Wine

There was a lot of backlash for my previous post. Homemade raisins? My friends and family couldn't believe I would waste precious grapes like that when instead I could have used them for more intoxicating purposes! To them I say, Fear Not! Of course, everytime I have a stockpile of grapes, the first thing I do is ferment a batch of my very special wine.  

You could say wine making is in my genes. My maternal grandmother did a professional course in food preservation, and with all the jams, jellies, pickle and marmalades, she also made vast quantities of sweet red wine. Bottles of which made an appearance even twenty years later. It is another matter though that being a teetotaller she never tasted a sip of the stuff. The rest of us, well, we were a 'happy' bunch! 

My paternal grandfather was quite the vintner as well. He was more experimental and apart from grapes, also distilled beetroot, carrot, apricot and mixed fruit wines. He was also known to brew his own beer at times. But that's a tale for another post. 

It comes as no surprise then that every year I distill a few bottles of the potent stuff for my friends and lazy sunday brunches. If you think wine making is complicated and time consuming, you are wrong. It really is the simplest. And requires very little effort on your part. After all, Nature does most of the hard work. 

Ingredients:

Grapes       2 kg

Sugar         1 kg

Yeast          1 tsp

Water         just enough to cover the grapes

Rum           1/2 cup (optional)

Method:

 Remove the stalks of the grapes and wash them thoroughly. Put them in a large glass jar with a wide mouth. Pour the water and mash the grapes coarsely. You can use your fingers or a potato masher. Add the sugar, mix and keep in a cool, dark place. Make sure the lid is secure. The next day, add the yeast to 1/4 cup luke warm water. When it froths, mix into the grapes. Cover and return to dark place. Let it stand for 21 days, ensuring you stir it with a clean, dry spoon every two days. On the 21st day, strain through a muslin cloth and add the rum. Pour into clean, dry and sterilized glass bottles. Store in a cool, dark place and leave to mature for two months. After two months, call over your friends and uncork a bottle for some good times!

Homemade Raisins

Its been a while that I've posted on the blog. That didn't mean I wasn't experimenting and turning my kitchen into a lab! The last I posted I was working my way through a large batch of oranges. Well, the oranges met a delicious end. And then came the avalanche of grapes. They found their way onto salads and fruit cream and the monster munchkin's snacks. But just when I thought I was done with them, a whole new bunch would make it to my fridge. This needed large scale tackling and I figured let me save them for a rainy day. Now the only way to make them last intact till the aforesaid rainy day was the sundried way aka raisins.

Now, i am a raisin phobe. Cannot abide those slimy squishy things in any dessert or cake. But hubby dear and monster munchkin like em well enough. And they are great for zinging desserts when we've got company. I trawled the net for various recipes and in the end settled for one I found between the yellowing pages of the first recipe diary I started at the age of ten! It is simple and requires practically no effort from my end, And a few glorious days later, I get rewarded with glossy, granola worthy raisins. It was almost like Farmville all over again!

Ingredients:

Seedless Grapes     1 kg

Water                      1 litre

Milk                        1 tablespoon

Method:

Remove the grapes from the stalk and wash them well. Boil the water and milk together in a deep pan. Add the grapes and continue boiling till the grapes turn a lighter green. Drain well in a colander. Spread out on a thin cloth under the sun. Cover with another thin muslin. After three to four days of bright sunshine, voila, the grapes are now golden raisins!