Elderflower Fizz with Crème de Cassis

2012 vintage

I love this time of year when you can gather up stuff growing in a hedgerow and make booze. It's always interesting and exciting waiting to see if it turns out.

I made elderflower champagne two years ago and I still have some. It's really delicious. Light, sparkling and fantastic on a hot day to mix with other drinks, particularly Crème de Cassis.

The best purchase I ever made though are the correct bottles. (See picture). You can either save these, usually lemonade comes in them or buy in Ikea or from an on line home brew company. They keep the fizz in and prevent souring or moulding.

Recipe
20 elder flower heads
500g sugar
100ml white grape juice
2 lemons
4.6 litres of cooled boiled water
1 x 5g sachet of champagne yeast (optional)

Gather up the elder flowers when in full bloom and in the morning when the sun is shining. If you gather late in day or in dull or wet weather they give off a strong whiff of cat pee.

You need about 20 with as much of the stem/stalk removed as possible. Stalks give a bitter after taste. Use a fork or a sharp scissors to remove the flowers.

Put them in a large cleaned and sterilised bucket with a lid.

Add half the sugar and stir it around the elder flowers. Leave lightly covered with lid for a few hours. This gets the smell and flavour to imprint on the sugar.

Add the cooled boiled water (cooled to body temperature or until you can comfortably hold your finger in it), juice from the lemons and the lemon skins, the remaining sugar and the white grape juice. Give the whole thing a good stir to dissolve the sugar. Lightly cover with lid to prevent dust and moulds falling in and put somewhere cool overnight.

Next day put about a teaspoon of the yeast into the mix and stir well. I find it's better not to add the whole sachet but you can if you wish. It just means it will be more alcoholic.

Leave in the bucket for a week stirring every day. At this point you can either transfer by straining the liquid through a double layer of muslin to a demi-john with a bubble trap and continue fermentation in it. I didn't do this as I hadn't got one two years ago. I just put it into the spring top bottles and every few days opened them cautiously to release some of the carbon dioxide. If you don't do this you may have explosions.

You need to do this religiously every few days for a few weeks or until you get less of a violent reaction and the bubbles do not rise with quite such ferocity to top. At this point you can transfer to a cool dark garage or unheated room to leave it to continue fermenting.

(If you ferment in a demi-john transfer to bottles by straining though muslin again or siphon into bottles when the bubbles in the bubble trap have slowed right down).

Every method or recipe I read said it doesn't keep. I made the one pictured in 2012 and it had no champagne yeast in it. I can tell you it does. And it tastes a lot better now than when I first made it. I think the secret is to have the right bottles and to ensure everything you use is clean and sterilised.

I serve it chilled with some of my homemade crème de cassis. But it's also lovely on it's own.

Crème de Groseille Rouge. (Redcurrant Liquour) and Christmas Jelly

Served here with elderflower champagne

Last July I was overwhelmed with soft fruit ripening rapidly in my garden and was to the pin of my collar trying to both pick it and figure out what to do with it (apart from the usual).

I wrote about it here. So now the time has come to finish off this glorious redcurrant creation.

I have had several reports from other people who have already completed theirs and are beginning to enjoy it. To be honest I had completely forgotten about mine.

So I poured the vodka with the redcurrants into a large bowl and gave them a good mash with a potato masher. I have seen some recipes advising using a food processor to blitz them.

Put a muslin cloth in a colander and balance it over a suitable container (alternatively you could use a jelly bag).  Pour the mash into it and leave it to drip through. Give it a gentle push from time to time. After it has all dripped through pour it back into a clean jug.

Make a sugar syrup. I used 400g sugar and 200g water (In the other recipe it says 300g but I felt it needed slightly more). Simmer it until sugar is dissolved and it becomes syrupy. Allow it to cool slightly and pour into the redcurrant liquour. Give it a good stir and transfer to clean sterilised glass bottles.  Allow to mature for as long as you have patience.  It will improve with age.

(It is pictured here served with elderflower champagne I made in 2011 and it was really delicious).

Christmas Jelly

I was then left with a big pot of both spent redcurrants and blackcurrants from making cassis. They were plumped up with vodka and it seemed like a crying shame to just dump them. So I made a Christmas jelly with them.  Bear with me as this recipe was an experiment and the quantities I had may not be the same as you may have, but both berries contain a lot of pectin so it will set.

I had 475g spent redcurrants and 895g spent blackcurrants. I added 500ml of water along with two star anise, a cinnamon stick, a few cloves and a few juniper berries.  I simmered it until the fruit was soft and pulpy. Cool it and transfer to your muslin set up again. This time allow it to drip through overnight. Don't be tempted to push it through or it will become cloudy.

Next day I measured the liquid (actually it had already turned to a jelly). It was about 500ml so I added another 200ml water. I heated it and then added 250g sugar and brought it to a rapid boil. I tested it after a few minutes and it had reached a set. I then transferred it to clean sterilised warm jars.

This jelly will be delicious served in place of cranberry sauce with turkey for Christmas. Or it could be used to add to a jus to be served with game.