This is a great recipe to deal with the blackberry glut during the late summer. It’s so good, I would make this even if I didn’t have a blackberry surplus. Be warned – make more than you think – it’ll go very very quickly in a household.
Ingredients
- 600g fresh blackberries
- 350ml red wine
- 200ml vodka/gin
- Heaped tablespoon of dried and crushed up Meadowsweet flowers (optional)
1. Crush blackberries in a saucepan
2. Mix with a good glug of the wine
3. Mix in the sugar and meadowsweet. The combined mix should just be ‘wet’. Doesn’t matter if it’s a bit sloppier – just not dry – otherwise the mix might catch on the pan.
If you want to make it even tastier and have the patience then for steps 1-3 simply crush the berries and combine with the sugar, meadowsweet and ALL the wine and leave in a clean covered container for about 2-3 days. Don’t complete seal the container – the natural yeasts in the plant matter can start to ferment and build pressure pretty quickly sometimes.
4. Put pan on a low-med heat and bring to a simmer.
5. Simmer for about 10 mins stirring occasionally.
6. Remove from heat and pour in the rest of the wine. This will get it cooled down quicker.
7. Strain through a sieve and smush the pulp through with a spoon. Get all that sexy juice out.
The pulp left will still be really flavourful – don’t waste it. I let it cool and then added it to currently brewing meads, vinegars etc.
8. Add the spirit, mix and then add the mixture to some sterilised bottles . It’ll fill about two 75cl bottles.
The flavour improves with some time left in the bottles. It can be stored in a cupboard for well over a year but it’s one of those things that gets devoured well before.