Homemade Blackberry Gin

Around November I spotted a recipe in the Waitrose food magazine for Blackberry gin and thought I would give it a go to hand out as Christmas presents. I tried a friends homemade damson vodka the previous year which was delicious and sounded really simple.

I purchased a huge Kilner jar which I sterilised by heating in the oven and filled with layers of 900g blackberries and 500g caster sugar popping a vanilla pod split lengthways in the middle. I then topped up with 70cl Gordon's gin, as it is going to be flavoured by the fruit a cheapish london dry gin is ideal something like Hendricks would be wasted in this mix. Once sealed I gave it a shake to help dissolve the sugar and popped it in the fridge. For the first week I gave it a gentle shake everyday and just once a week thereafter. It fermented for six weeks but can be up to eight.

After six weeks I strained the liquid through a sieve and decanted into bottles - I got approximately 1200ml of gin so I made little tags and gave them out as presents which included serving suggestions such as neat with ice, lots of lime and fever tonic or topped up with prosecco. It was delicious and seemed to be well liked enough for me to do it again next year.

Ginstock & Fifteen Street

The sun was shining on Saturday which only increased my excitement for Ginstock - there would be eight bars each creating a different cocktail with a different gin. Organised by Tweat Up (who have run a Chilli Off and Ribstock previously, both I which I followed on Twitter and enviously eyed up the food on offer) and its founding member, Jonathan Downey - who owns lots of my favourite places to eat and drink in London.

A £25 ticket included entrance to Fifteen Street which is just outside Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant and was jam packed with some of the best street food vendors the country has to offer (and lots of bunting), plus it included the eight cocktails and a cleansing Birra Moretti - for when we needed a break from the gin. You had to vote for your favourite too.

We headed straight for the Martin Miller bar, which had a rhubarb tonic cocktail perfectly mixed by the bartenders from Lost Diplomacy. Garnished with fresh rhubarb it instantly became my favourite (which after only sampling one is probably a little unfair) due to the delicious fruity taste and the fact you could still taste the gin, which is one of my favourites anyway. The miniature bottle of gin and rhubarb was a nice touch too.

Starving - we decided to grab a tasting plate of jungle curry from Hungry Gecko, a street van run by Masterchef runner up Jackie Kearney. It was delicious but we were glad we only had a taster as it was hot.

One gin cocktail down, only seven more to go...

Next up was a Beefeater Negroni created by Polpo. The cocktail was way too strong for me, it is pretty much straight alcohol but I enjoyed the free bowler hat and drank it anyway.

We were trying to work out which cocktail was the one with the custard cream on top, and as we queued up for Bombay Dry and the London Cocktail Club we realised this was the place - topped with elderflower powder and mixed with a sweet fruity juice, it was good. The custard cream balanced on top sealed the deal.

As we were approaching the half way mark of gin we decided to go for a cleansing beer whilst we queued for our pigeon and beetroot wrap from Wild Rover Food, it was cooked fresh so the queue moved slowly but all the customers and then the staff were lovely. We was going to only have a mini one each but were starving by the time we got the front so went for full size one - each mouthful was yummy. The gamey pigeon and the sweet beetroot were a match made in heaven.

This was followed by a gimlet with a twist by Sipsmith and The Zetter Townhouse, served in a tiny martini glass - it was perfect with homemade cassia and orange cordial. It became a contender for best cocktail of the day. The staff on the bar were lovely and knowledgable and tried to bribe us to vote for them with freebies, but the Rhubarb cocktail was still on my mind.

The guy from Worship Street Whistling Shop was serving up a cocktail with Williams Chase gin and was hysterical, he had a smoke machine which he placed in various botanicals and smoked the crowds with, may not sound amusing but we were on our fifth cocktail. This tasted like smoked apples and was really easy to drink.

We were on a roll so headed to the Nightjar bar, the queues were starting to build but the atmosphere was still good fun, the man in front of us (who was a bartender) was horrified when we said we didn't like the Negroni.  The cocktail here was made with Bombay Sapphire and I am not sure what, served with a monkey nut garnish and bits of cinnamon, it totally transformed a gin I do not really like in too something quite special. I thought Emily would like this due to the cinnamon and her love a Bathtub gin.

Another food stop was required - Mat was craving a burger so he want to find one as I queued up for some mussels from Mussel Men. The staff all dressed in stripy fisherman style top and one even with a fisherman style moustache really live their brand. As I was slightly intoxicated I thought I would go for some oysters too - Mat returned disappointed as lots of the food stalls had shut as they were cooking more food or had completely ran out, he was tempted when I offered him one of my oysters. I added a skirt of lemon and some tabasco and they disappeared really quick, they had been freshly shucked in front of me and the slippery little morsels of seaside freshness. This was followed by a good sized portion of mussels, juicy and quite big but still full of flavour I was happy.

