Thursday 6 June 2013

Blackberry bramble

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Finally summer is here (to stay I hope). Days are warm with highs of 20C and evenings are cool. Pleasant enough to sit out on the balcony and enjoy a beer. The pub near our house is almost always full and its impossible to get a seat outside. My flip-flops and skirts have come out of hibernation, but I'm not yet brave enough to venture out in shorts as the crazy winds are still around, reminding us that summer is not completely here.

I have been bugging Ro to take me on one of those countryside walks...through the gorgeous yellow rapeseed fields. I hope I have one more weekend with loads of sunshine and high temperature to venture out, before they are harvested. On one Sunday afternoon when all of London was out enjoying the sun, we went into Greenwich town to check out Jamie Oliver's new restaurant "Jamie's Italian' and I had a blackberry bramble which was just amazing. I HAD to recreate it at home and that's exactly what I did on a Friday when the temperatures hit a high of 26C. Its not the authentic bramble which has Creme De Mure, the blackberry liqueur, in it, but I made it work with whatever was at home. Apologies for hijacking the name for something not even remotely related to the original. I thought it would be fun to do individual servings in small milk bottles. No one questioned me, because they all know better than to argue with a crazy prop-obsessed food blogger :)
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I'd been lusting behind these really cute school milk bottles from the dotcomgiftshop website and as luck would have it, they sent me a set to review. They have a lot of cool stuff on their website, especially for food bloggers who are prop obsessed. There are 6 bottles in a crate and they are oh-so-adorable. They are great to serve individual drinks in and can double up as a decorative item at home- like mini flower vases. The only problem is that the bottles are tiny, and can take only about 1/2 a cup of liquid each. May not be that great for adults- especially when you give them an awesome drink and they finish it off in a gulp- but they just look too pretty and I love them. I can see myself using them as prop ever so often.

Recipe adapted from here (serves 3)
Gin- 4 oz
Blackberries- 10 to 12 (plus enough to garnish)
Lime cordial- 3 oz
Simple syrup- 3 oz (recipe follows)
Ice cubes- a hand full + enough to top
Tonic water- 300 ml

Make simple syrup by boiling together equal parts of sugar and water. Stir till the sugar dissolves. Keep aside to cool and use as required. Of course I'm lazy, so I just mix water and sugar in a glass and chuck into the microwave for a couple of minutes. Take the glass out, stir to dissolve the sugar and chick it into the freezer for a couple of minutes.
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Combine the gin, blackberries, lime cordial and simple syrup together in a cocktail shaker.
Add a hand full of ice cubes and shake away.
Strain into glasses, add more ice and top with tonic water.

For the glass bottles, I strained the drink into a measuring jug, topped with the tonic water, gave a gentle stir and then poured it out into the bottles.

With thanks to dotcomgiftshop for sending me the milk bottles to review.

12 comments:

divya said...

looks fabulous!

Anupa Joseph (Palaharam) said...

U r lucky to have got such a pleasant weather.

The drink looks so refreshing...love those cute little bottles :)

Akila said...

Wow what a refreshing drink n amazing clicks... No words to describe... Love the cute bottles

Merry Tummy said...

They look so refreshing:) A perfect summer cooler
I wish these sunny days lasts:)
Just a typo error-it is dotcomgiftshop and u typed dotcomgoftshop :P :P

Anonymous said...

Sounds awesome Nisha - I have'nt experimented with Gin much...i should try this...
I hear you ... lets welcome the summer cloths :)
Shema | LifeScoops

turmericnspice said...

this looks adorable, I would love to have this in my prop collection. Well, am prop obsessed too and my family is ready to throw me out !!

Hari Chandana P said...

Very gorgeous clicks.. :)

Priya Suresh said...

Awesome drink and prefect for summer, wat a fantabulous clicks.

Shree said...

ur clicks are out of the world ! brilliant !

easyfoodsmith said...

Looks like an ideal summer drink to me. As for the props I guess we food bloggers surely are on a look out for anything that would work to make out composition look good.

Unknown said...

Love the bottles. They are absolutely adorable.

Unknown said...

those bottles are super cute.. wish that site was a US site. :) Need to check it out and see if they deliver here and how much. Love this summer drink. :)