Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Vodka

10 Festive Makes and Bakes

From Christmas gifts for teachers and local friends, to canapés and cocktails for all those parties, I’ve pulled together a cracker of a round-up of my absolute favourite makes and bakes for the festive season. So grab a glass of mulled wine, blast out those cheesy Christmas tunes and plan your shopping list!

Gifts

1. CHRISTMAS SPICED CRANBERRY & PLUM CHUTNEY

Spiced Cranberry and Plum Chutney

It only takes twenty minutes to make this delicious chutney, and it goes with a whole host of Christmas goodies like your Christmas day roast, cold cuts or how about a baked Camembert? Jar it up, add a pretty label and you’ll have another present ticked off your list. This recipe makes two jars, so one to give and one to keep – perfect!

Grab the recipe

2. CREAMY SEA SALTED FUDGE

Sea Salted Christmas Fudge

Another quick and easy option for gifting is a batch of indulgent creamy fudge, packaged up in smart boxes or popped into cellophane bags tied with pretty ribbon. My version is flavoured with vanilla and sea salt, which always transports me right back to British seaside holidays. Your friends and family will delighted when you hand them a little bag of these sweet treats.

This recipe is featured on JamieOliver.com.

Grab the recipe

Canapes

3. COD, CHORIZO AND PEA PUREE BITES

cod, chorizo and pea puree bites

These elegant canapés should impress your party guests this season. Combining fluffy white chunks of cod with a feisty slice of chorizo on a bed of buttery pea puree, this is a one-bite experience not to be missed!

Grab the recipe

4. MAKE AHEAD LEEK & POPPY SEED SAUSAGE ROLLS

Sausage Rolls

Once you make your own sausage rolls, there really is no going back! Gorgeous flaky pastry and top notch quality sausage meat makes for an exceedingly crowd-pleasing party canapé. Crucially, you can get them ready in advance and just bake as needed, so it’ll save you faffing about in the kitchen when you could be enjoying yourself!

Grab the recipe

Christmas Baking

5. RICE KRISPIE HOUSE

Rice Krispie House

This cute little rice krispie house is a great project for little people (and big people) and it’s a great alternative when you feel like making something, but don’t quite have the energy for full-on baking. Let’s face it, we’re all exhausted at this time of year!

Grab the recipe

6. MINCE PIE CUPCAKES

Mince Pie Cupcakes

If you’re looking for a festive twist on a batch of Christmas cupcakes, then you should check out my Mince Pie Cupcakes – made with a vanilla sponge, mincemeat and a luxurious brandy butter icing. You can decorate them with sprinkles, coloured sugar or some retro-picks.

7. WHITE CHOCOLATE MALTESER CAKE

Malteser-Cake-1-of-1-2

Or how about this simple but spectacular White Chocolate Malteser Cake? It makes a wonderful centrepiece for a party spread, and is a great swap-in for a fruit-cake if your family aren’t fans.

Find both recipes here

Cocktails

8. APEROL SPRITZ

Aperol Spritz

Let’s kick off with a round of Aperol Spritz cocktails – I think the jewel-bright orange colour of these 19050’s inspired drinks are perfect for the holiday season!

Grab the recipe

9. GIN & RHUBARB FIZZ

New Year's Eve Cocktails

What better way to get your New Year’s Eve party started than welcoming your guests with a glass of Gin & Rhubarb Fizz. It’s fruity, classy and fun – just like all the perfect party hosts should be!

Grab the recipe

10. POMEGRANATE & VANILLA VODKA

I love how achievable this recipe is! You could make this and give it as a gift, but you could quite easily keep it to share at parties this Christmas. It’s also brilliant for defrosting the grown ups when they’ve got back in from all those frosty family walks or trips around the park with the kids test-driving their new bikes and scooters!

Pomegranate Vodka

Grab the recipe

Hope some of these recipes appeal to you! Let me know if you make any by tagging them with #renbehanfood

I’ll be back soon to share a couple of festive recipes from my new You Tube channel.

Homemade Citrus Infused Vodka for JamieOliver.com

It’s all going on! As Easter approaches, I’m happily marking the one-year milestone of writing a weekly blog for JamieOliver.com. My very first post was published just before Easter last year and focused on the Italian dish of lasagne as an alternative to a traditional Easter Sunday lunch, with a second Easter post focusing on the perfect roast. Since then, I’ve been able to settle into my ‘home-from-home’ writing about a whole host of foodie topics, which have included ideas for cooking with kids, as well as themed round-ups and highlights of some of my favourite hand-picked recipes from Jamie’s site. I’m marking my second year by taking a slightly new direction – my blog posts will now often feature some of my own exclusive recipes and photos. There are always plenty of exciting things going on at Jamie HQ. Most recently, the team marked the launch of a brand new site dedicated to all things drinkable Drinks Tube and so in my latest post, I’ve joined the party by contributing an exclusive recipe for a homemade citrus infused vodka – based on my Polish favourite Cytrynówka. I hope you’ll be able to pop over and read some of the posts over in the News and Blogs section of the JamieOliver.com site in the weeks (and hopefully) months to come!

