Salve, Salve, Salve Fallernum

Sorry for the long break. Trips to Wales and a damned head cold have left me more than a little un-creative but today, full of cold, I decided to fix myself. A little research and a bracing walk in a storm force wind to the supermarket for some ingredients.

1 litre white Bacardi rum
2 oz fresh ginger ( julienned )
15 cloves
10 allspice berries
2 star anise
zest of 5 limes

This all went into a ziplock bag then into the sous vide for 2 hours at 60C

I made a simple syrup with 2 cups of caster sugar to one cup of water. You can spend an age with a jar shaking the mixture until all the sugar dissolves or put the whole lot in a pan and bring it to the boil. Simmer until all the crystals are dissolved then cool.

I juiced the limes and, once the cooking was complete and cooled, I mixed the simple syrup, lime juice and sous vide flavoured rum together and bottled it. 1.5 litres or so of comforting, warming Fallernum cordial. A perfect salve for a cold and a great addition to a cocktail.

There are a lot of old recipes for cocktails with Fallernum cordial and a lot of recipes for the same cordial. This is mine. A friend who owns a cocktail bar got a taste and proclaimed it needed nothing more for a perfect drink. I think it would be great with crushed ice and soda water. Another taster reckoned on tonic water. All I say is try it. Perfect right from the bottle for a cold or mixed for an old style cocktail.