summary: making blackberry cordial to mix with sauvignon blanc to make faux kirs

(click on image to see larger view)
Our wonderful next-door neighbour with the sunny garden came over with a tub of blackberries, saying that they had had a bumper crop this summer. Lucky us!!!

We considered making a blackberry crumble as she had suggested but decided we didn’t want to deal with picking all those seeds out of our teeth afterwards. So we thought we’d make some jelly.

Naturally, being the experts that we are (cough), we didn’t actually consult a recipe to find out how much pectin would have to be introduced to make jelly and/or jam. I know that cranberry has natural pectin and I think (but I’m not sure) that citrus fruit has natural pectin too. Being too lazy to ferret through the freezer for cranberries, I found a lime and we squeezed the juice of a lime into the boiling blackberries and sugar.

Then we pushed the sludge through a sieve and put the strained contents into the fridge to cool. No big surprise that we do NOT have jelly. So what. We had murmurred something about if it didn’t set, we’d have some cordial.

And cordial it is. Wonderful cordial.

We mixed it with Jackson-Triggs sauvignon blanc to make kirs. Yes, yes, I know. A kir supposed to be made with wine and cassis. Preferably aligote and cassis. Or champagne and cassis for kir royale. Or red wine and cassis for a cardinale. (click on image to see larger view)

So let’s say that our version is kir Canadien. Whatever. It is refreshing and fruity and just the thing to have as an evening aperitif on the patio in the late summer, listening to the cicadas hum.