Sloe Gin

Recipe50g Dark brown sugar
175 cl Dry Gin
Sloes
300 cl Bottle


Method
Fill Bottle with scoulding hot water from kettle to sterilise then empty.
Place Gin into Bottle then add sugar.
Place sloes into bottle until displaced liquid rises to top then screw/cork bottle.
Leave for 3 months or more.

Notes
I used Richmond London dry Gin 70cl because it provides 4 300cl bottles.
For bottle i used Asda's own White wine or Cider vinegar bottles since these provide exactly 300 cl and the label can be easily removed by soaking in hot water.
I used dark brown sugar as i find it takes the sloe gin to another dimension, but other sugars are fine.
One year i'll try honey, but not yet :p

Wine Updates

Damson Wine (1 Demijohn)
At stage 13
Due for change : October 20th - Rack off sediment

Elderberry Wine (1 Demijohn)
At stage 1
Due for change : October 3rd 2011 - Rack off sediment

Blackberry Wine (2 Demijohns)
At stage 3
Due for change : November 11th 2011 - Rack off sediment

Elderflower Wine (2 Demijohns)
At stage 4
Due for change : October 26th 2011 - Decant to Bottles

Plum Wine (5 Bottles)
At stage 3
Due for change : February 6th 2012

Hawthorn Wine (-)


Rosehip Wine (-)
Due for change : Approx April 18th (until clear)

Hawthorn fruit bars

Recipe
Hawthorn Berries (Haws)


Method
Wash thoroughly and remove stalks then place berries in a large bowl.
Wash hands thoroughly as it all hands in time. Squeeze the berries with hands to turn into a conjealing mush of stone and flesh.
Now take a handful of the mush and squeeze so the stones are left in ones palm. Discard them and continue until all stones removed.
Place mush between two grease proof sheets and roll out until thin.
Place onto a baking tray and put in a warm dry place (i put mine on the overnight storage heater).
Leave for 2 to 3 days then remove baking paper and slice into bars.
Dry in the warm place until bars are hard.

Notes
Taken from a Ray Mears Episode. These are best made from late October to December when the fruit is ripe and fleshy.

Update
Tried to make this last week as fruit is ripening early this year but it seems not so with haw berries. Catching them early means the berries lack the ripeness, fleshy quality that time provides.
The result for me was that the stones where almost impossible to sieve out and it only left a rather sour mush behind that dried well but was less palatable.

Damson Wine

Recipe
4 lbs ripe wild damsons
2-1/2 lbs finely granulated sugar
1 cup red grape concentrate
1 tsp acid blend
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp tannin
1 crushed Campden tablet
water to one gallon (about 5-6 pints)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 packet Bordeaux or Burgundy wine yeast

Method
(1) Put 1/2 gallon water on to boil. Meanwhile, wash, sort, destem, and destone the fruit.

Transfer fruit and any juice to nylon straining bag in primary graduated (marked) by pints to one gallon, add grape concentrate, boiling water, cover and allow to cool to lukewarm.

Add crushed Campden, recover and wait 12 hours.

(2) Crush fruit by hand by squeezing bag. Mix in half the sugar, stirring well to dissolve. Lift the bag of fruit and allow to drain about two minutes, then add water to bring liquid up to 7 pints. Return bag to liquid, measure and note S.G., and then add acid blend, tannin, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient.
Wait 12 Hours
(3)Add yeast.

(4)Sqeeze bag AM
Squeeze bag PM

(5) Sqeeze bag AM
Squeeze bag PM

(6) Sqeeze bag AM
Squeeze bag PM

(7) Sqeeze bag AM
Squeeze bag PM

(8) Sqeeze bag AM
Squeeze bag PM

(9) Sqeeze bag AM
Squeeze bag PM

(10) Sqeeze bag AM
Squeeze bag PM

(11) Drip drain bag of pulp 2-3 hours, squeezing gently at end to coax additional juice from bag. Do not squeeze vigorously. Add drained juice to primary and use hydrometer chart to determine how much additional sugar to add to achieve S.G. of 1.095 (find previously measured S.G. on chart and determine how much sugar to add to that to achieve target S.G. of 1.095). Add sugar and stir well to dissolve.
Allow to settle overnight

(12) Rack into secondary and fit airlock without topping up.
Wait 7 days
(13) Top up.
Wait a month

(14) Rack, top up and refit airlock
Wait a month

(14) Rack, top up and refit airlock
Wait a month

(14) Rack, top up and refit airlock
Wait a month

(15) When wine clears, wait one additional month

(16) rack, top up, refit airlock, and set aside for bulk aging.
Check water level in airlock monthly.
Wait 6 months
(17) Stabilize, wait 10 days

(18) rack if needed, sweeten to taste and bottle.

