- 400 g whole sloes, rinsed, stems and leaves discarded
- 400 g sugar
- 550 g gin
Cherry Ratafia - Pam Corbin, River Cottage
Cherry Ratafia - Pam Corbin, River Cottage
Take advantage of the free autumn hedgerow feast and pick some sloes when you see them. Making sloe gin in your Thermomix is super easy and will save you about half an hour on the preparation time (no pricking of the sloes is required). This method takes advantage of the TM’s ability to send the blades in the reverse direction; doing this at Speed 1 knocks the sloes gently which releases the beautiful purple colour of the skins into the gin while helping to dissolve the sugar. This also advances the maturing of your liqueur by about 3 months. Makes 600 ml which is ready for drinking in about 12 to 15 months, though you might want to taste it along the way from 6 months onwards!
Ingredients
Method
1. Weigh all ingredients into the TM bowl and mix 15 minutes/Reverse Blade Direction/Speed 1. Pour into sterilized bottles or kilner jars and cover with sterilized lids. Invert the bottles or jars daily for 1 week, then once every week or two for 3 months. Leave in a cool dark place to mature.
2. When mature, strain the sloe gin into a sterilized bottle and seal if not using straight away.
Variations: Pam “the jam” Corbin mentions several variations on sloe gin in her book “River Cottage Handbook No.2 Preserves”, and all of these variations are easy with your Thermomix:
Damson Gin – 450 g damsons, 225 g sugar, 600 g gin, method as above.
Blackberry and Apple Gin – 230 g cooking apples cored and roughly chopped 5 seconds/Speed 4, then add 230 g blackberries, 230 g sugar, 600 g gin and proceed as above.
Cherry Ratafia – 500 g cherries, 500 g eau de vie, 2 cinnamon sticks, ½ vanilla pod, 150 g sugar, method as above.
Haw Brandy – 450 g haws, 230 g sugar, 600 g brandy, method as above.
Janie's Tip:
Tip: Easily doubled, mix 20 minutes/Reverse Blade Direction/Speed 1.
Tip: Use the sloes to make sloe gin jam or just serve them as is on top of a really good vanilla ice cream for a delicious dessert.
In these challenging times…
The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.
Over the last 16 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 560,000 followers across Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.
A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.
Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.
