Miss Foodwise

Celebrating British food and Culture

Drinks

We shall drink Lambswool on the Twelfth Night

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Although I was brought up with a lot of Pagan traditions, living in the city of Antwerp meant that some customs were harder to follow than others. As city dwellers far removed from any orchard or field, we were ignorant to the traditional rites surrounding harvest and sowing time. If there is no nature to honour, no field to gather around the cleansing fire, the feasting quickly becomes part of the past and forgotten.

Industrialisation has brought us wealth and the choice of matching shoes with handbags on a regular tuesday morning. It has brought the technical bits and bobs we all love and loathe. The big world has become smaller and the challenges bigger. The lucky few still live outside of the ever growing concrete cities. We follow their lives on Instagram with a sense of nostalgia, as if we have ever experienced living surrounded by trees and liberating fields and forests, and then tragically lost it.

But that is what it is, we have lost something, and most of us can feel it. There have never been more depressed people, nor have there ever been more people who are unhealthy because of their eating habits, eating too much rather than starving, but malnourished nonetheless. Our daily bread is soiled with adulteration, slowly making us ill. Animals are kept away from fields and live their ever shortening lives on the concrete floors of factory farms to keep the cost of your daily need low, fruit is left on the trees to rot because farmers can’t afford to harvest it, the price a farmer gets for his milk hasn’t gone up in 20 years (based on Belgian farms) so milk is being sprayed onto the soil of the farmland where the cows can no longer roam freely because of bureaucratic nonsense about fertilizer. Small scale generation long fishermen turn their boats into flower beds because the fishing quotas set out to protect fish stocks have made it so that only the big destructive factory fishing vessels can make a living, scooping up the fish only for part of it to be actually consumed and the rest turned into animal feed because their nets just catch too much for it all to be sold and cooked by us humans. The fisherman that could have made his day by catching one Dover Sole, now has to trow it back, while the big monsters take and take and kill the sustainable fishing industry.

We got lost as humans, because we lost part of our human nature.

Let today be an Epiphany.

The Epiphany is the Christian feast that concludes the twelve days of Christmas. In Pre-Christian pagan traditions this marks the time for Wassail. The practice of ‘wassailing’ meant singing and drinking in the apple orchards on the Twelfth Night to awaken the trees, to warn of the evil spirits and pray for a good harvest in the autumn. It could be that the feast of Wassail comes from the Celtic festival called ‘La Mas Ubhail’, the Feast of the Apple. Wassail comes from ‘waes hael’ meaning ‘be thou healthy’ or ‘be whole’, a salutation in Old English. During the feast these words would be addressed to each other and to the oldest apple tree in the orchard.
A drink traditional to Wassail is called ‘Lambswool’ and it is very possible that ‘La Mas Ubhail’ got phonetically Anglicised, to ‘Lamasool’ and later ‘Lambswool’. In historical books we often see that a lot of words were written down phonetically, resulting in a number of different ways to note down one single word.

Robert Herrick, a mid 17th century poet mentioned the custom of Wassailing and Lambswool in his poem about about Twelfth Night, we also get an idea of the recipe too:

Next crown the bowl full  With gentle lamb’s wool  Add sugar, nutmeg and ginger,  With store of ale too;  And thus ye must do  To make a wassail a swinger

Give then to the king And queen wassailing : And though with ale ye be whet here, Yet part from hence As free from offence As when ye innocent met here. 

 

The drink Lambswool is a mulled ale, poured over hot apple puree, although some people swear by whole apples, or apple pieces cooked in spiced cider or ale. However, as far as a drink goes, you can’t swallow a whole apple, nor can you swallow apple pieces so it is most probable that the recipe containing whole apples is just derived from the recipe made with apple puree. It is possible that the soft puree resembled a lambs fleece to people in the old days, resulting in giving it the name of what they associated it with, lambs wool.
Another reason for thinking that an apple puree was used it that this is the end of the season, so the apples which are left in times before refrigeration and fancy techniques to keep fruit from ripening, would not have been the prettiest of the bunch. An hot and spiced apple puree fortified with ale would be warming on a january evening, and would allow people to prepare it in a kettle rather than an oven which is used for the recipe with whole apples. Remember this is a country dish and ovens were a privilege for the well-to-do. But the sugar in the dish also tells us this wasn’t a drink for the poor, it could have been a special treat from the lord of the manor, or from the farmer to his farm labourers.