Citrus-Infused Vodka - Cytrynówka for JamieOliver.Com
Citrus-Infused Vodka – Cytrynówka for JamieOliver.Com

I’d love to say a big thank you to Jim Tanfield for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the team and for guiding me editorially throughout the year. A second shout-out goes to Merlin Jobst, as well as to my fellow bloggers, who are all brilliantly placed to share some of the coolest content on the web.

Get the recipe here –

You can find my recipe for Homemade Citrus Infused Vodka and follow the rest of my posts here on JamieOliver.com

Ren Behan is a freelance contributor to JamieOliver.Com

Citrus-Infused Vodka

Other infusions/cocktails you may enjoy –

Pomegranate and Vanilla Vodka

Rumtopf or Rum Pot

Ren’s Gin and Rhubarb Fizz

What’s your favourite cocktail or sunshine tipple?

 

Keep or Give: Pomegranate and Vanilla Vodka

I’ve got the bug – the preserving, gift making, home brewing, bottling bug. It began when I made the Purple Fig and Pomegranate Jam from Salt Sugar Smoke. I realised then, with a few simple instructions, how easy it was to preserve – the process was no longer shrouded in mystery. I was also lucky enough to get some expert tips from Vanessa Kimbell whilst making greengage jam, which I’ll be posting about soon. Next came the Rumtopf, or the spiced rum soaked fruit and now, influenced by my Polish roots and partiality to vodka, I’ve been making these gorgeous little bottles of Pomegranate and Vanilla Vodka. Having followed Vanessa’s adventures and recent trip to Uganda, I now always look out for and use Fairtrade Ndalli vanilla. By complete coincidence (although you won’t believe me) when I placed the bottle, pomegranate and ribbon on the table, they arranged themselves exactly like this – two heart shapes. The kink in the ribbon was entirely natural, it must have been the way it was wrapped.

Pomegranate Vodka
This vodka is so easy to make, I promise you. I’ve seen a few pomegranate vodka recipes, in particular this one in Woman and Home, but I haven’t seen the combination of pomegranate and vanilla and I thought it would work well. A little bit of ribbon and a homemade gift tag, and you’re well on your way to making your own Christmas gifts.

Pomegranate Vodka

There is one really important thing to remember when preserving or making bottled gifts – you must sterilize your jars or bottles (and funnels, if using) but this is easy.

How to sterilize your equipment/bottles and jars

  • Boil them in plain water
  • Wash them in hot soapy water then put them in the oven (lids, too) at 170 degrees Celsius
  • Put them through a dishwasher cycle

NB The Kilner bottles I used had plastic or rubber stoppers, so I put mine through a dishwasher cycle rather than in the oven. Jam lids are usually fine in the oven. Fill your bottles or jars when they are still hot.

The alcohol preserves the fruit, but I also always use spirits which are 40% ABV.

Pomegranate Vodka

Pomegranate and Vanilla Vodka

This makes enough for 3 x 250ml  bottles or a large 1 litre preserving bottle

Ingredients

  • 120g or 2/3 cup fresh pomegranate seeds (roughly the amount from one large pomegranate or a packet)
  • 3 Fairtrade vanilla pods (I used Ndalli pods)
  • 75cl bottle vodka (40%ABV)
  • 220g or one cup sugar
  • 240ml or one cup water

Method

  1. Sterilize your bottles and funnel, if using (see above for How to Sterilize tips)
  2. Put the pomegranate seeds and vanilla pods into sterilized bottles or one large litre Kilner jar. Carefully pour in the vodka.
  3. Put the sugar and water in a pan, boil for a few minutes until the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool slightly.
  4. Pour the cooled sugar syrup into the vodka and shake well. Store in a cool, dark place and shake every few days.
  5. Before drinking or giving as a gift, strain the vodka into a newly sterilized bottle or container, removing the pomegranate seeds.
  6. Pour the strained vodka into three smaller sterilized bottles, adding a pod to each one and a few fresh pomegranate seeds.

Pomegranate Vodka

After just a couple of days, the vodka has turned a beautiful translucent peachy colour. When you shake it, you see pretty specks of vanilla.

Pomegranate Vanilla Vodka

Exciting – my first photo taken with a macro lens!

I’m sending this across to Laura and Nazima’s One Ingredient Challenge, this month hosted by Laura at How to Cook Good Food with the challenge of using The Pomegranate.

Have you been getting a head start on making any Christmas gifts yet?

Other Christmas gift posts you may like –

 

 

Vodka and Honey Braised Ribs

Well, the summer (ahem, excusing the miserable weather) of sport has begun with the start of the Euro 2012 football contest hosted by Poland and Ukraine. Eight matches have already taken place and tonight, the vodka is at the ready for Poland’s game against Russia. If you are watching any of the games and fancy making some Eastern European-style snacks, here’s my tasty recipe for Vodka and Honey Braised Ribs. In Poland, spare ribs are called Żeberka and it’s very common to have Żeberka w miodzie, or Ribs in Honey. My twist is to add a little shot of vodka (or two) to the mix. The method comes from my brother, who makes the best ribs in town. His trick is to simmer them slowly in some stock or water first before braising them in the oven. Try them, and then say ‘Nazdrowie!’ with a shot or two of the liquid ingredient! Oh, and don’t throw anything away; use the stock that you’ve simmered your ribs in to make a flavourful soup. 

[gmc_recipe 5248]

Enjoy the football!

Which sporting event are you looking forward to the most this summer?