Blueberry & Blackberry Infused Vodka + New Year’s Eve Cocktail Recipes

December 28, 2011 By 15 Comments

If you are having a  New Year’s Eve bash this year, infused vodkas make a festive basis for some fabulous cocktails.  Or perhaps you are lucky enough to be attending a soiree held by someone else?  A fruity infused vodka makes a perfect hostess gift and is much more original than wine.  Start them now and they’ll be perfectly flavour-infused by the big night.

Berry Infused Vodka Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of berries such as blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 whole vanilla bean
  • 1L (750ml) of inexpensive vodka

Directions:

  1. Using a vegetable peeler, peel off 3-4 strips of lemon rind.  Use the back of a paring knife to remove as much pith (white stuff) as you can.  Pith = bitter.  Add rind to a large mason jar.
  2. Add berries to jar and mash lightly.  Spilt vanilla bean in half an add it as well.
  3. Pour the entire bottle of vodka over the mixture, seal with a lid and shake.  Leave in a cool, dark place for 3 days.
  4. After 3 days, strain the infused vodka through a fine strainer or medium cheesecloth into a bottle.  Repeat straining in a finer cheesecloth for a clearer liquid (optional).

New Year’s Eve Cocktails

Blueberry Nights

  • 1 oz blueberry infused vodka
  • 1/2 oz brandy
  • 1/2 oz ginger syrup
  • 3 oz soda

Blackberry Royale

  • 6 oz champagne
  • 1/2 oz blackberry infused vodka
  • 1/2 oz simple syrup
  • garnish with floating cranberries
Strawberry Refresher
  • fresh mint leaves, muddled at bottom of glass with…
  • …the juice of 1/2 a lime
  • top with 2 oz strawberry infused vodka
  • 3 oz ginger beer
  • 3 oz soda
Midori Melon Ball Drop adapted from this recipe.
  • 1 1/2 oz Midori melon liqueur
  • 1 1/2 oz raspberry infused vodka
  • 1/2 oz elderflower liqueur
  • juice of 1/2 lemon
  • sugar for rimming
  • melon ball for garnish

Happy New Year!

Share
Filed Under: Recipes, TAB MENU Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Black and Blue Berry Jam Recipe

September 9, 2011 By 5 Comments

I just can’t stop eating the scrumptious blackberry and blueberry I made this past weekend.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that it tastes this good, I mean these two fruits were obviously meant to go together: they grew only steps from each other.

When went for my annual wild blackberry picking pilgrimage, I stopped off at my favorite organic blueberry farm on the way back.  It never crossed my mind until this year that the sweet blueberries and the tart blackberries would be an amazing compliment to each other.  So good I have to share:

Black and Blue Berry Jam (long boil a.k.a. no pectin)

  • 4 cups blackberries
  • 4 cups blueberries
  • 5 cups sugar (just a guideline, adjust to your own tastes)
  • 2-3 tbsp lemon juice

Add all ingredients to a large, tall pot and set on medium high. Stir constantly until juices release and the mixture is soupy and boiling. Reduce to medium low and keep boiling, stirring occasionally, and using the spoon or a potato masher to squish the berries. Put a few small plates in the freezer. Continue boiling and stirring jam until mixture starts to thicken and foam subsides. Check jam for consistency by putting a spoonful of jam on one of the chilled plates.  When the mixture cools, ask yourself: ”Do I like this consistency?”  Keep boiling jam and testing until you answer, “Yes!”  then ladle  into clean, sterilized 250ml (1 cup) jars.  Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes with adjustments for your area.  Store for up to a year in a cool, dark place.

Share
Filed Under: Harvest, Recipes Tagged With: , , ,

It’s Canning Season

August 29, 2011 By 6 Comments

It’s that time of year again that keeps my hands and my senses overloaded.  I hoard fresh produce when I see it at a market or farm, or by climbing my neighbour’s trees like a squirrel and collecting way to0 many figs, or by diving deep into the wild blackberry brambles for fresh blackberries.  I can’t help it.  It’s a compulsion.

Here are a few photos of the harvesting frenzy for the last full week of August.  How can you blame me for stocking up?

Figs are abundant again on my neighbours tree although not as much as they were last year.  I made balsamic, fig, & rosemary preserves, dried figs in my dehydrator, and plan to make whole figs in a balsamic syrup.

I picked up pickling cukes at a farm this year for the first time and they are pickling away in my dining room.

 

 

My secret blackberry picking spot was loaded this year so I made blackberry pie, blackberry jam, blackberry & blueberry jam, and froze some for baking and ice cream.

 

 

The tomatoes are staring to come in as well, some of which have seen dehydrated, others made into sauce for the winter.

