Home made citrus vodka recipe

[Penny Golightly]

Making your own citrus, or ‘citron’ vodka is a doddle, and it leaves you with a delicious batch of what’s most famously the main ingredient of the cosmopolitan cocktail. Oh yes.

Citrus vodka recipe
One 700ml (70cl) bottle of vodka
Peel from half a lemon
Two strips of lime peel (approx 3cm wide, 6cm long)
One strip of orange peel (approx 4cm wide, 10cm long)

•Wash the fruit thoroughly to get rid of any dust or wax.
•Using a very sharp knife, cut the rind away from the fruit, leaving as little white pith on the rind as possible – the pith can spoil the flavour.
•Put the strips of peel into a large, very clean, wide-necked jar and top up with the vodka.
•Stir well and put the top of the jar on tightly.
•If you don’t have a jar, you can put the peel straight into the bottle after removing a little of the vodka, but only if you’re sure you’ll be able to get the peel back out again afterwards.
•Put the tightly-capped vodka into a dark cupboard to infuse.
•After two days, shake the bottle and then test it for flavour. Most of the time it only takes three or four days for the flavour to develop, so test every day until it’s a strong as you like it.
•Once it’s infused, strain out the peel and discard it, then re-bottle the vodka.

Some people like to let citrus vodka mellow for up to three weeks before drinking, but it’s OK to start using it straight away. You might also like to add a little sugar syrup to sweeten it at the infusing stage, but I prefer it without. This infused vodka will keep for several months in a cupboard, and even longer if it’s lovingly stashed, ready for action, in your fridge or freezer.

The full post, with cosmopolitan cocktail recipe is at http://www.pennygolightly.com/2009/06/m ... rus-vodka/