So, I know it's been a hot minute since I made a post. But, after an unexpected trip to the ER earlier this fall followed by surgery due to my gallbladder attempting to commit hari-kari, I thought it was a good idea to take a breather for a bit. This, of course, translated into some hardcore Escape to the Chateau binge watching and I regret nothing.
In fact, it was during one particular binge session where I learned about something called sloe gin. Now, we do not have sloe berries (aka sloes) in Northern California. At least not to my knowledge. However, we do have an abundance of strawberry tree fruits that usually ripen just in time to cake my shoes with goo and misery as we're putting up our outdoor Christmas decorations. And I got a little curious. After some research I discovered that strawberry tree fruit can indeed make a very good liqueur, as well as a potent brandy called aguardente de medronhos that's commonly found in the Algarve region of Portugal.
Since I don't want to start digging into the complexities of backyard moonshining, I decided to pursue a simpler approach for creating my homemade liqueur using a basic combination of simple syrup, vodka, and patience. And today was the first day there appeared to be a sufficient amount of ripened fruit to begin this grand experiment. So armed with a bowl, garden sneakers, and a curious daughter in tow I spent about an hour this morning harvesting as many of the fruit as I could reach. This netted about 3 cups of fruit, plus or minus the one or two my daughter and I decided to try eating.
Ok, so I think this is a good point to segue into a little bit of history related to the strawberry tree fruit. If you've never heard of Pliny the Elder the short and sweet background is that he was a Roman lawyer, author, naturalist, natural philosopher, military commander, etc. etc. You know, a typical ancient world polymath. Anyway, he lived through Nero's reign of terror and died while attempting to rescue a friend and his family during the same eruption of Mount Vesuvius that ultimately destroyed Pompeii. So, back to the strawberry tree, the scientific name for it is arbutus unedo and the unedo portion of the name is attributed to a comment Pliny the Elder allegedly made where he stated "unum tantum edo", meaning "I eat only one". (1).
Now back to my daughter and I eating this fruit and I can't say I've ever related so hard to an ancient Roman than I did in that particular moment. These fruits do not carry a lot of flavor and the texture is both strange and alarming. Imagine eating one of those gummy raspberry nonpareils, except the gummy part is mealy sludge and the taste is akin to a semi-flavorless peach. Needless to say, I'm with Pliny. One is enough and now I'm flying on pure faith that this three-plus month experiment is not going to become an absolute disaster. So forward we march!
The recipe for this is simple enough, for each cup of fruit we'll need 1/2 cup simple syrup and just a little over 1/2 cup vodka. I chose to use Svedka in this instance because the flavor profile seems to lend itself well to a fruit based liqueur and after combining everything in jars, I placed them in a dark corner of my wine cellar where they will quietly rest for at least the next 3 months. My understanding is this liqueur is a perfect substitute for the sweet vermouth in Manhattans so stay tuned for a future post detailing how the rest of this experiment goes. In the meantime, if you also have an abundance of strawberry tree fruits in need of a use, you can find the recipe below:
Strawberry Tree Fruit Liqueur
4 cups strawberry tree fruits
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2 1/4 cups vodka
Step 1
Wash strawberry fruits and remove any fruits that are bruised or overly mushy.
Step 2
Combine sugar and water in a pot and warm over stove until sugar completely dissolves. Allow to cool before proceeding to next step.
Step 3
Evenly distribute fruit, simple syrup, and vodka into jars and seal. Find a dark, cool place where you can promptly forget about their existence. Allow jars to sit for at least 3 months. (More is better) Also, be sure to date the jars, you know, just in case.
Step 4
Strain the liquid into a new container and throw out solids. Enjoy!
Looking for a follow-up to this post? Check out the results here!
References