Picking and plucking

On a day that started with me walking to work in -15.5C weater I thought we really need some sunshine and happiness.

What can you find in the centre of town, that is beautiful and you can enjoy in a gastronomic way?

A little path into some unused land

A girl in sandals and a dress

And some elderflowers just wanting to be picked.

They are full of flavour an scent.

You can also find some beautiful wild flowers.

All of this behind the national library on wasteland in the middle of the city.

Once we get home we strip the flowers.

Then we weigh them out.

wow, all those flowers and only 45 grams.

Next we rim the fresh ripe strawberries

Slice them

Then cook with a little sugar (but not too much)

Once they are cooked through you have an elderflower and strawberry jam. Screaming sunshine!

You should respect your Elders. I do.

It is elderflower season here in Warsaw, and they are everywhere! They are only out and in the best state for about 2 weeks so, I encourage people to get out pick some and use them (don't pick them all from one tree though as the bees need something and there will be berries later on). Pick the ones that look consistent in colour and "creamy". Your hands should get a good covering of the pollen, and if you are like me, it will bring on a wave of sneezing, running eyes and boogers to the extreme, but it is worth it in the end. You can add the flowers to drinks, pancakes or jellies. Or even make a syrup, or champagne. You might remember two years ago I made the champagne in glass bottles....(here), I am not making that mistake again! This year it will be plastic bottles so there are no explosions in the middle of the night.

So what is this?

Well it is part of a gummi making session. I really enjoy eating gelatinous masses and so have always wanted to make good elderflower flavoured ones.

These were pleasant, but my wife wanted me to make them without pig trotters. So, we had a think about it and came up with alternative.

In the mean time I needed to bottle my syrup. I have made 4.5L so far this year as last year it was used up by about the end of August!

As I could convince my wife to allow me to make champagne again, I thought I would try a different method from last time.

flower plucker

A long day of flower plucking a head

With the champagne I am not as fussed about a few stems getting in there as they don't soak for very long.

But for the jellies they need to be more delicately worked. Some people use a for to take them off, but I find fingers are more effective and more fun.

Sometimes you need some respite, so some gin, lime, and tonic are good friends. Even without the lime you get a really lovely floral hint in the glass.

The delicately plucked for the next syrup which will use lime instead of lemons.

The second bath of lemon based elderflower syrup.

Some flowers that will dry to make elderflower tea.

Drying in the winter balcony

The lime based syrup will steep for 3 days.

The new jellies are based on Agar Agar a seaweed based gelling agent.

they actually set more firmly than the standard gelatin agent

And they are pretty tasty too.

So the recipes:

Jellies:
a full cup of flowers only (no stems)
5-10g of citric acid (it is up to you how tart you like it)
130g sugar
250ml water (post boil)
45g powdered gelatin or a tablespoon (14ml) of agar-agar.

It is really simple. Boil your kettle. While that is boiling away, mix together the dry ingredients, including the flowers. Let the kettle boil and sit for say 5-10 minutes, in this time use a light vegetable oil to very lightly grease your molds (you can just use a baking tin if you want and cut into squares once it is cooled). Then simply mix together the hot (not boiling) water until there is no graininess in the mixture and the spoon moves easily though it. I use a bowl that has a spout in it to make the pouring into the molds easier. You can either let these sit to cool, or if you want them quickly put them in the fridge. This makes enough to last me about a week.

Syrup 2.5L
2 Lemons washed, rind removed and then juiced.
as many heads as you want, I use around 20-30 depending on size.
25g Citric acid
950g sugar
2.5L water

Combine the sugar, acid lemon rind, juice and add to a pan along with the water. Bring this to the boil. Let it boil away for about a minute then add the flowers and continue to boil for a minute or 2. Then put into a large sterile preserving jar (it is best to pre-heat this with warm water so that the jar doesn't break when the boiling liquid is added). Seal this quickly so as to prevent contamination. Let it sit to cool, I normally put mine on the window sill on a towel. Once cool, put in a dark environment for 2-5 days (the longer the stronger the flavour of the flowers and lemons) shake it every time you walk past where it is kept just to get the steeping to be most effective. Then when you are ready to bottle, sterilise all your equipment, funnel, bowl, bottles and lids of course. I normally just wash all my bottles in the dishwasher, when I am finished and then when I want to use them again just sterilise with boiling water quickly. When bottled they will last about a year (but you WILL drink them before then.)

With pancakes, we normally make spelt pancakes and just make a slightly wetter batch to add 2 or 3 large heads of elderflower to them. Easy peasy Japanesey.

