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Birds in the Kitchen Birds in the Kitchen Birds In The Kitchen Recipes and refreshments for the discerning business woman Congratulations! You are the proud owner of the Birds In The Kitchen eBook. Drink and cook at your own risk. (And if your kitchen burns down, Elaine has a store that will help you furnish a new one ;) By the Birds On The Blog Edited by Suze St Maur (because that’s what she does for the day job) 1 copyright©2010 www.birdsontheblog.co.uk Birds in the Kitchen About the authors and who this eBook benefits All the contributors to this eBook are regular bloggers over at Birds On The Blog, the fast moving blog for women in business, about business and how it affects us. If you have received this book for free, please consider making a small donation of just £2.00 to our girls. £6 pays for their education for just one month. They are 5 years old and we have another 12 years to pay for. It's a good deal; you get some fab recipes and you get to help change the girls’ future for the price of some sweets. 2 copyright©2010 www.birdsontheblog.co.uk Birds in the Kitchen No table of contents – just a note to dive in.... 3 copyright©2010 www.birdsontheblog.co.uk Birds in the Kitchen Birds On The Booze Want to drink greener and more ethically? Try these… (SUZE) Fairtrade Buck's Fizz Fairtrade freshly-squeezed orange juice Dry, fizzy British white wine (organic if possible) Combine together in champagne glasses, in whatever proportions you prefer! If you want to add a little kick to this recipe you can include a dash of an orange-based (preferably organic) liqueur. Green-aholic Coffee 1/3 part fairtrade brown sugar 2 1/2 parts organic whisky or brandy 5 parts hot fairtrade and/or organic coffee 1 part whipped locally produced organic cream Place sugar and whisky in heatproof cup or mug and mix well, then add coffee and mix again. Finally add the whipped cream very carefully, pouring it over a large spoon so it remains at the top. Sustainable Mulled Wine 8 parts organic brandy 48 parts organic or biodynamic red wine, and/or British red wine 1 part fresh fairtrade lemon juice 4 copyright©2010 www.birdsontheblog.co.uk Birds in the Kitchen 1 part fresh fairtrade orange juice 1 part organic orange-based liqueur 2 parts fairtrade caster sugar Sustainably-produced spices e.g. cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc Combine all ingredients in an appropriately large pan over a low heat, stirring well so that the sugar dissolves properly, then turn off the heat and leave covered with a cloth or solid object. When the time comes to serve the drinks, re-heat it gently. When hot, serve with a ladle into guests' glasses or mugs. ***** My first post on Birds On The Blog was all about the fun I had making Blackberry vodka…and I was determined to make more of it this year. It was easy, and delicious. There are buckets full of blackberries freely available and it does make a very good Christmas present. (ANN) Sadly, when the blackberries were at their best I had the flu, and so I didn’t get around to it. But yesterday when we went for our walk, I noticed that there are still plenty of sloes to be had for the picking. I knew that traditionally they should be picked after a frost, but I’d just read Nigel Slater’s recipe in the Observer and decided to give it a try. They did look a bit withered though. Can you use withered sloes, I wondered. So I asked my friends on Facebook and within minutes had the answer. What’s not to love about the internet? 5 copyright©2010 www.birdsontheblog.co.uk Birds in the Kitchen One minute you’re watching a video of a squirrel foiled by a slinky, and the next you’re discussing the pros and cons of withered sloes, and the vexing question of vodka or gin. So these are the sloes I picked this morning – mostly quite plump and ripe, but a few withered and wrinkly ones in the mix too. I had lots of advice about the pricking of the sloes too. One suggestion is to freeze and bash them – that’s also discussed in the Nigel Slater recipe. Someone else suggested an onion holder – the ones that have a set of sharpened steel tines in a wooden handle. If you plunge it into the bowl of sloes, all the ones that get picked up will have been pricked so can be pulled off and put into the vodka or gin. Actually, I quite enjoy mindless repetitive chores, so I put some music on and sat at the table pricking them all with a needle It’s what passes for meditation around here… Last year with the blackberries, I used 2 cups of berries, 1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of vodka – which works just about perfectly to fill up big one kilo preserving jars. Last time, each one produced about one 500 mil bottle of vodka, too. That created a delicious liqueur, but it was on the sweet side. It worked brilliantly, for example, in my black forest gateau, and in an ice cream sundae – but it was a little on the syrupy side as a drink. 6 copyright©2010 www.birdsontheblog.co.uk Birds in the Kitchen How does that compare to Nigel Slater’s 450g of fruit to 350g of sugar? Weighing it all out – a cup of sloes weighs 180g, a cup of sugar is 220g. I sat staring at the calculator for a while and banged my head on the desk. In the end I worked out he uses more sugar with the sloes than I used with the blackberries. Hmmm. But sloes are bitter and blackberries are naturally sweet. Hmmm. So if I’d been making blackberry vodka again I would be experimenting with less sugar this time. After all that messing about pretending to do some sums, I decided to use 2 cups of sloes, 1 cup of sugar, and 2 cups of vodka. When I measured it all into the jars, it turned out that my cups of sloes were overflowing, and I used an extra splash of vodka too. So I poured everything into the sterilised jars. I bashed the sloes around a bit with the masher and sealed the lid. So far, compared to the blackberries, it all looks bit sludgy – at this stage it’s really not a very pretty colour at all. I hope that will improve by the time I come to bottle it, in about eight weeks Blackberry Vodka Part 2 (ANN) This is probably the easiest thing I’ve ever made, and also one of the most appreciated. All you need is blackberries, sugar and vodka and a bit of patience. You’ll also need an old fashioned potato masher, a large preserving jar (or several), a sieve and some muslin. I used 5 large 1 litre preserving jars, and ended up with 5 and a bit half litre bottles of vodka. I’m told that the end result is even nicer when matured, but apparently I’m not going to find that out this year – I don’t think any will survive until the next batch is ready. And yes, I plan to make more next year. 7 copyright©2010 www.birdsontheblog.co.uk Birds in the Kitchen Make sure your preserving jars are nice and clean. You can use them straight out of the dishwasher, but be careful not to put your fingers in, or you can wash them with hot water and dry them out on a baking tray in the oven on a low heat. Make sure you’ve washed your masher too. Wash and pick over the blackberries. Measure two generous cups full into the preserving jar, and then get in there with the potato masher and bash them around a bit. You want them to release all their lovely juice and flavour into the vodka, so don’t be too gentle. Pour in 1 cup of sugar, and 2 cups of vodka, and stir around to start dissolving the sugar. Put the lid on making sure you have a tight seal. Now you store them for somewhere cool for between 8 and 12 weeks, and just give them a good shake twice a week. At the end of that time comes the potentially messy part. Line a clean sieve with muslin, and strain the mixture over a clean jug one jar at a time, and then pour into clean bottles – sterilised as above. (Don’t bake the rubber seals if you have them, you can simmer them in boiling water for a couple of minutes though). Don’t mash the blackberries around too much at this stage because you don’t want the result to be cloudy. I have to confess that I kept back a big bowl of vodka sodden blackberries and made a slightly cloudy final half bottle by squeezing every last drop out of them. No one really minded, but if you are going to give bottles as gifts, the clear dark red liquid does look wonderful, and is worth the extra care. Oh, and you didn’t want to keep your white worktops white, did you? You might just need to keep some old fashioned bleach handy to wipe down after you have blackberry stains everywhere.
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