Raspberry Gin / Raspberry and Blueberry Gin / Pomegranate Gin

A flavoured gin's the thing. 

Raspberry Gin and Tonic

Added Value
It's good marketing -  grow your range of products and you expand your brand. How many different bottles of gin do you have on your gin wall? We went to one house and there were 12 different bottles on the central kitchen island. That's a lot of dead stock. On the other end of the scale, Gin and Juice in Cheltenham has 350 different gins and growing.
Take a look at the prices and the flavoured ones are substantially more expensive than normal gin. Like the difference in price between fresh salmon and smoked salmon which is 2 - 3 times as much. That kind of makes you want to make your own flavoured gins in itself. 

Last year I was experimenting with different flavours. Economics aside, the main reason you'll want to investigate flavoured gins is for all the amazing variations you can serve up to your friends that they'll never be able to buy in a shop.

Thirty years ago my great aunt was experimenting with a lemon and orange vodka liqueur - vodka, caster sugar, orange zest & lemon zest. You put them in a bottle and shook it up once a day for a month. One month later it was ready to go and was like a variation on cointreau. You could use a cheap vodka because you get the flavour from the citrus.
So I took the same idea - alcohol, sugar, fruit and here you can see the results.

I also found that you need to put these in the fridge while they are maturing. You might think the alcohol will preserve the fruit, which it does, but left out of the fridge it can start fermenting and go sour.

Raspberry and Blueberry Cotswold Gin

It's almost sacrilege to add things to Cotswolds Gin - it tastes so good in itself, but I had some left over from a tasting menu event. There were also raspberries and blueberries left from their dessert so I brought those 3 things together.

Fruit Gin Ratios
A good ratio is:
250g Fruit/ berries
100g Caster sugar
70cl Bottle of gin

Put your ingredients ideally in a kilner jar or other vessel that isn't plastic. I found storing this in a plastic container as I did with the pomegranate gin, below, the plastic can taint the contents.

Pomegranate Gordon's Gin

Taking the idea from my pomegranate rum, I tried a gin version. A lovely sweet-sharp taste. You crunch the seeds as you drink to release their flavour. Makes me think a cranberry gin could be really good for Christmas time, though it would need more sugar for the sharpness of the cranberries.

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mini ceaser salad

Steady on ladies, it's a throwback to a birthday dinner party in Berkely 2017 and Henry serving canapes for a 50th birthday in Berkeley.  

Like a musician remembered for one song, we'll probably only remember Ceaser Cardini for the salad which maybe he didn't even invent - but then everyone always wants to take the glory don't they.

It always amazes me when you look in the salad dressings aisle of supermarkets just how expensive dressings are for what they are - there's a money making business if ever there is one. Me? I just keep a few staple ingredients in the fridge and store cupboard and you can make anything - quite how the Ceaser salad came into being in the first place.

Ceaser salad is great comfort food. The day after I catered for my grandpas wake I left my brother with all the ingredients to make Cesaser salad for everyone while I went back to work. It's both comfort food and easy to eat and therein lies it's popularity. The umami from the parmesan helps too.

Did you know?
Ceaser dressing works very well as a dip for chips or potato wedges? Try it!

Anchovies/ no anchovies?
Like marmite people either love them or hate them, and as a chef you end up just always serving the anchovies on the side so guests can choose whether they want them or not. I am a great anchovy fan and prefer using the fresh marinated anchovies rather than the tinned variety. You can add anchovy paste to the dressing as well. 

Wishy washy Ceaser salad
Another thing people get wrong so often with Ceaser salad is not drying the lettuce enough after washing. Excess water clinging to the leaves just dilutes the dressing and you see a puddle of thin dressing swimming around in the bottom of your salad bowl rather than clinging to the leaves - what's the point in life? Spin the salad leaves in a salad spinner, then dry on a clean tea towel as well for good measure. 

Cheat's Ceaser Dressing

Why cheats? Because you're not making it from scratch with egg yolk and oil. But that's all mayonnaise is really. Using sherry vinegar rather than wine gives it a really nice extra flavour. Don't get carried away with the garlic as the flavour develops after the dressing is made.

Ingredients

200ml Mayonnaise

2tsp Sherry vinegar

1tsp Lemon juice

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

50g Grated parmesan

1/2 tsp Wholegrain mustard

1 Clove fresh garlic, pureed

Few glugs of olive oil

Freshly milled black pepper

Water, depending on consistency

Modus

This has the simplest method - you just combine everything in a mixing bowl and whisk together. If your mayonnaise is quite salty already you probably don't need extra salt (think of your arteries). Depending on how thick your dressing is you might need to add a little water to loosen it so it is coating consistency for the lettuce leaves. 

How long will Ceaser dressing keep in the fridge?
If you are making your own mayonnaise base from raw egg it will only last 3 days in the fridge. But if you use a brought mayonnaise made from pasteurised egg it will last up to a month in the fridge - an instant snack for you.

Crispy tortilla baskets
You can also make these starter size or bowl size for a lunch or even bigger to share at the table - endless possibilities.

To make the canape size ones you need a mini muffin tin. Cut out tortilla circles with a cutter larger so the circles will fill the base and all the way up the sides.

Place the cut out tortilla circles into a tray/ bowl of cold water and let them soak for 10 seconds. Then take them out and mould them into the mini muffin tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 160 oC for 7 - 10 minutes till crisp. You want them just golden.

Ceaser Salad

Ingredients
Baby gem lettuce, washed, spun and very dry
Ceaser dressing (see recipe above)
Parmesan shavings
Fresh marinated anchovies (optional)
Parma ham

Modus

• First make the parma ham crisps. Lay pieces of parma ham on a baking sheet with baking mat or greaseproof paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 oC for 5 - 6 minutes till crispy. Put a timer on - they are easy to burn (done so many times). Also make more than you need because they are so edible straight out of the oven. 
• Cut baby gem into small cubes - small enough to fit into the mini tortilla baskets. Mix with the dressing. 
• The crispy tortilla baskets don't stay crisp forever once they're filled, so leave it as late as you can till you make them up before serving. 
• Spoon the lettuce mix into the tortilla baskets. Garnish with parmesan flake, broken parma ham crisp and slice of anchovy. You could also add a small slice of grilled chicken. 

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