Boozy Bank Holiday

Having already blogged about making Limoncello and Spiced Cranberry Vodka, you would be forgiven for thinking I'm a bit booze obsessed. Especially since I've just placed a load of chestnuts in a jar of rum and a bag of blackberries in to a jar of gin! I would like to assure you that this is mainly about my desire to create rather than imbibe but you may just be thinking that 'the lady doth protest too much'.

The desire to place a load of cooked, peeled chestnuts in a jar of rum stems from a recipe that I have featured here twice before - that of the Italian chestnut cheesecake. I found the recipe in an Italian food magazine whilst staying with my friends in Northern Tuscany. With the help of Google Translate I set about making it, following a semi-successful trip to their local supermarket. The one missing ingredient was glace chestnuts or marrons glaces. However, my friends farmhouse is surrounded by sweet chestnut trees and the previous autumn they had gathered, cooked and peeled a mound of chestnuts and all those that they couldn't eat immediately had been preserved in rum. They suggested I use these in place of the marrons glaces and the cheesecake worked out brilliantly (even if I do say so myself).

Then last Christmas I decided to make the cheesecake again.  Once again I couldn't lay my hands on any marrons glaces so I decided to make some myself. The long and the short of it was, they took ages to make, ended up being rather chewy, and added absolutely nothing to the cheesecake's flavour or texture. I decided rum soaked chestnuts were far superior and so, here I am, soaking sweet chestnuts in rum just in case I have an occasion to make Italian chestnut cheesecake at some point over the autumn or winter. I guess you could say I'm more motivated by food than booze or is that me still making excuses?

Anyway, if you fancy having a go, take a sterilised 1 litre jar and to it add 150g sugar, 280g cooked chestnuts and 600ml rum.  

Tip and gently shake the jar to mix the contents and then leave in a cool place. For the next few days, tip and gently shake the jar every day until the sugar has fully dissolved. Then repeat every few days or once a week for about three months or until you want to either eat the chestnuts or drink the rum!

The idea for the blackberry gin came from a lady at the West of England Herb Group. It's based on Slow Gin but, because blackberries are sweeter than sloes, you can afford to use less sugar. I used 110g sugar, 290g blackberries, and about 600ml gin. The methodology is the same as for the rum and chestnuts so I'll be tipping and gently shaking from now until Christmas!