Thus far the Autumn has been unusually warm and so it was with real delight that I stepped out yesterday morning to see frost silvering the garden and to feel a definite chill in the air. It’s finally time to light the Aga, bring the log baskets in from the shed and to cosy up in cable knits – and, of course, to start indulging in cold-weather fare!
My mind is suddenly humming with recipes for soups, stews, pies and puddings, and is occupied with all of the beautiful produce that’s now available – mushrooms from the woods, apples, pears and quince from the orchard, and rosehips and brambles (wild blackberries) from the hedgerows.
Blackberrying is an activity that I particularly love at this time of year, and one that has become something of a ritual of the changing seasons. When I was a child the field behind our house was filled with brambles and my mother would send me out to fetch them in a Tupperware pot. My memories of these days are steeped in nostalgia. I recall the golden fronds of wild grasses, blackbirds flitting from branch to branch, fingertips stained purple from the haul.
Now as idyllic as this may seem I also remember looking into my pail and feeling downright disheartened at the paucity of the load. Let’s face it, with any kind of wild berry picking, sometimes the effort isn’t really reflected in the size of the harvest. Unless there are many hands to help, the enormous pie you had planned can turn out to be saucer-sized.
Here then is a recipe to celebrate this lovely fruit that requires minimal picking effort. Only a handful of blackberries are required per drink and as they are muddled it doesn’t matter if they’re not the prettiest of specimens.
In this cocktail I’ve paired the sticky blackberries with Herradura Reposada tequila (an excellent smooth tequila with notes of honey and sandalwood and a good spicy finish), Cointreau and lemon juice . The addition of aromatic sage leaves introduces an almost savoury element and makes this drink feel truly autumnal.
Ingredients
60ml Tequila Reposada
6 Blackberries
4 Sage Leaves
15ml Cointreau
30ml Lemon Juice, plus extra to salt the glass
Dash of Orange Bitters
Salt
Extra Blackberries and Sage Leaves to garnish, if preferred
Method
- Muddle the blackberries and sage leaves in a shaker until fragrant.
- Salt the rim of your glass by dipping it first into a saucer of lemon juice and then a saucer of salt.
- Add the other ingredients (except for the salt) to the shaker and shake briefly over ice – it needs to be very cold but not too diluted.
- Strain into your glass, either straight up or on the rocks, and garnish with extra blackberries and sage leaves if preferred.
