God made water, but man made Wine- Victor Hugo

Happy birthday bhai! We dedicate this post to you. If not for your hard work we would not be writing here. Hope we learn and encourage each other in this unending journey from the plate to palate :)

People often ask me the secret of my marriage. I think they mean to ask how both me and my hubby survived this marriage with my feminist crap and volatile nature. I find it equally amusing at times too :) and now that we have completed five years of marriage, I have found the answer to this question. The reason we survived this marriage is because of mutual respect. We are both terrific planners, comrades, activity partners, great critics and passionate debaters before being husband and wife. We learn a lot from each other every day and we have accommodated each other so well, that its hard to separate our passions. This post is a clear cut example. These images were captured by my hubby. Despite his hectic schedule, he indulges himself in my passion- of cooking and food blogging. A lot of our conversations revolve around themes for posts, props, lighting and camera.

I don’t remember when my hubby began experimenting with food photography? When did he ever tell me he wanted to try his hand at shooting pics? We never discuss such stuff and before I realized, he was doing his part for this space. It so happened that he began wine making one fine day. He was all excited the first time with grapes then rice and finally when we reached strawberries, I knew we had a wine maker in the family. Not everyone is lucky to meet someone who shares your passion. But let me assure you, I never knew my hubby would be the guy he is today. Perhaps, on needs to hone those budding interests and skills, understand how one’s interests can merge with one’s partner.

This is the secret of my marriage. Love solved it all for me or maybe the food solved it all :)

This is a very easy wine to try or even begin wine making with. In fact with the strawberry season coming to an end it is the right time to make some strawberry wine. So grab a few boxes of strawberries and relax, yep wine making is a stress buster in itself. I don’t bother about getting high quality strawberries because eventually I ferment them. So what I mean is ou dont have to go around hunting for the best quality over priced strawberries, I got mine from a local market after a lot of bargaining and my wine turned out just fine.

We don’t use preservatives or additives in our wines and a couple of my friends tried out this recipe and their wines turned out well. However do be careful about the hygiene part while preparing wines. Use sterile jars, spoons. Wear a gloves while mashing the strawberries if you plan mashing them by hand (for fun). Boil and cool the water before using it. And here’s the recipe for the wine of the year :)

Ingredients for Strawberry Wine

Strawberries- 2 kg

Sugar- 1 kg

Sterile water ( boiled and cooled water)- 4.25 litres

Raisins- 50 g

Lemon- 1

Yeast- 2 tsp

Pink food colour- 1tsp

Directions

Wash the strawberries and hull them. I soaked them in salt water for half an hour.Boil the water and let it cool down a bit. Mash the strawberries and add them to the jar you plan to ferment them in.Add sugar and yeast to the strawberries and stir them with a clean wooden spoon preferably a new spoon.Add the water to the strawberries along with the raisins. Add the lemon juice and stir again. If you want to add colour to your wine do it now.Close the lid and leave the wine in your counter for a day. On day two activate the yeast in tepid water and add it to the wine.

Stir the wine and close it air tight.Keep stirring the wine once a day for the next two weeks. After two weeks filter the wine and store in an air tight container or bottles and store them in a cool place. When you filter throw away the strawberry extracts that have sedimented. Leave the bottles or jar untouched for two months. After two months filter the wine again and store them in streilised bottles and that’s when your wine is ready to use.

Note: Any impurity during the wine making process can turn wine into vinegar so use streilised spoon, vessels, bottles and maintain complete hygiene throughout the process.

We haven’t tried our next wine, I have beetroot on mind for the colour and mint for the flavour. Hubby dear says tea wine. I am gonna try one of them over the weekend hoping to have it ready for Easter and Sarah’s first birthday. Till then stay tuned. We are coming up with a series on overnight oats. Hope it will interest some of you.