Escape To A Sparkling Moment With Rosie Birkett and Highland Spring

Rosie Birkett’s Highland Highball: The ultimate festive cocktail, smoky peaty whisky with ice, rosemary syrup and Highland Spring Sparkling water. 

Glass: Collins 

Ingredients:

1 shot of peaty whisky (such as Islay Malts like Laphroaig or Bowmore)
50ml rosemary syrup
Highland Spring Sparkling water
Garnish: rosemary sprig orange wheel

Method:

Fill a Collins glass with ice and a wheel of orange. Pour over 50ml peated whisky such as Islay Malts and 50ml rosemary syrup and top up with Highland Spring Sparkling water. Garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary and orange wheel. For the orange wheels, finely slice your orange and place flat in the oven on baking paper at 70 degrees for 3hrs, turning halfway through.

Perfectly served with…

Grilled langoustines with seaweed butter  

Ingredients: 

8 langoustines, split (or frozen king prawns)
150g unsalted butter  
handful of hazelnuts
1 garlic clove  
1 shallot 
dried seaweed such as dulse (or other seaweed, found in Waitrose or Ocado)
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Method: 

Split the langoustines or prawns down the middle and take out the digestive tract. To make the seaweed butter, blitz the shallot, garlic and hazelnuts in a food processor with a tablespoon of the chopped seaweed. Then add 150g of butter, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice and blitz again. Refrigerate until needed. When you’re ready to cook the langoustines, put them cut side up on a roasting tray and dot with the butter. Grill 3-5minutes until the butter has melted and flesh is cooked.

Rosie Birkett’s Charred Mandarin Ginger Spritz: A refreshingly fruity winter mocktail with a kick.
 
Glass: Old fashioned/rocks

Ingredients:

2 mandarins, peeled, pith removed and segmented 
2 tsp lavender honey (found in most delis or Ocado)             
thumb of ginger, roughly chopped 
tbsp pomegranate seeds
Highland Spring Sparkling water

Method:

Heat a non-stick pan over a high heat. Add the mandarin and char the pieces until part-blackened and about to burst. Put the ginger into a blender with 2 tbsp water and blitz. Strain and reserve the ginger juice. Setting aside a couple of the charred segments for garnish, muddle the rest of the segments and strain the juice over ice into an old-fashioned glass. Drizzle in the honey and add a shot of the ginger juice and the pomegranate seeds. Stir, top up with Highland Spring Sparkling water and garnish with the flowering thyme.
 
Perfectly served with…

Rosie’s Roasted Figs: with blue cheese, hazelnuts, honey and thyme

Ingredients:                                             

8 beautiful fresh figs

200g blue cheese such as gorgonzola 
100g blanched, skinned hazelnuts
bunch of fresh thyme
Good quality runny honey 
Extra Virgin Olive oil 

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Score the figs in a cross that’s not too deep but large enough to make an opening for the cheese. Cut the cheese into squares and stuff inside the figs. Place on an oiled roasting tray and season with sea salt and black pepper. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. Roast for approximately seven minutes. After seven minutes take the figs out sprinkle with the hazelnuts and thyme and drizzle with honey. Cook for two more minutes. Serve warm.

Rosie Birkett’s Forager’s Fizz: Blackberry shrub, foraged rosehip and juniper syrup and Highland Spring Sparkling water makes for a show-stopping winter feel-good mocktail.
 
Ingredients: (makes about 500ml of rosehip and juniper berry syrup)

500g rosehips, washed (or cranberries)
500g caster sugar tbsp juniper berries (found in most supermarkets)
1.5 litres of Highland Spring Sparkling water
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Method:

Chop the rosehips and crush the juniper berries. Bring half the water to the boil and add the rosehips and juniper, returning the mix to the boil and simmering for 8 minutes.
 
Strain the liquid through muslin, then return the pulp to the pan with the other half of water, bring to the boil as before and repeat the simmering/straining process. Discard the pulp, clean the pan and return the liquid from both strains to it with the sugar. Bring to the boil and continue to boil rapidly for about 10 minutes, until you have a thick syrup. Turn off the heat, add the lemon juice and allow to cool. Pour into a glass bottle.
 
The Blackberry Shrub (makes 1 pint)

Ingredients:
500g blackberries, washed
800g caster sugar                                    
About 500ml red wine vinegar
 
Method:

Place the blackberries in a bowl and cover with the sugar. Gently stir to combine and make sure the berries are coated with the sugar. Cover with a clean dish towel or muslin and leave in a cool, dark, dry place for 48 hours to macerate. Strain the mixture through a sieve so that you’re left with the blackberry juice. Add equal amounts of vinegar and whisk to dissolve the sugar. Funnel into a glass bottle and store in the fridge until ready to use.
 
To assemble the cocktail:

Glass: Champagne flute
3/4 blackberries
3 juniper berries
50ml rosehip and juniper syrup 10ml blackberry shrub Highland Spring Sparkling water

Garnish:

Blackberries, for garnish fresh bay leaf, a rosehip with stalk
 
Method:

Place the blackberries and juniper berries in the bottom of the champagne flute and muddle gently with the end of a wooden spoon. Pour the rosehip syrup and blackberry shrub into a cocktail shaker and shake over ice. Pour over the blackberries and top up with Highland Spring Sparkling Water. Garnish with the bay leaf and rosehip.

Perfectly served with…

Rosie’s Blinis: smoked trout with horseradish crème fraiche and chive

Ingredients:

1 pack of shop-bought blinis
150g hot smoked trout
4 tbsp crème fraiche
1 fresh horseradish root
1 tbsp creamed horseradish
a bunch of chives
squeeze of lemon juice 

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the blinis on a baking sheet and bake for 5mins, turning half way through. In a bowl, put three tablespoons of crème fresh, one tablespoon of creamed horseradish and grate in a two-centimeter piece of horseradish root. Season with salt and pepper and a tablespoon of chopped chives. Flake the smoked trout in a bowl and squeeze lemon juice over it. Once the blinis are golden, remove from the oven, allow to cool for a couple of minutes, then spoon on the crème fresh. Arrange the smoked fish over the top and garnish with extra chives and grated horseradish.