Today I’m celebrating on my domestic skills.
Make these – you wont be disappointed.
1 – Sloe Gin (A Sloe is the fruit of Prunus Spinosa for those of you not from the UK, you need to collect these late Sept through Oct depending on season)
Ingredients
450g/1lb sloes
225g/8oz caster sugar
1 litre/1¾ pint cheap gin
Method
1. Wash Sloes and prick skin of the sloe once or twice (I use a toothpick)
2. Add the sloes, sugar and the gin to bottles in proportion depending on number of Gin Bottles you have.
3. Store in a cool, dark cupboard and shake every now and again (more in the first week).
4. By Xmas should be ready to drink, but see if you can keep a bottle to the following year.
2 – Stem ginger biscuits (original recipe from from ‘Venus’ in Australia)
4 oz (approx 100 g) butter
2 tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoons) golden syrup
1 oz (approx 25 g) sugar
2 oz (approx 50 g) stem ginger
6 oz (approx 150 g) self-raising flour
1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) ground ginger (actually I just whacked in the remains of the jar which was probably at least twice this amount)
Chop the stem ginger into generous chunks (about the size of pinky fingernail).
Put butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved. Remove from heat.
Stir in the flour, ground ginger and chopped stem ginger. Mix thoroughly. It makes a greasy roux like mixture that leaves the sides of the pan clean.
Roll out blobs of the mixture into a ball in palm of hand and press onto a greased baking tray, allow room for the biscuits to spread as they cook. I made 12 out of the mixture.
Bake at about 180 C (approx 375 F) for about 15 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown and set.
Remove from the tray and cool on a wire rack.
Don’t worry about storage, they wont last that long.
Eat, Drink and be Merry.
Sean.
