Friday 30 October 2015

Life (is just a bowl of cherries) - style


Here's another life-style post. I am currently making a bottle of Sloe Gin.

You don't actually make sloe gin, you just pick a load of sloes and stick them in a bottle of gin that someone else has already made. It is an affectation to claim to have made it.

I don't even like sloe gin, but I think it will look great in a glass decanter I have recently bought. I care more about the decanter than I do about the gin. My idea is that it will sit decoratively on a table at Christmas, and I will offer small glasses of it to passing friends,  loyal tradesmen and costermongers, who will toast my health with it and wish us a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, One and All!

In reality, there will be no passing guests or cap-in-hand coal-merchants, butchers and bakers, and the one grandchild who may turn up will decline the sloe gin and opt for a bottle of lager without a glass, then I will drink the lot myself in two nights and suffer two horrible hang-overs in quick succession.

About baking cakes, I did once get into a frenzy of cherry Madeira baking, because my mother knew that this was my favourite cake, and always sent me off with one after a home visit. I was under strict instructions NOT to share it with anyone else, but I ignored this. I didn't want to have to creep off into another room and come back with crumbs around my mouth, looking flushed and guilty.

A friend of mine once discovered how delicious a fresh clafoutis was, so bought pounds of fresh cherries to make his own. I spent all one Sunday with him in his kitchen on the Somerset Levels, while he pitted all the cherries and went through the rest of the laborious processes in the making of the perfect clafoutis.

As each one came out of the oven, he decided that it wasn't quite right, so immediately made another. Each one was slightly better than the last, and I think I must have eaten about 15 portions before I left.

Years later, I was in a French restaurant being served by a young, English waitress, and I noticed that there was clafoutis on the menu, so ordered one.

Eventually she came back with a cup of tea.

30 comments:

  1. Maybe I have a different recipe for Clafoutis, but I've always found it very easy to make.

    I currently have half a small bottle of Sloe Eau-de-Vie which is delicious. Unfortunately I don't really drink spirits.

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    1. Yes it is easy, but the pitting of cherries, rolling of pastry, mixing of ingredients, washing of dishes, etc. takes about 10 times as long as it takes to bake, and the eating of it is about 20 times shorter.

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    2. By the way, there are 3 ingredients in Sloe Gin. Sloes, the Gin, and Sugar.

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    3. I was told that sugar was not needed, though I added a dash of honey.

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    4. You can't make it without sugar.

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    5. I've just checked the recipe and added sugar. I believed the fucking cunt who told me I did not have to.

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    6. You guys are so funny I just had to resd this out to the husband, who muted the endless post RWC game rituals to listen to it and laugh!

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  2. I love any dessert made with fresh cherries, but pitting them makes a huge mess. I pitted 5 pounds of them once to make preserves and my kitchen looked like a murder scene.

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    1. Same when I brought back some game, except it really was blood.

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  3. Seasonal reminiscing time? Do you have a deep Morris chair with arms to balance the small glass while your costermongers haul their carts up the steps to share your seasonal greeting?
    A post about so much clafoutis is bound to make me testy. I would have mine without sloe gin, in the event you may need to know.

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    Replies
    1. Let me know when you're coming and I'll bake a cake.

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  4. I make damson gin (like Cro, I also add sugar) It gives me an excuse to use my old liqueur glasses. I have several of these, few matching, which I can't resist buying.

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  5. Sloe gin....yerch
    Gimmie the gut twisting, liver battering , wonderfully refreshing Bombay saphire any day

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  6. Fifty seven costermongers came by my place last Christmas for their seasonal glass of our famous sloe gin. Could they be deliberately avoiding you?

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    1. I sent them, saying there was always a warm welcome in the House of Mise. How were the costers?

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  7. We add almond essence to our sloe gin - it does look beautiful in a decanter (I think it tastes like cough medicine) but the husband enjoys a glass with the Stilton.

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    1. Yes, I added almond essence too, but because I am too mean to buy the pure stuff, I bought some suspended in oil, so now I have to filter the oil out.

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    2. 100% almond essence = £8. 5% in oil - £1.90. All I have to do now is filter out the 95% oil, which is sitting on top like a great, Victorian penny.

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    3. You dont half make something simple fucking complicated.

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    4. No I don't - I didn't even add sugar until you said I should.

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  8. At Christmas you will look at your decanter filled with loveliness and celebrate the season in style......I have emailed all the costermongers and tradespeople I know and there will be many knocks on your door...dig out the glasses.

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