This week I made Elderflower cordial to celebrate the Solstice. I only just remembered it was the Solstice actually, my days all float together and often I am hesitant to say out loud which month (or even year) it might currently be. Only at school when we used to have to write the date out fully in the right hand corner of a fresh page each day in our exercises books was I certain of my date and time and place in the world. Long gone feels that notion!
So, yeah, sidetracked again, the cordial....
I blended recipes from The Guardian and Festivals Family and Food for this.
20 frothy plate-like heads of elder flowers
2 pts boiling water
1 lb sugar
juice of a lemon
Soak for 24 hours, muslin covered, stir a bit. Strain, decant. Ought to keep for a month. This recipe has half the amount of suggested sugar (it was supposed to be double what you read here) but it just did not need it I felt. I contemplated using honey or agave for the sweetener but changed my mind and used sugar - the flower scent and taste is so delicate I thought it might be lost with another heavy flavour in there. It is really lovely!
4 comments:
OMG you are going to get so many hits to your site for saying whipping out the booby LOLOLOL
I heard elderflower is meant to be really good for you.
you never mentioned how the sourdough went?? i made sourdough english muffins then yesterday i made just regular english muffins and my childre prefer the sourdough hands down..So got pics to share and what you thought of the sourdough process?
We make this cordial herewhere I live. I had never even heard of elderberry until I came to live in Austria. I´m going to try and cut down the sugar like you did. I also use the berries to dye wool. Using different mordants such as baking soda you get lovely pink shades. Very practical plant.
Sonia! I would LOVE your muffin recipes!! Please post them some where!
My sourdough is in the fridge right now. It took about 5 days to get bubbly, I was pretty ecstatic tho :lol Then I made the leftover grain sourdough... ummm it tastes too sour for anyone here to enjoy properly.
So I had to bung it in the fridge until more palatable recipes come my way. Can't wait to try out shawna's soaked bread recipe tho... Sick kids here right now tho mean my time is limited...
Can you post a link to your blog for me sonia? i seem to have lost it....
this is my blog http://joyfulhomemaker.blogspot.com/
this is the sd muffins http://joyfulhomemaker.blogspot.com/2008/06/sourdough-english-muffins.html
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