A Festive Gin Menu: Oysters, Ham & Pavlova With An Archie Rose Twist
Impress your guests this Christmas with these delicious recipes created by Lucy Tweed from Every Night Of The Week. From oysters through to honey glazed ham and pavlova - this festive menu showcases clever new ways to use your Archie Rose gin.
GIN GRANITA FOR OYSTERS
Tops about 48 oysters or serves 8 as a cocktail
This granita is also delightful as a cocktail. Just serve in a glass with soda and a double measure of gin poured over the top.
Ingredients:
450ml water
215g (1 cup) caster sugar
1.5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled, finely grated
300ml fresh lemon juice
125ml Archie Rose Bone Dry Gin
Finger lime pearls, to serve
Method:
Dissolve the sugar in the water over medium-high heat for 4 mins. Add the ginger and increase to a simmer for 3 mins to thicken the syrup slightly. Cover and set aside to cool.
Add the lemon juice & gin to the syrup and stir to combine.
Pour the syrup into a square 22cm (base measurement) cake pan.
Cover with foil and place in the freezer overnight.
Use a fork to roughly break and mush up the frozen mixture.
Sprinkle directly onto freshly shucked oysters, then sprinkle with finger lime pearls and serve immediately.
GIN HONEY GLAZED HAM
Feeds a crowd
Wonderful for Christmas, but worth making year-round for the best ham baguettes ever - just add butter, fresh young pear, folds of tender juicy ham, spoons of stracchino cheese, dollops of dijon and loads of pepper.
Ingredients:
125ml blood orange juice (regular orange juice is also fine)
125ml honey
160ml Archie Rose Signature Dry Gin
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 tbsp dijon mustard
4kg leg of ham, skin removed, and fat lightly scored
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.
Combine the glaze ingredients over medium heat in a small saucepan until the mixture has thickened slightly - about 5 mins. Remove from heat.
Place the ham on a paper-lined tray, and place in the oven for 15 mins until the fat scores begin to open.
Brush the ham with the glaze and bake for an hour and a half, reglazing every 15 mins until it has become sticky and is warmed right through.
Rotate the ham while baking if needed e.g. if there are hotspots in the oven and the glaze is burning.
BLOOD ORANGE PAVLOVA WITH GIN STRAWBERRIES
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
5 egg whites, very cleanly separated from the yolk
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 ½ cup castor sugar (separated into 1 cup & ½ cup)
10 ml rosewater
1/2 cup blood orange marmalade, smooth or blended
1/2 tsp pink food colouring
300 ml thickened cream
1/2 cup castor sugar
8-10 strawberries, hulled and cut into matchsticks
1/3 cup honey
80ml Archie Rose Sunrise Lime Gin Harvest 2020
1 orange, zested
Frozen raspberries
Method:
Preheat the oven to 120 degrees celsius.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on medium until white and frothy. Add 1 cup of sugar gradually, 2 tablespoons at a time, until all combined. Add the cream of tartar once the egg whites are sweet and glossy.
Trace a 27cm circle (or dinner plate size) on a piece of baking paper with a marker. Place the paper marker-side down on a large tray with flat sides - use a spot of oil between the tray and paper to hold it still.
Use a large mitch spoon to dollop the egg white mixture evenly into a circle using the line as the outer rim.
Using a rubber spatula, combine the rose water, marmalade & food colouring with any remaining egg whites in the bowl and swirl the pink mixture into the edges of the pavlova.
Bake for 1.5 hours, and cool with a spoon in the oven door allowing the heat to only escape slowly. The collapse of this pavlova is to be celebrated, so embrace it.
An hour before serving, combine the strawberries, gin and honey to macerate. 15 mins before serving, white the cream with the remaining ½ cup sugar until it's sweet and fluffy enough to hold peaks but isn’t too hard.
Dollop the meringue wreath with cream, top with boozy strawberries, cover with orange zest and then scatter with the crushed frozen raspberries.