When we went to the allotment recently I was pleased to see that the rhubarb was starting to grow. There were some lovely bright pink stems just showing and new green leaves. We had moved three rhubarb plants from our old plot to the new one a few weeks before Christmas and the soil in the new bed wasn't as good as the previous one so we weren't sure how well they would do in the new plot. The plants had done really well last year and we had frozen a good amount of it. We love rhubarb crumble in our family, but when you have so much rhubarb you need to find other ways to use it up. Which is why when I was making blackberry and raspberry gins before Christmas, I was pleased to find a recipe for rhubarb and ginger vodka. Ginger and rhubarb go really well together and this drink is just wonderful. I made it a couple of months before Christmas. I found a few different recipes, so I just tweaked them a bit and used the basic method I use for the blackberry and raspberry gin.
Rhubarb and ginger vodka
600g rhubarb
300g caster sugar
3 inches of ginger root
Zest of one lemon
70cl bottle of cheap Vodka
Pour the sugar into the bottom of a large sterilised jar (it should have at least double the capacity of the amount of vodka you’re using, and be airtight). Clean the rhubarb and slice it into 1inch chunks and put it in the jar on top of the sugar. Slice the ginger (no need to remove the skin) into coins, and toss it in along with the zest of a lemon, pared carefully with a knife into wide strips.
Pour over the vodka, seal the jar and shake well until all the sugar has dissolved. Then give it a shake every day for a week or two.
Leave it at room temperature (it’ll be fine sitting on a shelf in the kitchen) for two months, at which point the rhubarb will look disgusting and grey, having given up all its juice and colour to the now pink vodka. I stored mine in a cool dark storeroom as I didn't read the recipe properly!
Strain the mixture through a sieve into sterilised bottles. This liqueur is even better if you leave the finished bottles to mature for six months or so, but can be also drunk immediately.