Do not drink for one year.

Notes
Lifted from http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/damson.asp
Adapted recipe from W.H.T. Tayleur's The Penguin Book of Home Brewing & Wine-Making

Update
Waiting on stage (2)

Elderberry Wine

Recipe
10 lbs fresh, ripe elderberries
1-3/4 lbs finely granulated sugar
4-1/2 to 5 pints water
1 tsp acid blend
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp pectic enzyme
Montrachet wine yeast

Method
(1) Wash, destem and inspect the berries for ripeness and soundness. Put berries in a stainless steel or enameled pot with 3/4 pound of sugar and half the water. Slowly bring to boil while stirring occasionally and turn off heat. Cover and set aside to cool to room temperature. Strain berries over primary through a nylon straining bag and hang bag over primary to drip drain for two hours. Very gently press pulp to extract a little more juice, but do not overdo this. Stir in remaining sugar and dry ingredients (except yeast) and stir well to dissolve. Add enough water to bring to one gallon and add yeast. Cover primary and wait for active fermentation. Ferment 2 weeks

(2) Siphon off sediments into secondary. Top up and fit airlock. Ferment two months

(3) Rack, top up, and refit airlock.

(4) Rack, top up, and refit airlock.

(5) Rack, top up, and refit airlock.

(6) Stabilize, wait 10 days

(7) Rack, sweeten to taste, and bottle. Age one year before tasting.

Notes
Adapted from Julius H. Fessler's Guidelines to Practical Winemaking
Lifted from http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/elderber.asp
That's quite a few elderberries and it took me two trips and 4 carrier bags to accumulate
It didn't help that the berries started fermenting in the pot whilst i was on the second trip!

Update
Stage (1) Fermentation period started 19/09
Please note i seem completely unable to respond to comments atm which imo is ridiculous.

Apple and Blackberry Pies

Recipe
Wild Blackberries
Wild or Garden Apples (Not crabs)
Sugar
Cloves
500g Pastry
Milk and castor (or granulated) sugar (for pastry glaze)

3 x Foil pie tins


Method
Preheat Oven to 200C.
Begin by making Shortcrust Pastry. If cheating (as i did ) by using pre-made then remove from refrigerator and leave aside for 35 minutes as per instructions. This'll give us time to do the other preperations.

Peel and core the apples. I just peel them then slice down each side to be left with square core.
Grind the cloves into a fine dust. The finer the grain the less bitty and more spread the clove flavour will be.

Roll out pastry and make the base for the first pie.
Now you may have noticed i haven't given quantities for things. This is because i haven't worked them out yet.
I simply took the apple slices and placed them in the pastry case neatly alligning them in a circle then stacking and kept doing that until they came just above the brim. Leave some gaps for blackberries
Now i took the blackberries and placed them on the apples in the gaps until they too came just above the brim.
I then shook the sugar over the top until it covered both apples and blackberries.
Finally i took a pinch of clove dust and spread very lightly over top/

Now make the pie top and place ontop. Press together seem.

Make steam holes all over.

Now repeat for remaining 2 pies.
Use remaining pastry for decorations on top.
brush milk then lightly shake sugar on pies

Place in oven and then turn down heat to 190 in ten minutes then leave for another 30 minutes.

Notes
This recipe was devised by me.
The blackberry juice did tend to leak out the bottom of the pie so when cooled on a rack and separated from the foil the underside of the pie was red with sticky juice, but to be honest that's how i like it!

Nettle Soup

Recipe
1 lb potatoes
½ lb young nettles
2 oz butter
1½ pts chicken or vegetable stock
sea salt & black pepper
4 tablespoons sour cream

MethodCook the peeled, chopped potatoes for 10 mins in salted water. Drain.
Wash & chop coarsely the nettles (Only pick the new, young tops,using gloves!)
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the nettles and stew gently for a few minutes. Add the potatoes and heated stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender.
When all is soft, cool slightly & purée in a blender, adding seasoning and the sour cream.

