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Victory for the ‘metric martyr’ and a gin that’s well worth the weight
Clare Latimer raises a glass of sloe gin created using imperial measures as Europe finally gives up trying to convert us
MY dear friend Boots, who is the scorer and team leader for the Scrabble club we set up in Primrose Hill, sent me the news that the European commissioners have ruled that Britain can carry on using imperial measurements such as pints, pounds and miles.
Thank heavens for that, as I still have no idea what a cm or a mm is, so when ordering material I could end up with a postage stamp of material for a curtain, or enough to cover a tennis court.
We can keep our road signs, traditional pints in the pubs – can you imagine asking for a “litre of beer, please”?
Do you remember Steve Thorburn, “the metric martyr” grocer who inspired a movement with his defiance of the order to abandon the imperial measurements in 2001? He was convicted for having weighing scales which had only imperial.
Sadly, he died of a heart attack three years later.
So, to celebrate this news that we can do what we want and not be told by Europe, this week I am going to give the recipes in “old weight” and you can email me and say which you prefer.
Sloe gin
What better recipe to be in old weights than this? And the main reason for choosing it this week is that Waitrose is going to stock sloes for the first time, so that will save you driving out to the hedgerows in the countryside.
I have been making my own sloe gin for about 20 years now, and this is the best result I have come up with. It is delicious poured on vanilla ice cream, over an apple pie, added to sparkling wine, or just as a quick tipple. Whatever way, it is scrummy.
The only hard bit is the waiting. You can use the left-over sloes, destoned in vanilla ice cream (stir them into slightly thawed ice cream and then put back in the freezer immediately).
Ingredients
1lb sloes
8 oz caster sugar
6 oz ground almonds
1¾ pints strong gin.
Method
To prick the sloes, bash a wire brush down on them in a shallow dish and the pricking will be done much quicker.
Using two clean, large bottles with screw tops layer the sloes, sugar, almonds and gin into both bottles and then secure tops well. Shake well. Store in a cool, dark place and turn the bottles every day for one month. Then turn once a week for about three months. Now, strain the liquid through a muslin or paper filter and store in the clean bottles.
Keep for a few more months if you can!
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