Birch Syrup and Whiskey BBQ Sauce

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As we're coming close to the end of the calendar year, we found that we have very little Birch syrup left from our Spring tapping. Although we have sold quite a bit, very few people actually know what to do with it.

Earlier this year, our Chef had cured some char with Birch syrup and coffee grounds. However, until now, we've not really had much chance to experiment further.

Among other things this week, we decided to make a BBQ sauce with some of our Birch syrup. We were inspired by a Yukon recipe. We're so impressed with the results, we felt this had to be the topic of our post.

The three essential ingredients to our sauce are: Birch syrup, our own Tomato relish (the recipe was covered in previous blog entries), and good old Canadian Whiskey.

Three essential ingredients: Canadian Whiskey, Ridge Berry Birch Syrup and Tomato relish

The recipe consists of:

250 ml Birch Syrup (one  bottle)
280 ml Tomato relish (one jar) - note: Ketchup could be used
250 ml Whiskey - reduced to half by boiling
150 ml Grape seed oil
4 Tsp Dijon mustard
4 Tsp Cider vinegar

The whole thing was simply put in a blender and the result was impressive, a golden brown sauce.

Birch syrup and Whiskey BBQ sauce

We had to try it on some great cuts of Canadian beef and the new BBQ we have now installed in the manor's new courtyard. For this, we marinated our steaks for no more than an hour.

Putting the new BBQ and courtyard to the test

The result was simply superb, thumbs up from everyone. In fact, this was probably the best steaks we've ever had (and we've been to a lot of steak houses over the years). The sauce maintained the juiciness of the meat. The taste was a wonderful BBQ flavour of sweet and sour. However what tied it all together was the flavour of the smokey, woody Birch syrup. We will definitely be doing this again ...and again over the years.

Aside from our farm work, we've also actually been getting ready for the Holiday season. In the background, we've been processing our own liqueurs; what we call the Ridge Berry Cassis, Framboise and Anise. This work actually started over 3 months ago when we were picking fresh berries from the field.

We jarred some of the berries and just covered them with a strong alcohol (Grapa is good but Vodka can be used just as well). After 3 months, the alcohol has been infused with the colour and taste of the berries. We filtered the berries and added half an amount of sugar for every amount of liquid. Over time, the sugar is diluted into the alcohol.

This week, it was time for us to bottle the results.

Our very own Ridge Berry Anise, Cassis and Framboise

What we now call the Ridge Berry Framboise and Cassis are liqueurs of Purple Raspberry and Black Currants. They are great as an after dinner digestif or even as a complement drizzled over sorbets.

The Anise was produced with our very own Fennel and some additional spices. The result is a licorice-like taste very reminiscent of the Pastis which is often served in the south of France. It will be amazing over ice during the Summer months.

Over the past couple of years, this city family has come to adapt rather well to the farm. We've also been rather surprised at some pretty mundane things. Earlier this year, we discovered that Potatoes had fruits. As some of our plants now go to seed this Fall, we were actually amazed to see how cauliflower actually flowers! It's a really beautiful plant.

So this week, for the city folks, we'll close with a picture of a flowering Cauliflower.

Flowering Cauliflower