 

Last year I spoke to you about the intriguing Twelfth Cake, a fruit cake elaborately decorated with sugar or wax figurines which was also a privilege for the well-to-do. This cake, which is also mentioned by Herrick in his poem also started of as a humble ‘plum cake’ for the feast of Wassail. City folk picked up on it and adjusted the cake to their festive needs, making it the centrepiece of the table and causing queues in front of bakeries. Because it became popular in the city and with the wealthy, we get our first recipe for it in a 1803 book. A recipe for Lambswool is more difficult to find, as the drink remained in the countryside. So judging from the poem of Robert Herrick, I came up with this recipe for you.

Lambswool

serves 6-8

What do you need

  • Bramley or Cox stewing apples, 500 gr (peeled and cored about 300 gr)
  • water, 100 ml
  • sugar 100 gr
  • freshly grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon
  • ginger powder, 1 teaspoon
  • a good ale, 750 ml

Method 
Peel and cut your apples in small pieces and place in a pot along with 100 ml of water and the sugar and spices. Stew until soft and puree so there are no bits left.
When ready to serve, heat up the apple puree and add the ale while whisking. You should get a nice froth while doing so. Serve at ones.

 

Are you celebrating the Twelfth Night? Or are you having a slice of King cake, galette Du Roi or Driekoningen taart? Or are you wassailing and drinking Lambswool?

Ancient apple trees in Sussex

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Twelfth Cake for Twelfth Night >

To make Ypocras

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And then it is suddenly christmas again… it seems only yesterday that it was september and now we are only moments away from januari. It will be march in the blink of an eye and when it’s august you will be wondering where those months have gone to.
When you are a child, the days seem to drag on like weeks and the weeks like months but when you are all grown up… you wonder where that hour of free time went to and when you are finally able to start reading that book you’ve got to read in the summer.

To warm your spirits after the last busy weeks of the year 2013, a year that has brought me excitement, friendship and a new venture of which I will tell you all about very soon – I had mulled wine on my mind.
The sweet scent of the warm wine and spices always transport me back to the christmas markets in Aachen. My parents and I would drive to Germany especially for it each year. Even from a young age I would be allowed half a cup of mulled wine to warm my hands and to bring a rosy blush to my ice cold cheeks. It was one of the highlights of my year, to take in the different scents in the air, the aniseed of the artisan candy being made, the greasy smell of Reibekuchen, the aroma of spices blended with chocolate from the Aachener Printen biscuits and the mulled wine and rum.

Sometimes the very unlikely of foods and drink can be the ones that have been around for centuries and some recipes never changed very much.
Mulled wine or ypocras as its name was for centuries, has been around since the Middle Ages but mulled spirits pre-date Medieval times. I found a recipe for a fine spiced wine in a Roman cookery book that looks a lot like the recipe for ypocras. It is commonly thought that the drink is named after the Greek physician Hippocrates, however this is not so. It is more likely that ypocras has this name because the herbs and spices were strained through a conical filter bag known as a Manicum Hippocraticum – sleeve of Hippocrates. The Old French name for Hippocrates was ypocrate which explains the etymology of the Middle English name ypocras, hipocras, ipocras, ippocras, hvpocras, hvppocra, and many more variations.

The spice mixture for ypocras was known as ‘Gyle’ and usually contained cinnamon, grains of paradise, long pepper and cardamom pods. These spices were bruised with a pestle and mortar and then left to steep in the red or white wine overnight or possibly even longer to soak up all the flavours.
One can assume that ypocras was used for medicinal purposes rather than for feasting as in recipes it is often mentioned as the perfect tipple after dinner to aid digestion. The oldest recipes therefore include many more herbs which will have given the spiced drink more of a cough syrup flavour than the enjoyable winter warmer we know today.
The first English recipe for Ipocras dates from approximately 1390 and goes as follows:

Pur fait Ypocras,
Treys Unces de canell. Et iij unces de gyngener. spykenard de Spayn le pays dun deneres. garyngale. clowes,  gylofre. poivr long,  noiez mugadez. maziozame cardemonij de chescun i.qrt douce grayne de paradys flour de queynel de chescun dimid unce de toutes. soit fait powdour and serve it forth.