Notes
The recipe was taken from http://www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/activities/nettlesoup.asp
Its not the original one i used but can't find that right now and anyway this one looks close enough.
This is best made in late winter or spring time when the new nettle shoots are bursting up. The soup can be frozen too.

Honey Lemonade

Recipe
1 Cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Cup Honey
6 Cups Sparkling water
1 Cup ice cubes

Method
Mix the honey and lemon in a large bowl or bucket until they blend.
Gradually add the sparkling water and ice cubes.

Notes
The perfect summer drink.
I've also found it the best drink after a long days walk or cycle ride.

Elderflower Cordial

Recipe
20 elderflower heads
1 sliced lemon
2 tsp of citric acid (ask at your chemist)
1.5 kg (3.5 lbs) of sugar
1.2 ltr (2.5 pints) boiling water

Method
Pour the water over the ingredients and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Skin the surface of the water to get rid of the scum that can arise.
Cover with a cloth (mine has a pillow case over it).
Stir twice a day for five days.

Strain though a fine sieve though a fine sieve or through muslin cloth and decant into sterile screw topped bottles. Refrigerate.

As with other cordials dilute with 5 parts water to serve .  Experiment with it and add it to some of your favourite spirits. It is really nice as a gin mixer

Notes
This is a direct lift from http://www.selfsufficientish.com/elderflowercordial.htm

Blackberry Wine

Recipe
4 lb blackberries
3 lb granulated sugar
1 gallon water
Wine yeast and Nutrient

Method
(1)Pick fully ripe, best quality berries.
Wash thoroughly in colander, then crush in bowl, transfer to primary fermentation vessel, and add gallon of boiling water, mixing thoroughly.

When lukewarn (70 degrees F.), add yeast, cover, and set in warm (70-75 degrees F.) place 4-5 days, stirring daily.

(2)Strain throught very fine nylon sieve or double thickness of muslin onto sugar and nutrient.
Stir well to dissolve sugar and pour into secondary fermentation vessel of dark glass (or wrap clear glass with brown paper) to top of shoulder, and fit airlock.
Ferment excess liquor in appropriately sized bottle fitted with airlock or covered with plastic wrap held by rubber band.

(3)After all foaming has ceased (6-7 days), top up with excess liquor and place in cool (60-65 degrees F.) dark place for three months.

(4)Rack, allow another two months to finish

(5)Rack again and bottle in dark glass. Allow 6 months to age, a year to mature. [Adapted from C.J.J. Berry's 130 New Winemaking Recipes]

Notes
This recipe was taken from Jack Keller's page here.
This is my first attempt at making Blackberry wine and the first year of making any wine at all.

Spiced Wild Fruits Chutney

Recipe

1.5kg wild plums

500g cooking apples

2 oranges

200g Sultanas

200g Blackberries

1tsp ground ginger

1tsp ground cinnamon

300ml red wine vinegar

500g demerara sugar

Method:

Remove stones from plums

Peal, core and dice the apples

Grate the Peel from the oranges and squeeze their juice into a large pan.

Add the rest of the ingredients

Heat and stir until Sugar dissolved

Simmer until thick and syrupy

Place in sterilised preserving jars

Notes
This is a modified recipe from http://www.allotment.org.uk/recipe/1049/spiced-plum-chutney-recipe/
One reservation i have is that it does generate a rather sloppy chutney.
It may be better to add the bigger ingredients like the plums or Blackberries almost at the end so they hold their shape better.
To remove (pit) the stones from the wild plums i simply used brute force and pressed the fruit until it burst then fished out the stone.
You soon realise that if the fruit is not ripe the stone will take half the fruit with it but when ripe the stone will be dinstinctly separate.

