Of Liqueurs

Well the holiday season is over and everyday life has reclaimed us. We've seen friends for meals, talked to family and friends on the phone and from some it was simply the annual Christmas card. Good to hear from everyone, see everyone etc.

In 2009 we must clearly have been naughty though. Not only did Santa miss our chimney during the storms on Christmas eve, no also the Epiphany witch, "la Befana" didn't call to see us this year. I don't know what happened! Normally she comes and see us on the 6th riding one of our neghbour's donkeys accompanied by Mauro playing the bagpipes and brings us some oranges and nuts. Last year we must have been particularly good, because she brought us a calendar with photos of the village, but this year...

Well never mind. The weather for the most part has continued to be rotten. Lat week we had some more snow, which didn't hang around this time though. Yesterday we found some old glass shower doors deposited at a rubbish tip near us, ideal for building a cold frame to start seeds off in. Today I was hoping to construct it, but it's been pissing it down again all day, so no can do.

So on these long, dark and cold evenings we sit by the fire and enjoy some of the fruits of our labours, particularly some of the liqueurs I've started experimenting with this year. I thought I'll let you partake in the results of these experiments.

Some of these liqueurs take quite some time before they are ready, but they are well worth the effort. The best thing is that many are made from ingredients which otherwise land directly on the compost. Here is what we've made so far.

Digestivo della Nonna (Granny's Digestif)

No this isn't actually my granny, but the Epiphany Witch, when she passed by last year. The drink's ingredients are Lemon balm, lemon zest and coffee steeped in alcohol and cut with sugar and water (nb. when I talk of alcohol, in Italy you can buy 95% potable alcohol for liqueur making. Inhabitants of more northern climes will be surprised to hear that this not the favourite tipple of the local tramp population). It is drinkable after 6 months and this was soooo good, Susan declared it her favourite of them all and hence it didn't last very long. So success!!!

Next we tried a Rosemary Liqueur

This strictly speaking wasn't a liqueur at all, but mor a fortified wine in the style of a dry Martini. Rosemary is steeped in alcohol for a few days which is than added to dry white wine coming out at about 17% AbV. Well chilled it made a good apperitif, but not suitable for long term storage.

I made two recipes involving cherries: Wild Cherry Ratafia and Cherry Stone Liqueur.

The former invloves steeping some cherries together with cherry leaves, cinnamon and cloves in Grappa and sugar on a sunny window sill. It comes out at about 30% AbV with a beautiful bright red colour. The spices and cherry worked really well together, it's realively quick to make, but alas I didn't make nearly enough of it!

The other cherry recipe involved using the stones, steeped in alcohol for a few months and the cut down with sugar and water. This surprisingly tastes really almondy, almost like marzipan! I suppose cherries and almonds are related plants. We're still enjoying that.

Another herbal concoction was Sage Grappa.

Simple steep a handful of sage in grappa for a few days, than add some honey to sweeten it. This is not too sweet and probably a great cure, or prevention, for colds (not that we ever get any).

Most recipes up to this point I had taken from a recipe book. My first venture in creating my own mix was a 25 herb liqueur. Needless to say that the exact recipe is a closely guarded secret handed down from generation to generation since last Friday, however I can tell you that I steeped every herb I could find both on our land and wild at the end of July, plus a few preserved seeds from earlier in the season, such as angelica seed, coriander. The resulting brew was (yes alas was...) bright green and not unlike Chartreuse, the recipe of which has been a secret of some French monks since... well at least the Friday before last.

A few days ago I declared my Melon Liqueur ready.

This is made by steeping the rind of the melons in alcohol. It is pleasantly delicate in flavour, with just a slight bitter edge balancing the sweetness.

Another nice one which was (and still is) particularly nice over the festive season, Spiced Blackberry Liqueur

Blackberries together with cloves and cinnamon bark is steeped in alcohol, than cut down to about 43%AbV. It turns out the colour of a well known 1970's Beat combo and the spicyness went really well with my spicy Christmas biscuits.

Another one turning a similar colour is Elderberry Grappa.

I know they are elderflowers on the picture, but I didn't have a photo of elderberries handy. Anyway, the berries get steeped in grappa for 40 days. The resulting brew is only lightly sweetened. Another great flu preventative. Had we not had this, I'm sure we would have come down with swine flu!

Another of my own creations was a hop liqueur (sorry no photo). There are loads of wild hops growing around us and I kept wondering what to do with them. Last year I attempted brewing a trial batch of maize beer flavoured with hops. It didn't turn out a success. So I thought the bitterness and aroma of hops might work well as a liqueur, balancing the sweetness. I'm quite happy with the result, but next year I think I need to cut the strength a bit more, it's come out at approximately 51%AbV.

Some liqueurs take longer than others, so 2 of my creations won't be ready for drinking until next summer: a traditional Nocino, walnut liqueur, which is made from green walnuts in june and turns a thick, murky greeny black and a Gineprino, juniper liqueur, a bit like a sweet gin (saves you having to add your tonic water).