The recipe is more a list of ingredients and assumes the cook knows the proportions and that a red or white wine is to be used. Sugar was a precious ingredient and only for the lord and master so Ypocras would only contain sugar in the wealthy homes while the common folk sweetened their drink with honey.

Ypocras was common enough to be mentioned in literature as Chaucer wrote In his Merchant’s tale in the 14th century “He drynketh Ypocras, Clarree and Vernage Of spices hoote t’encreessen his corage.”  and John Russell’s The Boke of Nurture even contains a ypocras recipe in verse.

Through history we find a vast amount of recipes for this spiced drink, but not only for the spiced wine. Before hops were being used in beer, there was a mixture of herbs known as the ‘Gruut’ that was used to flavour and preserve the beer. Mankind has always been searching for flavourings to tinkle the taste buts.

After the 16th century recipes become more richer including more sugar, oranges, lemons, almonds and apples. My recipe uses cinnamon, cloves, long pepper, nutmeg and clementine juice with a few tablespoons of home made sloe gin. I used raw cane sugar which worked rather well instead of white loaf sugar.
Sometimes I will add marjoram and cardamom like in the first recipe but because of the marjoram it started to taste rather savoury. It is still very pleasant and not a flavour you’d expect in a mulled wine so it is a definite option to add it if you want something different. The long pepper added enough spice so I didn’t need to use the dreaded ginger but if you are a ginger lover, feel free to add it as you please. I would have loved to add Grains of paradise but I had no way of getting my hands on them.

 

Regula Ypocras

What do you need

  • 2 bottles of red wine, not your cheapest, not your most expensive.
  • 4 buds of long pepper, crushed – email me if you can’t find it, I know where you can get it.
  • 5 cloves1 fresh bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon of grated nutmeg, freshly grated please
  • 1 stick of cinnamon
  • 100 g raw cane sugar
  • the peel and juice of 1 clementine
  • 3 tablespoons of sloe gin, or cherry brandy, you can omit this

Optional

  • 1 sprig of marjoram
  • 1 pod of cardamom, bruised

Method
heat up 200 ml of red wine with the sugar and the spices, juice and peel until it dissolves, boil for 10 minutes and then simmer for 5 more. Add the marjoram if you are using it and leave to cool, when nearly cold or cold, add the rest of the wine and the sloe gin and leave to take up those lovely flavours overnight. You can even freeze the wine and spice mixture before adding the rest of the wine.
Strain, bottle and keep in the fridge until needed then gently heat up before use – don’t allow it to boil or you will loose the alcohol and we won’t want that.

 

You might also enjoy
Raspberry vinegar >
Sloe Gin >
Damson cheese >
Cobnut Brandy >

 

Nourishing Stout and Oat Drink

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My mother always told me she and my grandmother loved drinking a Trappist beer when they were breastfeeding, she said that it was nurturing for new moms and that in the old days the nurses would actually bring a beer to the mothers to stimulate the lactation process.
But it isn’t just a myth, if a nursing mother drinks a good old pint of beer, the yeast and hops in it will help increase her milk supply. Hops are also calming, so good for the new mom. Brewers yeast is also taken as a supplement to boost the milk supply by mothers who do not enjoy the taste of a lovely beer.

Trappist is a Belgian beer but I think Stout is the prefect beer for this recipe as I’ve heard stories about mothers receiving a Stout when they have given birth, a Nourishing Stout would have been better but sadly those haven’t been brewed commercially for decades. Milk Stout is called that way because it used to contain lactose, a sugar derived from milk. Lactose doesn’t only add sweetness to the beer, it also adds calories which is why together with the yeast and hops in the beer it was given to lactating mothers. Although Milk and Nourishing Stouts only became popular after the First World War, the usage of lactose and the mentioning or illustrating of it on the beer labels was forbidden after the Second World War due to rationing.

The only surviving Milk Stout is Mackeson’s, I came across it by accident when I was at Tesco’s a few months ago, the can still shows a milk churn that has been Mackeson’s trademark since it was first brewed in 1907 at the Mackeson’s brewery in Hythe, Kent. Mackeson’s is now brewed by InBev so I doubt that there is still any lactose in the beer today.

