I thought I'd just get in a quick post between job applications and planning!
Another busy day, but with some time to do nice things with my granddaughter.
She stayed over last night and almost as soon as she got here she asked if there was any ginger wine.
She loves ginger wine (non alcoholic of course - we're not starting her on the slippery slope yet!)
Flic describes it as a "tickle" in her throat.
When she found out we had none left she immediately said that we needed to make more "for grandad".
It being almost bedtime I promised we'd make it this morning, and that is how I came to be making ginger wine at 8.30am on a Sunday morning.
Luckily it's not difficult to make using a bottle of Riddles Ginger Compound. (Doesn't the very name sound so wonderfully vintage?)
You simply take 2lbs of Sugar and add it to 5 pints of boiling water, then leave it to cool. ( I cheat and dissolve the sugar in 2 pints of boiling water then top up with 3 pints of cold) You then add your bottle of ginger compound, stir well and bottle - simples!!
It made enough to fill these three bottles as well as half fill an empty wine bottle. The instructions on the bottle say to add a campden tablet to each bottle if you want to store it, but I don't bother - partly because I try and keep our exposure to chemicals as low as possible but also because it's so delicious it never really lasts long enough to warrant it. If I remember rightly I paid £2.99 for the compound in Holland & Barrett, but bought quite a few when they were buy one get one free. That makes the total cost about £1.50 for the compound plus 97p for the sugar. A local shop sells the made up "wine" for nearly £3 a bottle.
The compound also comes in "extra hot", I've got a few bottles of that in the cupboard but haven't made it up yet. Though Dave's looking forward to trying that one it might be a little too tickly in the throat for Flic.
The last time we made this Flic took a small bottle of it home with her but complained that it ran out too quickly, so today she went home with one of the big bottles shown above which of course had to be labelled "Felicity's Ginger Wine"
