A seasonal pink drink: Pomgrané

My last efforts at creating some interesting after-dinner drinks left me with some alcohol left over, so I put my mind to what fruit might be in season and appropriate for another experiment.

As is usually the way, within 5 minutes of having begun this zen-like contemplation my father-in-law walked in to say he'd just got back from seeing a nephew who, as well as helping him out with his computer, was covering a mound of pomegranate seeds with sugar and grappa in a large jar.

Pomegranate pips, fresh from the fruit and ready to soak'n'shake

So there was my next fruit. Turning to the trusty Liquori Casalinghi ("Housewives' Liqueurs") I found a recipe for a digestivo made from melograno: Pomgrané.

Beautiful fruit bought from the local cooperative

The recipe called for a simple mix of pips, alcohol, sugar, water and some herbaceous leaves. Not knowing quite which plants they came from (or how much a difference a few leaves would make if I found them) and wanting to dilute the alcohol a little with something a bit, well... botanical, I adapted the recipe to include the remains of a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin instead of some of the 95º alcohol.

Pipping the melograni and getting the ingredients together

Here's my adapted recipe:

Ingredients:

400g (approx) Pomegranate pips
100ml Bombay Sapphire gin
200ml 95º alcohol
300ml water
150g sugar

I found that 4 beautiful, ripe and ready fruit weighing about 1.5 kilos gave me enough pips.

Put all the ingredients into a 1 litre jar.
Leave for 1 month, shaking regularly.
Filter, bottle and leave for 5 months before drinking.

All the ingredients just added to the jar and freshly shaken.
(As I type 3 days later it's taken on a vivid pink hue and the pips are floating in suspension)

I imagine that cousin Gianni's grappa-based version will be sweeter and ready sooner, but my jar is already a vivid pink, the pips suspended and translucent. Can't wait till the six months are up!

Salute!

Limoncello Pt.2 - It's Limoncino!

Limoncello Pt.2 - É Limoncino!

We had a visit the other day from the family professore who gave me the recipe for this post.

He and his wife popped over for lunch and he brought with him a typed version of the recipe, a bottle of the resulting liquor, an instruction and a challenge...

The bottle's chilling in the freezer and the instructions are up on the fridge door.

The instruction was simple: this is a recipe for Limoncino. The other 'L' word is used by the folks further south - round here we call it something else. So the recipe has now been christened Limoncino alla Mario.

Something to follow when making 'Limoncino alla Mario'

And the challenge was quite simple:

"If you follow the recipe and it doesn't turn out like this bottle I'm giving you ...you didn't follow the recipe."

I'm going to give it a try pretty soon and attempt to document the process here.

Salute!

Bottled Sunshine - Limoncello

Il Sole in Bottiglia - Limoncello

I've just been given the family recipe for Limoncello... and it would be a shame not to share.

You can find 'pure' alcohol in Italian and German supermarkets - otherwise use a cheap neutral spirit like vodka. The resulting liquor won't be as potent - or tasty, according to the professore who donated the recipe...



Limoncello
Ingredients:
10 Lemons (medium-large size, unwaxed)
1 litre Alcohol 'puro' (95%)
600g granulated sugar

Makes:
Limoncello at about 45% and enough for at least 1.5 litres.
---

Clean the lemons really well and leave to soak for at least 2 hours in water and bicarbonate of soda. Dry.

Peel the lemons and collect just the yellow part of the peel - the white (pith) will make your drink bitter.

Add the yellow peel and alcohol to a clean, airtight, stoppered container.
Close and place in a cool, dark space to macerate. Shake or turn over the container once per day and leave for at least 15 days.

When you're ready to make the limoncello, boil 1 litre of water. Slowly add the sugar, stirring constantly. As soon as all the sugar is dissolved, take off the heat and leave to cool completely.

Remove all the peel from the alcohol.

When the syrup is cool, mix well with the infused alcohol and decant into clean, sealable bottles (I think I'm going to use 500ml bottles first time around).

Place bottles in the freezer and serve very cold - preferably after a long, jovial lunch.