As I'm sure you know by now, I love to concoct homemade beverages – alcoholic or not – everything from milkweed and elderflower cordials to elderberry gin to wine made with green walnuts. Some are tastier than others; all are fun to make.
For Christmas, friend Alisa gave me a small book called "Blotto Botany," which has a whole section on making bitters. I can't wait to try to make some in this new year. Before I could even figure out which bitters to try first, I was sidetracked by another recipe that I came across on Gardenista, one of my favorite blogs. The article was about how to make homemade orange-spiced wine.
The recipe looked simple enough. I had all the ingredients except for two bottles of not-expensive Sauvignon Blanc wine, which Ed picked up this week at our local Kroger wine shop. All I had to do was open the bottles and bring their contents to a boil, along with a half cup of sugar, a quarter cup of Grand Marnier and the same amount of Sambuca. I then added 4 bay leaves and 8 whole cloves. While the mixture was coming to a boil, I carefully peeled the zest from four oranges, trying hard to keep the peel in one long spiral.
Sister Julie had recently given me four recycled bottles. I stuffed a spiral into each of the bottles and then filled them with the hot mixture, making sure each bottle also contained one bay leaf and two cloves. I left them uncorked to cool while I went to work on labels.
Last night, Ed and I uncorked a very chilled bottle of the stuff to ring out the old year and welcome in a happier new year. We took a sip. It was delicious. We polished off the bottle. (Don't worry: it only amounted to two glasses each.)
Although its ingredients included Sambuca, an anise-flavored Italian liqueur, it didn't have any hint of a licorice-like taste. So, if you think you don't like anise, don't be put off from trying this.
The bottles should be kept chilled and consumed within a month – but if you like it as much as we did, that won't be a problem.
Cheers to a happier year!
No comments:
Post a Comment