Because the ingredients are quite expensive, namely the alcohol, we've only made quite small quantities of these drinks. Anyone wanting to buy any of those concotions of me, put your "en primeur" offers in now for next year. :-)

on the Giro d’Italia and the heatwave

I know I haven’t posted for a while, we’ve been pretty busy with various things, so this’ll be quite a long entry today I think.

First of all, there’ll be a break in the riveting and popular series “Our Terraces” today to make room for some current sport coverage. Yesterday we had a rest day as the Giro d’Italia came to town. Yes I do like watching a bit of sport. As a kid growing up in Bremen, I used to watch home matches of Werder Bremen at the Weserstadion. I still like football, but prices to go to stadiums aren’t what they used to be and I’m getting rather disgusted with the play-acting, feigning injuries, complaining, winging and whining and plain cheating in the modern game. I also used to watch speedway, but other motor sports, like Formula 1 in particular, these days seems to be decided behind desks and in courtrooms, not to mention horrendous entry prices for a couple of hours of watching noisy cars going around in circles.

I watch other sports, mainly on TV, but there is no other sport I can think of, which you can watch for free and get THIS CLOSE to the top athletes:

This is Lance Armstrong, the undisputed superstar of world cycling. This photo was not taken with a fancy zoom lens, I just shoved the camera right into his face and was evidently even closer to the man then the TV cameras on the other side of the road.

Yesterday’s stage was a 60 km individual time trial through the Cinque Terre and was dubbed “the killer stage”. Rider’s were racing through this hilly coastal stretch against the clock rather than against each other. I have been to cycle races before. I saw the Tour de France a few years back as they skirted Germany, but we had positioned ourselves on a steep downhill stretch and the peloton was past within a fraction of a second. The only lasting memories were the smell of burning rubber as the 180 odd cyclists hit the bend at over 70 km an hour and the accompanying motorbike, which nearly ploughed into a nearby chip van. We saw the Giro the last time they passed as well, twice in fact, but both time on flat bits with the group being compact and passed in seconds.

But in a time trial you can watch each rider coming passed you one by one for 3 ½ hours. The stage was from Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore involving 2 steep uphill sections (one of them I have cycled myself before). We decided to position ourselves above our old haunt of Levanto, just over half way into the race. It was a great way of spending the day. We had a picnic with us, a couple of beers and shared into the banter with other fans. I even dusted up my old “proper” camera, I found I still had some film for it and it does have a decent telelens on it. However the photos from that camera won’t obviously be ready for a few days, hope they still develop real films.

Here’s another shot in the meantime of a Russian rider called Andriy Grivko:

We had originally planned to cycle towards the race, which would have involved similar tough climbs to the professionals, but decided against it, as we are in the middle of a heat wave, which leads me smoothly onto the next subject. Last Friday, the 15th, it made a half hearted attempt at some rain, the only time this month. Saturday summer arrived with a vengeance. Daytime temperatures are the highest ever recorded for Italy for May with the mercury climbing well into the 30’s. Our daily cycle rides to the land and work on the land itself has all slowed down a bit and both of us have caught quite a bit of colour already.

This also means that crops are ahead of their season. Broad beans, alas are now finished. I managed to conserve a few in brine, but to build up a proper store of them I really do need to plant 2 terraces of them. Peas are ready and we are eating masses of lettuce. Strawberries are abundant and sweet cherries have already been and gone. They had a very small crop this year and birds ate most of the rest. Sour cherries are coming on as well though and they are as plentiful as ever. The first tomatoes are in flower as are the first courgettes and we water practically daily.

Earlier in the spring, when all the wild herbs were starting to perfume the air, I thought how great it would be to capture all these aromas and maybe making some liqueurs from them. I didn’t know how though and decided to find some recipes, quickly forgetting about my resolution again. Last week we were in La Spezia and I found a recipe book on a book stall along the seafront: “500 recipes for jams, preserves and liqueurs”. It’s fantastic! It not only has some great recipes for all the traditional liqueurs, but it has suggestions for making drinks out of base materials you would normally throw away: an Amaretto from apple pips, liqueurs from cherry, peach and apricot stones or the skin of melons, cherry leaves as well as a variety of wild and cultivated herbs and spices.

Most of the are really easy to make too, although they take a while before they are ready. I already have 2 brews on the go: Granny’s Digestive (I can’t help thinking that grannies in Italy have more fun, mine used to such a sweet after dinner) based on lemon balm and a Wild Cherry Ratafia with sour cherries and cherry leaves spiced with cloves and cinnamon. Looking forward to the results.

On Saturday also we had the inaugural session of the “Luni Wino” Wine Appreciation Club at our house. About a dozen of us tasted our way though some Italian wines and I believe a good time was had by all. It sort of was the launch of my new little venture, although it mostly was a social event.

I was going to have a wee rant about pests after I went on a bit on weeds recently, but Susan is already in bed and I better finish here for today. So there’s something to look forward to as well as the next installment of the cut-out-and-collect series “Our Terraces”.