As I am creating this concoction for my friend and fellow blogger Zita who gave birth to a healthy little boy a few hours ago, I am going to make it as nutritious as I
can.

Now luckily I know Zita does like an occasional beer so I’m not
bringing her anything she wouldn’t like to drink. I am including a way to remove the alcohol from the beer in the recipe, so it is ‘safe’ to drink for those who are worried about getting their newborn drunk. This drink isn’t
solely for nursing mothers, it is also for the dad, the friend, the guy
in the street and the health food lover. It is packed with nutrition.

To go with the Stout I’m making my own Oat milk.
Oats have a low glycemic index, which can help to regulate blood sugar
levels and make you feel fuller for longer. They also contain lots of vitamins,
minerals and antioxidants, are a good source of protein and complex carbohydrates.
You can use 3 types of oats for this recipe, the groats which are the oat kernels with the hulls removed, rolled
oats which are steamed groats that have been rolled out and flattened and steel
cut oats which are the oat groats chopped up. Steel cut oats are therefore the
best choice as they contain more of their original nutrients but they are not as easy to find as rolled oats.

To break down the phytic acid content which makes the oats more digestible and reduce anti-nutrients so your body can soak up a lot more of the nutrients, I soaked the oats with cider vinegar. You can also use live yoghurt as lactic acid fermentation.

This drink is for all those who love Stout, if you don’t care for Stout I don’t recommend you try this drink as it is quite bitter. The bitter Stout works perfectly with the sweet oats, and even has notes of a coffee with lots of milk.

Before you skip to my recipe, have a look at our feast for Zita!
Maybe you remember the Virtual baby shower we did last summer, today were are back with a whole new table of food, follow the links to the blogs to read the other ladies recipes:

Our Menu
Giulia: Scarpaccia
Regula: Nourishing Stout & Oat Drink
Beth: Moghrabieh Salad with Preserved Lemon and Coriander Pesto
Jasmine: Whole Wheat Flour Cocoa Cookies
Artemis: Kasopita – Cheese Pie from Εpirus
Sarka: Kiwi Carpaccio with Pecans and Manuka Honey
Emiko: Ricotta and Dark Chocolate Cake 
Sneige: Pomegranate Curd with Seedy Pine Nut Crust 
Simone: Pistache Raspberry Cakes
Karin: Fresh Pea Souffle with Goat Cheese

Nourishing Stout and oat drink

What do you need

Start the evening before, or in the morning.
To prepare the oats:

  • Steel cut or Rolled oats, 1 cup (you can use the groats if you can find them)
  • apple cider vinegar (or live yoghurt), 1 teaspoon
  • water, 2 cups

For the drink:

  • water, 2 cups
  • 1 date, stoned (2 if you like it sweeter) and cut finely
  • Stout or Guinness, 1 cup
  • a fine sieve
  • a blender or food processor

Method

  • Combine the oats, cider vinegar (or yoghurt) and water in a bowl, cover loosely and leave  to soak for at least 8 hours.

8 hours later …

 

  • Drain your oats by straining them through a fine sieve, discard the soaking water
  • Rinse the oats gently to remove the starch
  • Put the oats and the date into the food processor (I used my Vitamix) and blend

To make this drink with alcohol free stout:

  • add one cup of stout to a small saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for 5 minutes then let it cool. (the drink will taste less bitter with this method)
  • Add two cups of water and one cup of stout and blend again until creamy
  • At this point you can strain your oat milk through a fine sieve again to remove any of the oats, I choose not to, to keep the drink smooth and a little thicker. Discarding the oats is trowing away nutritious food.
  • If you want to strain, you can keep the leftover oats to make cake or pancakes.

Leave the drink to rest for 30 minutes – 1 hour before use

Enjoy!

