Tag: elderflower

Elderflower cordial

Posted in Drinks, RecipesTagged , , 7 Comments

elderflower cordial

We have been drinking rather a lot of homemade elderflower cordial in recent weeks. It’s a wonderful thirst-quencher on hot, sticky days, served diluted with iced water, soda water or lemonade, but more than anything I love the actual process of making it, which is so simple and fills the house with the most incredible and evocative elderflower perfume.

A few people have been asking for the recipe, so I thought I’d better post it quickly before the elderflower season comes to an end.

We’re lucky here in Somerset as we seem to be surrounded by elder trees and the flowers are there for the picking wherever you turn. But you can find elderflowers practically everywhere. As I drive to and from work in Bristol, I find myself spotting those beautiful bunches of white blossoms along the roadsides, down little lanes and in so many gardens and even on building sites, so it really isn’t a difficult flower to forage.

Elderflower Collage

My oldest daughter Jessie likes to help me harvest the elderflowers. She’s getting so tall these days, which is helpful for picking the biggest, whitest blooms – the ones that always seem to be right at the top of the tree.

elderflower lemons

Making elderflower cordial is ridiculously easy and you don’t need a long list of ingredients, although it does require a fair bit of sugar and do make sure you have a muslin cloth to hand for straining before you get started. The straining stage is the bit I like best; I enjoying  using my hands to squeezing as much sugary-syrupy cordial as I can from the bundle of cloth, and at this stage the scent of elderflower is almost overwhelming. To me, it’s the essence of an English summer. I don’t use citric acid in my recipe; instead I make sure I store my cordial in a cool, dark place or in the fridge.

elderflower cordial

Elderflower Cordial

Makes around 2.5 litres

plastic bagful of elderflower heads
3 unwaxed lemons, zested and sliced thinly
1.5kg sugar

Don’t wash the flowers. Simply shake them out to make sure there aren’t any bugs hiding in there. Place them in a large bowl, together with the lemon zest and slices.

Put the sugar in a large saucepan with 1.2 litres of water and very slowly bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Leave to cool for five minutes and then pour the sugar syrup over the elderflowers and lemons. Leave to cool, cover with a clean tea towel and leave somewhere safe for about for 24 hours.

Strain the mixture through a sieve lined with a clean muslin and decant into sterilised bottles. Seal and store in a cool, dark place or in the fridge.

Serve  diluted with water, lemonade or soda water. It’s also delicious poured over a fruit salad and or in this glorious elderflower and rhubarb fool. I plan to try making elderflower ice cream in the coming weeks.

family-foodies

Elderflower cordial is the perfect refreshment for a family picnic so I’m entering this recipe into June’s Family Foodies challenge, hosted this month by Lou over at Eat Your Veg where the theme is Barbecues, Picnics and Outdoor Eating, as well as July’s Family Foodies challenge (this time hosted by yours truly) where the theme is Chill Out, Baby!

SimpleinSeason

And since elderflower cordial is both Simple and in Season, I’m entering into the blog event of the same name hosted by Ren Behan.

 

Rhubarb and elderflower fool

Posted in Puddings and desserts, RecipesTagged , , , , , , 9 Comments

Rhubarb Fool Collage

Could there possibly be two more quintessentially English ingredients than rhubarb and elderflower, I wonder? (Now that I’ve written it, even the word quintessentially looks quintessentially English.) For me, these two flavours perfectly conjure up an English summertime and they come together so beautifully in that oh so English of desserts, the anything but foolish fool.

My daughters and I picked bags full of elderflowers from the fields at the back of our house a few weeks back and we had a go at making ourselves elderflower cordial for the first time. I can’t believe I’ve never made it before. It’s the most deliciously refreshing of drinks, especially when mixed with sparkling water, which we took to calling elderflower fizz.

To use up the last of the cordial I whisked it into double cream and the end result was so incredibly fragrant and divinely delicious I could have eaten the whole lot straight from the bowl just as it was. But instead I combined it with a rhubarb puree to create the most heavenly fool imaginable. Yes, this pudding is most definitely an English summer in a glass.

 

Rhubarb and elderflower fool

Serves 8 to 10

700g rhubarb
juice of 1 orange
80g caster sugar
300ml double cream
4 tbsp elderflower cordial

Chop the rhubarb into 1 inch chunks and place in a saucepan with the orange juice and caster sugar. Place over a low heat and bring the rhubarb to a gentle simmer.

Cook the rhubarb slowly and stir occasionally until the rhubarb is tender and beginning to fall apart. Remove from the heat before it’s completely turned to mush, and leave to cool before placing in the fridge.

Put the double cream and elderflower cordial in a large bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks. Taste, and whisk in a little more cordial if you think it needs it.

Spoon a little of the chilled rhubarb puree into glasses or bowls, followed by some of the elderflower cream. Continue layering until each glass or bowl is full. Serve as it is or perhaps with a little shortbread biscuit on the side.

rhubarb and elderflower fool

As this is such as superb summer pudding, I’m entering it into August’s Four Season’s Food event hosted by Delicieux and Chez Foti, for which the theme this month is Summer Puds.

fsf-summer1