That time of year again

Oh yes! We are back from holidays in Sicily and now it is one of my favourite times of the year. Elderflower time!

This year I am planning to make; Elderflower syrup, Elderflower jelly, Elder-gummis, and Elderflower champagne again...... fingers crossed that no one dies with the last one.

Today I had a couple of free hours, so rather than go for a jog, although after all those Italian pastries that may have been a good idea, I went to my secret spot of elderflowers hidden away from pollution and prying eyes and picked me a quick bag.

 They just smell divine and sweet as it is.

But to that I added some sugar, water, lemon juice and peel, and some citric acid to make about 4.5L of syrup. This will steep for a few days and then be strained and bottled. mmmm I can't wait. Also, I chose some of the prettier flower heads to dry to be used as tea later, in winter.

There are two recipes as follows for these two bottles.
2 x lemons (rind and juice)
990g of white sugar (I have tried brown before but it makes it look off)
20g Citric acid
30 heads of flowers (removing as many stems as you can be bothered)
2L of water

and

2.5L of water
1kg of Sugar
25g Citric acid
2 x lemons (rind and juice)
30-40 heads of flowers

Instructions:
Remove flowers from the stems, you will always have some stems in there but the more you remove the better as they are supposedly toxic. I just use my fingers to pluck them off.
Remove rind from lemon and juice and add to the flowers.
Dissolve sugar and acid in water and get to a boil
Then add the flowers/lemon mixture and continue to boil for at least a minute.
Then set aside to cool, I put it in my big jars but anything you can cover to stop it getting infected would be fine.
After a few days strain through some muslin or just a sieve (the latter will give a more cloudy mixture but still tastes great).
Then add to water, sparkling water or even more fun sparkling wine.

Enjoy!

Elderjelly

I had a little inspiration one day. My dietician aka Creamy aka Smietanka aka Mrs Pepe told me I should eat more gelatine based sweets because my knees need it. Who am I to argue with her now? So I wanted to try and make my own rather than buy all these things with additives. I wanted something like a wine gum but something natural and not too sweet. So I fell onto the idea of one of my favourite flavours in the world - the elderflower. So, off I went all the way down stairs and across the road to a tree to pick two bunches. Yes, it was that hard to collect.

I read a few sites on the net about making these things but I didn't want to make them too sweet, where many say to add sugar and a normal jelly mix and gelatin I tried it a little differently.

Shake out the little creepy crawlies

I used M&S sheet gelatin as I could only find powdered gelatin in the shops I looked at.

Then I proceeded to cut away the greatest parts, I wasn't too anal about it, just the thick bits

Then I soaked it in the boiled water. For about an hour. I kept aside a handful of the prettiest flowers

Sheets, pretty cool things.

I also wanted a little tart so added half a lemon (juice only, but next time I will add rind I think)

Then I added the sugar, lemon juice and the handful of other flowers to a bain marie and stirred gently till the sugar dissolved.

I added some to the fridge to make this "normal" jelly

It was really delicate and not too sweet. But not, the consistency I had hoped for, as it was more like jelly than a gummibear type thing.

Another section I added to a silicon baking sheet and put into the freezer.

They came out like jelly blocks and were really lovely, especially in hot weather.

You can of course see the flowers inside

cute.

So the recipe for those interested, even if it wasn't what I had hoped for:

2 big white (try to get without dead flowers) elderflower heads
450ml Boiled water (use hot to extract maximum flavour)
4 1/2 sheets of gelatin
50ml of cold water to add to the gelatin
200ml sugar
juice of half a lemon

-Cut away all the flowers removing as much of the green bits as possible (you could use a fork, but I have a really fine pair of scissors on my Swiss army knife perfect for this)
-Add flowers to a bowl and pour over the boiled water (straight from the kettle is best)
let soak for at least half an hour, the longer the better of course. Due to the beautiful smell of these flowers you may want to cover the bowl to stop bugs coming to taste it.
-Cut up the gelatin into small pieces and dissolve in the water
-When you have finished soaking the flowers strain them and squeeze out as much liquid as you can, as in the end this is your product.
-Put the liquid into a bay marie over a low heat, then add the sugar and lemon juice stirring to dissolve the sugar I found a soft spatula works best.
-Once it is dissolved sprinkle in the handful of leaves you saved. Mix them but no need to leave it on the heat for this.
-Leaving the bowl over the pan add the gelatin and stir until it has dissolved and there are no lumps. With this volume it should be quite quick.
-Then pour into your molds, tray, pan whatever you are using and let set in the fridge or freezer.
-When set, eat it.