Gooseberry Martini

This summer past has produced an amount of soft fruit. All my bushes have been laden with fruit except my gooseberries. The Gooseberry Saw Fly got the better of the leaves and I'm not sure if this affected the crop hugely but it certainly didn't help.

I started looking for ideas and found a recipe for Green Cowboy Martini on the Channel 4 website.

I followed the recipe  (250g gooseberries in 75cl gin, add 2 tbsp sugar and leave for a month) using up all my gooseberries and then read the bit where it tells you to put the martini together. I had no gooseberries left. So how was I going to make the syrup?

I left the gooseberries in the gin until now, they have been in it since the end of June. I decided to decant the gin and use the marinated gooseberries to make the syrup.

I weighed them and they were 220g. I added 150g of sugar and 300ml of water. I simmered the syrup until the fruit had softened, about 15 minutes. Using a potato masher mash the fruit into the syrup. Allow to cool and then strain through a double layer of muslin into a clean, sterile jar or bottle.

Follow the suggestion in the recipe for 75ml of the gooseberry infused gin and 10ml of the gooseberry syrup. I poured it over crushed ice but by the time I had faffed about taking the photo the ice had melted.

It makes a lovely drink particularly if you like gin.



Tags: Gooseberry gin  Gooseberry recipes  Gooseberry syrup  Summer cocktails Gooseberry saw fly