sloe gin - it's not always about food you know

In August, whilst on holiday in Cornwall, my family and I spent a damp miserable afternoon wandering the countryside harvesting some wonderful sloe berries. On our return I set to work with a little sugar and a bottle of gin.

The recipe I had asked for the sloes to be patiently pricked to release their juices during the soaking process, sorry this seems far too much like hard work for my liking so set to thinking of an alternative (lazy) way of achieving the same result, so I thought - freeze!! the water in the berry should expand and break the skin, so I set to lobbing a bag of berries in the freezer and doing nothing for a couple of days, when I took them out of the freezer I was amazed!!! Absolutely no damage to the berry at all, bother!

Still not having too much time on my hands, and even less inclination to spend the time pricking little holes in a never ending supply of sloes, I allowed them to defrost, the fruits felt very much softer and decided to gamble that it would be enough, I mixed my sugar and gin, put my sloes in an old sterilised martini bottle and poured the liquid on, 1st week in September religiously, weekly I shook the bottle, allowing myself the occasional peek (was a Rossi bottle so coloured anyway) and by mid November started to get concerned at the lack of colour.

About this time my wife developed pneumonia, and life got a little hectic, with 4 kids needing sorting, work that was getting busier week by week and Christmas preparations increasing, it felt, by the moment.

I had originally hoped for it as an aperitif for Xmas day itself, but since the aforementioned time, forgotten and neglected it has sat in my cupboard since, until today when I was rooting for something completely different, there it sat patiently waiting for some attention, I got it out, not without a small sense of trepidation, I might add. And thankfully upon pouring found the light Rose colour shown in the photo above. With great depth of flavour, lucky me.

I am sure that had I pricked them then the colour would have been richer, but hey, it's as lovely as i ever remember it and happy to see the new year in with a glass or 3. So my toast to you all again, Happy new year.