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`Spirit' of the season
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Here are two tried and tested recipes for making wine.
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HEADY: Enjoy homemade wines this festive season
IT'S CHRISTMAS time. The time to wine, dine and be merry. And no Christmas feast is complete without a wine.
"Wine can be had at any time of the day, even with a heavy meal, Perhaps that is why people go in for wine instead of hard liquor for Christmas,'' says Leela Mathew, a homemaker who has been making her own wine for the past several decades. She also gives it to many of her friends and relatives.
"Wine with lunch is a must for foreigners. But in my childhood, we had never heard, let alone tasted, wine," says Leela. "Local wine is sweeter, maybe our climate has a lot to do with this. With less sugar, the fermentation process will be quick and more, thus changing its taste. So it is imperative that we add more sugar, making it sweeter," says Leela. A lecture on wines at the YWCA triggered Leela's interest in wine. She honed her skills by making wines from differetn fruits. Her milk punch and ginger wine are proof of her expertise in this field.
How does she manage to make her wine so different? "An Anglo-Indian friend of mine gave me a recipe to make my own yeast. I still use homemade yeast, which increases the taste of the wine I make," she says. But the recipe to make that yeast? "It is a closely guarded secret," she says. Choosing the right fruits for the wine, boiling it and using clean porcelain containers for storing the wine are important prerequisites. Bangalore grapes (purple grapes with seeds), used to make red and white wines, are mashed to test its quality. If its juice leaves a red colour, they are considered good and fresh. "I go to the market and take my time while choosing the ingredients. This ensures the quality of my wines," Leela adds.
The more a wine stays, the tastier it becomes. A professional wine taster rolls the wine in his mouth to determine the quality and age of the wine. Wine is generally prepared in porcelain jars and stored underground in dark and dry cellars. While making wines at home, small enclosures like a wooden shelf can act as a cellar.
Here are some of the wine recipes you can try at home.
White Wine
Ingredients:
Black grapes 3 kg
Sugar 4 kg
Yeast 1/2 tsp
Boiled and cooled water 10 bottles
Egg white and crushed shells of 2 eggs
Whole wheat 1/4 kg
Method of preparation
Mash the grapes with your hand and mix it in the water. Add 2 kg sugar, yeast dissolved in a little water, egg white and shells. Keep them in a porcelain jar for 21 days. Stir it daily. Then strain the mixture, add the remaining 2 kg of sugar and keep it for another 20 days. At the end of this, the wine will be ready for consumption.
The procedure to prepare red wine is also the same. But when the sugar is added for the second time, caramelise it for that deep red colour.
Orange wine, pineapple wine and beetroot wine can also be prepared using the same procedure. Even tea decoction can be used to make wine.
Milk Punch
Ingredients
Milk 1 bottle (750 ml)
Water 1 bottle (750 ml)
Brandy 1 bottle
Sugar 1 tbsp
Nutmeg (powdered) 1 number
Powdered cinnamon, cloves a pinch each
Lime juice of 6 limes
Method of Preparation
Mix well sugar, water and brandy. Add lime juice. Caramelise the sugar and slowly pour into the mixture. Do not stir. Pour it into a jar. Tie the mouth of the jar with a piece of cloth and keep it overnight. In the morning, strain the mixture through a cloth. If it is not clear enough, strain it till the liquid is clear. Bottle it and use it after two or three days.
AMBIKA VARMA
Photo: V. Sreenivsa Murthy
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