Rhubarb and Sloe Gin with Panna Cotta

This one is an eye catcher. It's really a Spring dish when the rhubarb is just coming through and last year's sloe gin has had the Winter to mature. But I'm including it this month because I just broke into a jar of rhubarb that I preserved earlier in the year.

If you don't have any rhubarb, try this with apples and berries, but halve the cooking time, or use uncooked fresh Fall raspberries sprinkled with a little powdered sugar then blended with a little water to a rough puree. If you can't get hold of sloe gin, you'll just have to make your own (my recipe is at the bottom of this post).

Serves 6

Rhubarb

2 pounds of rhubarb
1 cup sugar
8 tablespoons sloe gin
2 tablespoons water

Set the oven at Gas 4. Cut the rhubarb into short lengths, pulling off any strings as you go. Put the rhubarb into a glass, stainless steel or china dish (not aluminium as it will taint the rhubarb). Stir together the sugar, sloe gin and water then pour over the fruit.

Put the dish into the oven and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, depending on the youthfulness of your rhubarb. The toughest will take a good hour. Baste the rhubarb from time to time with the juices.
When the fruit is tender, remove from the oven and leave to cool a little. I think this is best eaten warm, rather than hot, though it is very good chilled.

Panna Cotta

2 leaves gelatine
2 1/2 cups cream
1 vanilla pod, split
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbsp dark rum

Soak the gelatine in a bowl of ice cold water until soft. Tip the cream, vanilla pod, vanilla extract and 2/3 sugar into a heavy-based pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Take off the heat and add the soaked gelatine (squeezed gently to remove water) and the rum. Stir thoroughly until the gelatine has dissolved fully. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug and pour from there into 6 moulds (ramekins or small glasses). Chill for at least 4 hours to set.

To serve: dip the moulds into a bowl of hot water to loosen them, then turn onto individual plates. Spoon fruit around base, drizzle juices over top.

JGH's Sloe Gin Recipe

1lb sloes

3 cups gin

1 1/2 cups sugar

Wash, dry and pick over fruit, removing stems. Freeze sloes for a couple of days (you won't need to do this if you picked your sloes after the first frost). Place fruit in a suitable, non-reactive container, add gin, shake twice a week for 4-8 weeks. Transfer most of the liquid to a clean bottle. Add the sugar to the remaining sloes. Shake twice a day until all the sugar has dissolved (about 2 weeks). Mix the sweet syrup with the bottled liquid, discarding most of the sloes but inserting a few into the bottle. Store in a dark cupboard for 3 months. Strain through muslin, reserving a few whole sloes. Taste, add sugar if a sweeter flavor required. Return to bottle with whole sloes. Allow to mature a further 6 months before using (if you can resist that long).