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!

Elderberry Wine - well let's hope so!

So we will return to Torun in the next blog. But, just a quick alcohol related note. You may recall me making some Elderflower wine, champagne and cordial. Well the wine has matured after about 3 or 4 months in the demijohn and has made a magnificent floral white wine. It looks something like this on a nice warm day when chilled.

So if you don't pick all the flowers you end up with some berries remaining later in the year. Also, if you remember to go and pick them you can make some wine, apparently. I found when I got to my harvest ground that someone who was sneakier than I, had already been and pillaged the area. Luckily, they must have been short as there were still some berries on the upper branches, but the wind had thinned out the density somewhat. I even picked a few dried bunches as well just to try and get more flavour into the wine as I was worried that I didn't have enough. I have never tried to make it but, most recipes called for like 1.5kgs of berries. I only had about 450g, so, we will have to see how it goes.

So now a quick little wine making maths:

This

Minus this

And this

Gives you these

And then later this.

So the crushed berries have now been added to 2.5L water, some sugar (500g), some citric acid (1tsp probably too much to be honest) and some yeast (1 packet of red wine yeast) of course. We will see what happens, it isn't bubbling away with any intensity yet, but we will hope to hear it soon!