Mat was hungry and wanting a burger still but with two more gins to try we went and queued up for another cocktail. The queues were now huge and we waited a good half an hour for one from Danger Of Death, made with a gin I have never heard from before called Hvar (it came in a weird bottle covered in what looked like dripping green wax and I can not find it online) . It was lethal - pure gin I think, Mat couldn't finish his and didn't fancy another queue so we skipped the Gilpins Gin made by the Liberty Lounge and headed out to Hoxton to find a burger...

Make mine a double...

Before we finished work and embarked on the 4 day Easter weekend we took a traditional trip to the local pub near work for the lunch, you will often find half the company in The 3 Kings, Clerkenwell (or outside if sunny) given half an excuse.

Due to the amount of time we spend in the place we know the landlord quite well and he always looks after us. Today he let us try a couple of gins we haven't tried before, his favourite and a newish variant from Tanqueray.

The first was called Martin Miller's, distilled in the black country in an over 100 year old copper beaten still named Angela and then transported to Iceland to be blended with the purest, softest water on Earth. I can see (or taste) why it is the landlord's favourite, a really clean, easy to drink gin with no bitter taste, a little bit cucumber-y like Hendrick's but without the floral notes.

The second was the Tanqueray Rangpur based on the classic gin but infused with the rare Rangpur lime, as you can imagine it makes the gin limey but really refreshing too. I really liked this one too! You can really tell the difference compared to any old gin, and if they were not all twice the price of Gordan's I would definitely drink these gin's more often!

Keeping it simple with friends

We had our first few friends round to visit the new flat (on mass rather than the odd one here and there) before heading to a Guilty Pleasures wig party at Koko. I wanted to keep it simple so we just grabbed some pizza's from the Pizza Express range in the supermarket and potato wedges and dips, a bit of a cop out but tasty and lined our stomach for the night ahead!

I wanted to make a little bit of an effort though so whipped up some easy fairy cupcakes which looked really fun on my two tier cake stand and a cocktail called the 'Truly British' before the British summer is truly over.

Fairy Cupcakes

Makes 16

Ingredients:

For the cakes

• 115g unsalted butter

• 115g caster sugar

• 2 eggs, beaten

• 115g self raising flour

For the icing

• 200g icing sugar

• about 3tbsp warm water

• a few drops of food colouring, optional

Glacé cherries, chocolate strands and silver balls (or whatever you fancy) to decorate.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Put 16 paper cases in two bun trays.

2. Beat together the butter and caster sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.

3. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each one.

4. Fold in the flour lightly (it recommends to use a metal spoon but I just used my silicone spatula).

5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases so each one is about half full.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. remove when springy to the touch and cool on a wire rack.

7. When cool make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in enough water to make a smooth paste that is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

8. I divided the icing into three bowls and added a couple of drop of yellow food colouring to one and red to another and left one uncoloured.

9. Spread the icing over the fairy cakes and decorate as desired.

Adapted from a Marks & Spencer recipe book called Easy Cupcakes.

Truly British Cocktail

Serves one

Ingredients:

• 50ml gin
• dash elderflower cordial
• apple juice to taste

Method:
1. In a tall glass, pour the gin over ice
2. Add a dash of elderflower cordial and top up with apple juice
3. Stir well and garnish with a slice of apple for a truly British taste.

Gin Tasting, Cocktail Champions!

As part of our weekend of eating and drinking we went to a gin masterclass at The Jekyll & Hyde in Birmingham. A pub behind the law courts with an Alice in Wonderland themed beer garden and gin parlour upstairs. In this parlour we joined eighteen others (including a hen party) to learn about the wonderful world of our favourite tipple.

The bar manager, Carl hosted the event and very quickly got the humour of his audience (mainly due to the drunken hen party). We were divided into four teams and named based on the ingredients on the table, we were 'the gingers'.

We were given a 30 minute history of gin whilst sampling the drinks that made the story. Gin was given its name from the french word geniévre meaning juniper, the berry which the alcohol is based on. Some of the highlights were learning there are four styles of gin, tasting the first gin cocktail know as a gimlet - a combination of gin and lime cordial, this was followed by a classic G&T.

One of our favourite discoveries was the Smirnoff ice of the 1800's - a Tom Collins. Created with 1 part sugar, the juice of a whole lime, 3 parts Gin and 1 part soda water, this works on the cocktail creation principals of sweet, sour, strong, weak. This knowledge came in handy for our last challenge.

Each team faced four challenges all together. The first two involved free pouring measures by reciting 'one bubble, two, three, four' for a 25ml shot and 'Mary had a little lamb, her fleece was white as snow' for a 50ml, Emily gained us a very respectable 7/10 in the 50ml free pour. The third challenge was a blind gin tasting of three very different varieties, unfortunately the drunk women on our table volunteered to do this and we got no points compared to the other teams getting 10.

For the last challenge we were losing badly, so me and Emily stepped in to try an earn a possible 25 points and make a comeback! As we were last we had the first pick of gins so went for our favourite - Hendricks. We are big fans of traditional gins flavoured with unusual botanicals and this is a great example with Bulgarian rose and cucumber. It was then a free for all to grab whatever you could from the 'condiment' table to create your cocktail to go with your ingredient.