Hawthorn Chutney

Recipe
2 lbs ( 900gms) ( 8 cups) of haw berries
3/4 lb ( 350 gms) (11/2 cups) brown sugar
1 pint ( 1/2 litres) of cider vinegar
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp of salt.
1/4 tsp spoon cloves
Plenty of fresh black pepper.
1/4 lb ( 115 gms) ( 1 cup) of dried fruit

Method
Remove any stalks and black ended berries
Wash berries and place in large saucepan.
Add vinegar and salt.
Bring to Boil and simmer for 1 hour.
Press pulp through sieve into another saucepan.
Add the remaining ingredients
Bring to the boil again stirring continuously.
Turn down heat slightly until mixture thickens.
Pour into jars and seal.

Notes
This is basically a compaction from http://earthlinksall.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/hawthorn-chutney-recipe/
I made this chutney late last year, giving it to my unsuspecting relatives at Christmas. They just rang me up saying they'd loved every drop of it and only just (August) finished it.

Plum Wine

Recipe3 1/2 lb Ripe wild plums
3lb Honey
1 Pack Yeast
1 Campden tablet
4.5 Litres boiling water
Method
(1)Wash plums and blend in blender (do in batches)
Place blended plums in bucket and add boiling water
Stir with wooden spoon.
Leave for ten days.

(2)Skim off any surface residue and mould carefully.
Strain using funnel and sieve or Muslin cloth into Demijohn
Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
Add yeast and give final stir.
Cork with Airlock
Leave until fermentation has completed.

(3)Skim off any surface residue
Strain again using mulsin cloth into bucket.
Add crushed Campden tablet
Decant into bottles.

(4)Ready in six months. Better after nine.

Notes
This is a modified recipe from http://grapestomper.com/recplum.html and their "Easy Plum Wine Recipe (one gallon recipe) " recipe.

Update
Now Bottled and (based on 6 months) will be ready by February.

Elderflower Champagne

Ingredients
8 litres water
1.25 kg sugar
8 large elderflower heads
4 Lemons
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Method
Boil the water and pour over the sugar to dissolve it.
Cool and add the elderflowers, the juice of two of the lemons, slices of the other two and the vinegar.
Cover with a cloth and leave for a day.
 
Strain with a muslin cloth, squeezing the flowers as you do to release more flavour.
Store in screw top bottles.
It will be ready in about 10 days to a fortnight and should be drunk within a month

Notes
This one really appealed to me because of its speed of maturity. Its now a week after when its drinkable and tastes delicious.

I used plastic bottles. The 2 litre spring water variety. They seem to hold the pressure though they must be done up tightly and they will bulge at both ends :p

Elderflower wine

Ingredients
Juice of one lemon
Grated rind of one lemon
1 Pint of elderflowers
8 pints boiling water
1.3kg sugar
25g (Half an ounce) live yeast

Method
(1)Put lemon rind with the elderflowers and pour boiling water over them.
Allow to stand for 4 days, stirring occasionally.

(2)Strain through a fine sieve or muslin cloth
Transfer to Demijohn together with sugar, lemon juice and yeast then stir and add airlock.
Keep at room temperature to ferment, try not to let it go down to 18c (65f)

(3)When you are sure all the bubbling has ceased, stir the wine and allow to settle for 3 days

(4)Strain again carefully through Muslin
Clean out/Sterilise Demijohn and put liquid back

(5)After 3 months maturing, transfer to bottles

Notes
I wanted to try my hand at making wine this year and since i wasn't adventurous enough to try nettle wine i turned to Elderflowers.

For the live yeast i got mine from J Sainsbury's. Apparently Tesco's also sell it. But this is uk only.

Update
This is maturing now, ready for bottling in October.

Crabapple Chutney

Ingredients
2 lbs crab apples
2/3 cup white vinegar
2 1/2 cups sugar (or Honey)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon ( i had run out , so substituted with Allspice)
juice of an orange
1 cup sultanas.

Method
Chip crab apples, combine all ingredients, just cover with water and simmer for an hour. Pour into hot sterilised jars.

Notes
After completely failing at trying to get jam to set i resigned at using Crab Apples for a spicey sweet chutney last year. I made around 10 kilner jars of the stuff.

This is not my own recipe. It was taken from the Green urban living website.
Its my sort of recipe though. The simplicity of chucking it all in a pot is perfect!

Chipping crabapple is my way of removing the core. I take the crab apple and thoroughly wash it in plain water. I then locate the core and cut off the four sides. You could do something good with the cores but i just chucked them.

Update
I still have loads of the stuff from a year ago so not making anymore just yet.