 

Any other squirrels out there stocking up for the winter?

Share
Filed Under: Canning, Growing Food, Harvest Tagged With: , , , , ,

Wild Blackberry Cordial

August 28, 2010 By 10 Comments

The other day I read about elderberry cordial, which is essentially a non-alcoholic fruit syrup that is delicious when added to sparkling water.  Since there are tons of wild blackberries available around the area (as previously mentioned when I made my blackberry jam),  I thought “Hey, I bet blackberry cordial would make great soda.”  

It does. 

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups blackberries
  • 2 cups sugar
  • Water as needed

Directions:

In a large stock pot add berries one layer at a time and crush with a potato masher or whatever you have handy (I used a ladle but all the while I was imagining how much easier it would have been with a potato masher).  Add the sugar once all berries are in and mashed, and set on high heat until mixture boils.  If it’s not very soupy, then add some water.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for a few hours until seeds start to separate from the fruit.  Keep adding water if the mixture reduces and add sugar if you like it sweeter. When you have the flavour / consistency you desire, start straining it.   Using a fine meshed sieve, strain out the seeds and discard.  This will take a bit of time, but the end product is worth it. 

Ladle finished cordial into canning jars and store in the fridge.

 

Share
Filed Under: Growing Food, Harvest, Recipes Tagged With: ,

Pickin’ Blackberries and Makin’ Jam

August 8, 2010 By 18 Comments

Today, on the annual organic blueberry run to Richmond, I stopped to walk the pooch by the Fraser River and found some huge, ripe blackberries that practically leaped into a little beach pail that I picked up for the occasion. I always snicker a bit when I see blackberries on sale around here as they are pretty easy to get a hold of here in BC.  But I guess many folks are too busy to get out and pick blackberries if they want them. 

The Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus laciniatus)  is an invasive intruder that can be found by the side of the roads nearly everywhere there is still green space.  There are brambles of the arm-stabbing, leg-slicing, nasty ass blackberries all around my community garden, but I’m fairly cautious about what I get from there given the transient nature of the neighbourhood (I’m putting it lightly – there is quite a bit of prostitution and drug use at night).  I’d much prefer to get out in the woods somewhere as I did today and for my efforts I went home with a pail and a half.  Plus I had a great walk, very much enjoying the first rainy weekend we have had in about 5 weeks, even if I did have to pick around the local wildlife.

 

 

Once home, the blackberries were so ripe that really, the only way to keep a large amount is to preserve them.  I call this Stupendously Simple Wild Blackberry Jam because it only has 3 ingredients.  The whole experince was very entertaining so even though it took a whole day, it was a day well spent.

Stupendously Simple Wild Blackberry Jam

  • 8 cups fresh wild blackberries
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions:

Lightly rinse the berries and put into a large pot.  Mash them up a bit with a potato masher or fork.  Add sugar and lemon and bring to a boil.  Reduce to medium low and keep it bubbling lightly until the liquid cooks down to the thickness you desire.  I cooked mine for 3 hours, stirring occasionally, to get a really thick final product.  This jam will sit piled up on a cracker if I want it too. 

Ladle finished jam into 12 clean, sterilized 125ml canning jars or 6 x 250ml (I think these are called 1/2 pints across the border).  Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes for the small jars and 15 minutes for the large jars.  Store for up to a year in a cool, dark place.

Share
Filed Under: Canning, Harvest, Vancouver Tagged With: ,

Blackberry Spelt Scones Recipe

November 11, 2009 By 7 Comments
  
Ingredients:
  • 2 cups whole grain spelt flour (or whole wheat)
  • 1 cups unbleached flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup cold butter
  •  2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup half and half
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup FROZEN blackberries      (or other berries that are frozen fresh and can be separated frozen)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F and line a baking pan with parchment and sprinkle it with flour. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the butter and with fingertips, gently cut the butter in until it is well combined and resembles course crumbs, some lumps are fine.  In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, cream, and vanilla.  Add to the dry mixture and gently combine.  The very last thing you’ll add is the frozen blackberries.  The more frozen the better and make sure you work the shaping step (listed next) quickly as to not have them begin to melt into the dough.  

Shape the dough into 2 equal balls and flatten to 3/4″ thick on the floured parchment or pan.  Using a knife slice each circle into 6 wedges and  carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them to 1/2″ space around the outer edges.  Optional: brush each scone with milk and sprinkle with  sugar for a sweet and crunchy top.   Bake until golden about 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle. 

Makes 12 medium-sized scones    

Share
Filed Under: Baking, Photography, Recipes Tagged With: , ,
2012 (c) Copyright Garden Therapy