Emily swooped in and grabbed the teacup and teapot to serve and a blood orange syrup, we got a lucky dip of Chegworth Valley pear and raspberry juice too plus our ginger root. First we had a practice and then had to go to the bar and show of our new gin knowledge and make the cocktail in front of the group. Emily did the knowledge, I did the mixing! Below is the recipe we created:

Bleedin' Ginger

- Finely slice or grate 1cm of ginger

- Mash the ginger with the juice of one lime (sour)

- Mix with 10ml blood orange syrup (sweet), 50ml Hendricks(strong) and the Pear and Raspberry juice (weak) over ice

- Sieve through a tea strainer to get rid of the ginger straight into the teapot.

- Rim the edge of the teacup with lime

- From a height artfully decant the bright pink drink into the cup.

It tasted yummy! Between the name, taste, knowledge and mixing technique we scored a massive 22/25, the other teams got 12, 13 and 14 so we made an impressive comeback from last place to joint second. Not that we are competitive!

We had a throughly enjoyable day and would recommend it to friends and groups of people looking to have fun whilst learning something about gin.

A Sweet Habit

If you're like me and eat way too many sweets then this range of sweet inspired flavoured squashes from Tesco's could be the answer to cutting down your intake...

Available in Cola Bottles, Pear Drops and Lemon Sherbet, next stop Pear Drops!

Here comes the sun.. London style

As Em is tucking into ice cream to celebrate the arrival of the sun. In London we head to the pub and stand outside in whatever sunny patch we can find. Plus it means cider season is here! I am loving the Aspells pint glasses - they are like goblets!

Hendricks Giveaway

Anyone who reads this blog regularly may have noticed apart from the foody theme running through the website, me and Emily are also partial to a dash or two of gin, especially Hendrick's.

I was researching spirit brands for work and when exploring the online world of Hendrick's I discovered you could sign up to join the curiositorium. A members only section of the website full of weird and wonderful things that Hendrick's likes and is associated with.

Tomorrow a few friends and myself are going to a drawing workshop at The Last Tuesday Society which I saw on the website, again looks quirky and a bit unusual.

The great thing is they sent me a little mail out in the post that included a notebook and cocktail recipe book that includes different ways to dress the cocktails with cucumber. It definitely makes me love the brand even more!

The Modern Pantry pops up at Meza

As Claire's 30th birthday celebrations continue, a small group of 35 went to Meza in Soho, London. The Modern Pantry which is based in Clerkenwell (2 minutes from where I work) was hosting a pop up restaurant within the restaurant - confusing?

The bar and restaurant is really cool. Cocktails are average prices for central London, I went for the 'Elder Bubble' - Hendrick's Gin, Elderflower Cordial and Lemon Juice topped with Prosecco and a cucumber twist. I designed and made the table places too to add a professional touch to the evening.

As there was so many of us we all had the same set menu which is a sample from the modern pantry, a culinary fusion of british and asian flavours. To start we had salmon sashimi with yuzu tobiko (fish eggs) and celery cress, the table seemed to have a mixed reaction but I loved it! the salmon was very tender and the fish eggs were a true taste of the sea.

This was followed by a coconut and pandan duck leg curry, with tender bok choi and noodles. This was a massive dish and full of flavour but could have done with being a bit saucier.

The dessert was a mandarine and chocolate based dessert, I ate parts of it which were lovely but I don't like chocolate and orange as a combo, which most people find me weird for!

I have eaten in the modern pantry and the food is delicious and more subtle than when it was served in Meza but i think considering there was so many of us the quality of the food was really high and the starter was especially delicious! Plus the service was brilliant and the sparklers cake made Claire very happy!

Like we need any motivation...

...but Hendrick's are now giving away Guinea notes, which when you have collection four can be exchanged for either a cucumber cultivation kit or a little book of gentleman's etiquet.

I went for the cucumber plant - as much for the packaging as for the plant, it's so cute I love it :-)

The Boundry - The Return

Last night we returned to The Boundry to treat another work client to a New Year dinner. We had the private room again so the waiter could draw the curtains and separate us from the rest of the restaurant when we got too noisy and drunken. The food again was amazing, as was the service.

We had smoked salmon for starters, steak in a red wine jus with amazing potato dauphinoise, parsnips and spinach, then ended with a chocolate mousse and honeycomb ice cream wrapped in honeycomb.

One of the things they do really well is cocktails! I went for Cuban Winter again but thought I would try something else after (I had already had champagne, white AND red wine so I didn't think mixing cocktails would make the hangover any worse!) - A Petite Julie. It contains a scrummy but lethal combination of vodka, peach liqueur, apple and lemon juice, sweet basil and egg white, I would never have chosen but our lovely waiter chose it for me, it was almost a meal in itself.