Rhubarb gin

Throughout the year I’ll be offering various recipes using wild ingredients, while most will be instantly recognisable we wholeheartedly stick to the “if in doubt leave it out” method when it comes to foraging. If you’re not 100% sure of what you’ve picked, Please do NOT eat it!

While rhubarb isn’t strictly a wild vegetable, it does seem to pop up all over the place and is easy to identify with its beautiful pink/green stalks and large leaves. In this recipe, we’re blending the tart, unmistakable flavour of fresh rhubarb with botanical gin. Perfect for those upcoming warm summer evenings!

Rhubarb gin

Great as an aperitif, with your favourite tonic or try mixing with ginger ale for a classic rhubarb and ginger drink. For an extra tangy, rhubarby flavour you can repeat the process with another 500g of rhubarb stalks and infuse for an extra three weeks.

Makes: 20+ servings

Cook time: 3 weeks to infuse

Equipment:

• Chefs knife

• Chopping board

• Mason jar

Ingredients:

• 1kg rhubarb, roughly chopped

• 450g caster sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 ltr gin

• 1 tbsp pomegranate syrup, optional

Instructions:

Place all ingredients into a mason jar, cover the top with a layer of clingfilm and seal tightly. Most recipes ask you to pick only the young pink stalks to give the final gin a nicer colour. For me, the final colour isn’t really an issue but to give you a nice pink finish if using older greener stalks add the pomegranate syrup with the rest of the ingredients.

Shake the jar vigorously then store in a cool dark place for 3 weeks, giving the jar a good shake every couple of days.

Once sufficiently infused, strain into a sterilised bottle or jar and store in a cool dark place for up to a year.

Download recipe here

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Happy cooking!

Stu