and February: those days when the Christmas tree has been taken down and the house feels too big and bare. It always seems like there is nothing in the immediate future except for bills, wind and rain, and the long summer evenings are still too far away to imagine. I like to try and organise a couple of treats to get me through the long weeks of winter and this weekend, Fate intervened to help me do this.
This month, I decided to take part in Belleau Kitchen’s Random Recipes for the very first time. For this month’s challenge, we were asked to randomly select a book that we received for Christmas last year, and then select a recipe at random from that book. My mind went entirely blank when I tried to think which books I received last Christmas, even though I am always given at least one. We were burgled three weeks before Christmas last year, and when I think back to that time, it is pretty much a blur of insurance paperwork, phonecalls and general confusion.
So as the last book that I remember receiving as a Christmas gift is Nigella’s ‘Kitchen’* (although I am not sure when I actually received it), that would have to do. I flicked through the pages and stopped at random. It’s not in season, hardly a recipe at all, and I can’t even show you the finished result in this post. Fate has decided that I should make Blackberry Vodka to share with you all!
The recipe could not be simpler, honestly. For one 75cl bottle of vodka, you need 500g of blackberries and 200g of caster sugar. I normally prefer Grey Goose vodka but I bought a bottle of Smirnoff because when you add in the fruit, you aren’t going to get the full benefit of the flavour of the Grey Goose. I also had to buy my blackberries, which were big and fat and beautiful to look at, but without the full flavour of blackberries picked from the bramble bushes.
Then it’s just a matter of sterilizing a 1.5 litre Kilner Jar (I just run mine through a hot cycle in the dishwasher), and putting everything in together. It will produce around 1 litre of blackberry vodka, so you will need suitable bottles to store that in. Shake the jar gently to dissolve the caster sugar, and store in a cool dark place for 6-8 weeks. When it’s ready, I will strain and bottle the vodka, and try to remember to do a follow-up post to show you the results.
All of which means that at the end of January, my pantry will present me with a gift of blackberry vodka, just when I am just starting to get really tired of the British winter. Perfect timing!
March 2013 Update – you can read the second part of this recipe in this post
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