You might also like
Strawberry and Pimm’s Granita
Drunken cherries 
Cobnut Brandy
Sloe Gin

Cobnut brandy to wet the baby’s head

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We are a bunch of friends, food bloggers and one of them is becoming a mom at christmas time. Much like our Food Revolution Potluck in the summer, we decided to do a Virtual baby shower for Emiko, our dear friend who moved all the way to Australia last year. We all see each as often as we can, even if we do live in different countries and continents, this virtual baby potluck was plotted in the bedroom of an Umbrian casale on one of our foodie get togethers last month. After those first talks before going to sleep, the plotting started via email, getting all excited imagining her pretty face when she finds out we’ve been planning this surprise. 
Our friendship lasts through our never ending conversation on twitter, facebook, instagram and very long emails… yet far away, we are always close…
Emiko’s blog was the first food blog I started to follow back in 2011 and the first food blogger I ever talked with when I first got on the mighty twitter.
She is one of the kindest people I know and I wish her and her husband Marco all the happiness in the world with their gorgeous little daughter end of december.

I bring to Emiko’s baby potluck a home made cobnut or hazelnut brandy for Marco, the dad to be.
It is tradition in Britain for the fathers to ‘wet the babies head‘ when their child is born. As much as it is often an excuse to get drunk, it is also part of a drinking culture that has been around for centuries. To ‘wet’ or to ‘whet’ the babies head refers to baptism, however in pagan Britain a newborn baby would most likely be celebrated with a drink… or two, or three.
Not only will there be a drink for the dad, there will be a Birthday sponge cake by Giulia, Vegan pumpkin cookies by Zita, Frollini di riso by Jasmine, Gingerbread banana muffins by Valeria, La Belle Helene by Karin, soft cheesecake by Rosella and Savory mini tartlets by Sarka. 

May you always walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings
beside your nursery door
Irish blessing for a newborn baby

Cobnut brandy

What do you need
• 500ml jar
• 1 cup golden cobnuts*, shelled and chopped (you can use hazelnuts)
• 2 tablespoons of molasses (or cane sugar)
• just under 500 ml vodka or Eau de vie

Method
Put the chopped cobnuts in a jar and add the sugar, pour over the brandy and close the lid.
Put in a dark place and shake the jar every day morning and evening for a week.
After a week, shake the jar ones a day for a week.
I the sugar is dissolved you can leave your brandy to ripen for a minimum of 2 months.
Why not save it for a special occasion, in this case a 16th birthday?

When you are ready to use the brandy
Strain the brandy with a cheesecloth and discard the nuts
You might need to do this twice depending on how long you have been saving the brandy.
Bottle and use, or leave to mature!

Bottoms up for the newborn!
Cheers Marco and Emiko!

You might also like: 
Drunken cherries
Sloe Gin

*More about cobnuts here >

I had my mind set on Sloe Gin

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I had sloes on my mind the last two times we drove up to Kent…
On both occasions I went home without them…
My eyes were on honesty boxes by the road, people selling produce from their garden at car boot sales and little blue-ish dots in the trees we drove passed.
The location of sloe trees is a well guarded secret of those who have discovered them on foraging trips. This makes them even more mysterious to me, I just had to have some sloes. I heard stories saying the native British sloe is so very rare it only grows from ancient trees. They look like black olives, and like olives best not eaten straight from the tree. Sloes are very tart and mostly used to make jams to accompany cheese and for making sloe gin…

The
sloe or ‘Prunus Spinosa’ is a berry from the blackthorn. Sloes or blackthorns were planted
around the countryside in the 16th and 17th century as hedges around the
fields to keep the cattle in. The word ‘sloe’
comes from the Old English slāh, in Old High German slēha and in Middle Dutch sleuuwe.
Traditionally when making sloe gin,
the berries must be gathered after the first frost and one must prick
each berry with a thorn taken from the blackthorn bush. Sloe gin is made
by infusing gin with the berries. Sugar is required to ensure the
juices are extracted from the fruit. Some swear by freezing the berries
before use.

But I had no sloes…
Until a lovely lady offered to send me some of the sloes she had gathered to maker her own boozy preserves. I must say I was quite nervous for them to arrive as they are after all perishable. Luckily they weren’t reduced to jam and I was able to use them thanks to Claire who froze them for the journey. That same day the sloes would be drowned by Gin…

It is so easy to make, the hard part is keeping yourself from opening it too soon to drink it. I’ve been told a ten year old sloe gin has a wonderful flavour… so I decided to hide a bottle from myself so I can actually try it. I think I might put it behind my 8 year old cherry brandy I was able to save.

