The boy and his poison: Hendrick's Gin Sorbet

Here's some life advice for you: don't shop online when you're drunk. Don't even entertain the idea. While I slowly passed out on Thursday night after an evening of vodka tasting (2-week home distilled Ukrainian vodka isn't a mid-week lifestyle choice I'd recommend) I was feeling pretty smug at the achievement of doing my weekly grocery shop and managing to eat leftovers simultaneously. Fast forward to Saturday morning and me surveying the shopping whims of a drunk-idiot-savant. However, there is a silver lining to this gloomy cloud.

One of my ill-conceived purchases was a job lot of cucumbers, sadly no BOGOF offer, no coupon, I'd just evidently decided the website probably wouldn’t have understood my initial click so I decided to keep hammering the mouse regardless... so what to do? Make a ton of tzatziki, distribute cucumber sandwiches to all my neighbours? It all seemed a bit of a wasted opportunity, especially when I’d seen a recipe for pimms jelly with cucumber sorbet earlier in the week. I’m not a massive jelly fan and I felt the sorbet could try that little bit harder, which was when I noticed alcohol could be used instead of an egg white to stop it setting solid. So I made the decision to reform my idiotic drunk shopping choices into gin sorbet, wrong and delicious on every level.

You'll need:

• 180g Sugar
• 25g Squeezable glucose (easy to pick up in good supermarket baking sections, promise)
• 200ml Water
• 100ml Hendrick's Gin
• A cucumber
• Juice of 1.5 Limes
• Handful of mint leaves

Make it:

1. Bring the sugar, water, glucose, and mint to the boil
2. Add the lime, stir till mixed and take off the heat
3. While the syrup is cooling blend the cucumber with a hand blender or better still pass it through a juicer. 
4. Allow the syrup to cool by either letting it rest for a few hours or popping it straight in the fridge
5. When cooled add the syrup and gin to the cucumber and blend again with a hand blender
6. Pass through a sieve into a resealable container ( I added a bit of the pulp for colour)
7. Place in the freezer and stir every hour or so to break apart the ice crystals (if you're lucky enough to have an ice cream maker, feel free to drop the mixture straight in it and let it do the hard work for you)
8. Serve it with a sprig of mint and some tart summer fruit, or put your feet up and spoon it straight out of the tub.