 

To Make you own sloe gin!

What do you need

500g ripe sloes
250g sugar
1 litre of Gin, I used No.3 London Dry Gin

Method

  • Prick the sloes with a thorn from the tree or a toothpick
  • Put them in a suitably sized Kilner or jam jar
  • Pour over the
    sugar and the gin
  • Close the lid
  • Shake and shake every day until the sugar
    has dissolved
  • Store in a dark cupboard

After 3 months

  •  Strain out the sloes using muslin, bottle and store in a dark
    cupboard
  • Try to wait 1 to 10 + years before opening a bottle.Thank you Claire for the sloes, I will drink to your health when I open a bottle!

You might also like
Cherry brandy
Raspberry vinegar

Drunken cherries – make your own cherry brandy

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Preserving cherries for later, for generations to come.

“My top way of eating cherries is a bowl of cherries. If good, they need no adornment, other than perhaps a glass of pink champagne.”
Fergus Henderson.

Before the second world war there were about 40 000 acres of cherry orchards in Britain. These were mainly in Kent, Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
The past 50 years however 90 % of these cherry orchards have disappeared.
The labour was very intensive as the trees were very high, too high to cover the crop from the birds. I were mostly women who harvested the cherries on high ladders with baskets tied to their waists.
To tackle this problem nowadays and to revive cherry growing, dwarf plants are planted to replace the towering trees. The dwarf trees are covered with netting so the birds can’t steal the crop and the orchard has a maximum yield.

The people from Food Lovers Britain have started ‘CherryAid’, a campaign to point out to the supermarkets and consumers that the British cherry needs our attention and preservation. Since the campaign started most of Britain’s biggest supermarkets like M&S and Tesco are selling British cherries and Waitrose has stated that imported cherries will be phased out completely for the five week the British cherry season.
So it’s fair to say, British cherries are on their way of being saved for future generations.

Britain however is not the only country in danger of loosing their native fruit, in Belgium you can’t even get Belgian cherries in the supermarket. You find them rarely at the market. A lot of cherry growers in Belgium leave their crop rot on the trees because it’s too expensive to pick them for the price they will get for them. Such a shame that the most famous ‘Schaerbeekse cherry’ has been lost for ever, this was the variety used for the typical Belgian cherry beer. Instead of finding another Belgian cherry, most of the breweries choose to import the cherries from Poland. Only a small number of cherries used for the beer today are Belgian.

Most of you will try and buy ‘local’ or British cherries, I’m sure.
I love how the cherry season transforms the roads of Kent with cherry
signs and little stalls packed with punnets of cherries. The sellers
sitting there, usually seeking shelter from wind and rain under a bright
umbrella, reading a book.

Below some interesting links to explore:
Brogdale farm has an annual Cherry festival celebrating the British cherry and
Food Lovers Britain – ‘CherryAid’ a campaign to put British cherries back on the map.
Great British Food Revival Cherries and Walnuts
Rent a cherry tree

Cherries come in two types: sweet and sour. My mum and I used to make this cherry brandy and the recipe is handed down by my grandmother. For cherry brandy it’s better to use the sour variety however you can use the sweet ones and slightly decrease the sugar you use. Or not, if you like it very sweet!
So what about you? What do you like to brew?

What do you need
cherries: 1kg
Eau de vie or Vodka: 1liter
sugar: 300 g
sterilised jars

Method
• rinse the cherries well
• cut of the stalks leaving 1cm still on the cherry, that way the brandy will keep longer as
the cherries stay nice and firm.
• layer the cherries with the sugar
• pour over the alcohol and close the jar
• put in a dark place at room temperature and shake every day for a week
• forget about the cherries until christmas or thanksgiving!

I have jars that date back to 1999, these cherries are very very strong!
Enjoy in a little glass or why not with a scoop of ice cream…

You might also like
Strawberry and Pimm’s granita drink
Blaeberry pie


Please leave a comment, I love reading them!

Strawberry and Pimm's granita – summer has arrived

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Has summer finally found its way to my garden?
It surely looked that way the last two days. This might have been the wettest and most gloomy june in years. I started my two weeks at home sitting by the window, watching the rain pour down and reading my new cook book.
At times it almost felt like christmas break, when temperatures dropped and I tucked myself in a blanket to keep warm, drinking my Earl grey… warming my hands on the teacup.

In the kitchen, I craved for succulent roast beef, rich chocolate cake and full bodied red wine.

Then summer came on wednesday…
The menu in the kitchen changed again, the blanket became the cats territory and my Oxford Uni jumper gave way to summer dresses.

All I needed was a drink to enjoy in my garden… which looks a lot more like a meadow as I haven’t mowed the lawn in months.
As Pimm’s is my favourite cocktail as a true Britain lover, my choice was made!

As I write this, I am on my way to sunny Tuscany. I will be enjoying beautiful food and views with foodie friends. I can not wait. But what I most enjoy is having time… to live, create and grow.

Time is precious.
Enjoy every minute…
why not enjoy it with this Stawberry and Pimm’s Granita in your hand!

Happy summer darlings!

*This is not a sponsored post, I just love Pimm’s

what do you need (for 4 servings)
1 kg strawberries
4 shot glasses Pimm’s (or more if you want it stronger!)
2 teaspoons of Pimm’s
2 teaspoons of sugar
a few sprigs of mint

method
– slice the strawberries and cover with the sugar and the 2 teaspoons of Pimm’s
– crush the strawberries, cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes
– liquidize the fruit 
– pour the strawberry juice in a wide shallow container
– put into the freezer and leave for 60 minutes
– scrape the now almost frozen juice loose and mix with the unfrozen parts
– put back into the freezer for 30 minutes and repeat until the granita is frozen and fluffy.

When ready
– serve in a wide glass
– scoop granita into the glasses
– add the Pimm’s
– decorate with fresh mint

It’s Pimm’s O’ clock! 
Happy summer 
x

You might also like:
Union Jack sandwich cake for queenie >


Please leave a comment, they make me smile x

Blackadder Whisky tasting

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My dad loves Whisky so when he turned 60 I wanted to do something with him that he would really enjoy. When I found out there was a tasting with Robin Tucek from Blackadder in Antwerp, my choice was made.

Blackadder was originally founded by Robin Tucek and John Lamond who you may know as the authors of the popular whisky book “The Malt Whisky File: The Essential Guide for the Malt Whisky Connoisseur”. John Lamond ceased to be part of the company by the end of 1999

Blackadder believes in bottling only whiskies that are completely natural.
Robin’s challenge, is to select and bottle only individual casks as naturally as possible. To ensure this they only give their whiskies a light filtration to remove any cask particles that may otherwise get into the bottle. Blackadder Raw Cask whiskies, however, are completely unfiltered. Whisky with the bits still in it as Robin referred to it.

All Blackadder whiskies are single cask bottlings. This also applies to whiskies bottled under all Blackadder International labels such as; Aberdeen Distillers, Clydesdale Original and Caledonian Connections whiskies.

“Cask is King.”
Each cask is chosen to represent one of the very best examples of its type and age. No two casks of whisky are ever completely alike, because the type of oak used and the conditions under which it is stored will both influence the ultimate spirit produced.

My favourite!

We had the pleasure this evening to taste 6 beautiful Whiskies:
Aberlour, my personal favourite. An 18 year old Whisky by Clydesdale at 60,3%
Tamdhu, 1987 by Blackadder at 49,3%
Amrut, by Blackadder at 62% amazingly made from Barley grown in the Himalaya.
Clynelish, 19 year old Whisky by Riverstown at 67%
A drop of the Irish, 10 years old by Blackadder at 46%
Smoking Islay, by Blackadder

I can tell you how they all tasted to me but as Robin pointed out, everyone will experience the taste differently. What I can tell you is that I didn’t fancy Whisky much before this evening, but now I do! I’m still thinking about the sweet and full taste of coffee and chocolate when I wetted my lips with the first Whisky and how much it tasted like Crème Brullee and tobacco when I added a drop of water …

Robin Tucek

Robin Tucek was a pleasant speaker and really taught me to enjoy and taste Whisky instead of just drinking it. I got talking to him after, he’s a guy with standards and principals about food and drink, very much like my own.


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