Meadowsweet Gin Fizz

I'm putting it out there...

As much as I love and adore Elderflower, I think it's time it took a break and laid the way clear for Meadowsweet instead! (stand back and awaits collective intake of breath...)

As a child, I was lucky enough to grow up in a household where we made the best possible use of our garden. This included quite a large fruit and vegetable garden that was about 50ft long by the width and a little bit more of our 1950's end of terrace house. This meant that all year round we had access to fresh and seasonal fruit and veg.

Meadowsweet Gin Fizz

Posted on by flavourie

I’m putting it out there…

As much as I love and adore Elderflower, I think it’s time it took a break and laid the way clear for Meadowsweet instead! (stand back and awaits collective intake of breath…)

I walk the laneways and boreens around the village where Flavour.ie is headquartered through all kinds of weather and all the seasons, year after year. I am always on high alert – noticing things, the slight annual variations on how, and what, is doing well or not so well. 2016 was probably the year of Elderflower. I had never seen so much of it flowering everywhere and with such huge flower heads; hedgerows and ditches pungent with their heady scent. Suddenly, everyone was making elderflower cordial and tonic water, continuing its steady rise to famedom, was beginning to be infused with it.

I’m not the kind of person who buys into fads and fashions. As soon as anything starts to look like a fad, I instantly get in a huff and march off in pursuit of something new. This is what happened with the Year of the Elderflower, 2016 AD. By 2017, everyone was on the bandwagon at which point I alighted to find my new thing.

At about the same time that Elderflowers were making their comeback, I had noticed a weedier version of it growing in the hedgerows. The stronger and more prevalent the flower became, the more intense its aroma as I walked by it – like the sweetest honey. My instinct told me that this plant that I had walked past and ignored for the last few years in pursuit of Elderflower was Meadowsweet. Cross referencing my books on wild food and hedgewitchery told me my instinct was correct. It also told me that Meadowsweet got its name from the old English name “Meade Sweet” because it was used to sweeten Meade (n.b the next craft spirit to come our way – trust me!)

My friend and allay in all things wild, April Danann, informed me that this honey-sweet smelling, weedy looking plant is up there as one of the most medicinal plants because you can use every part of it: the flower, the leaves, the stem and the root. If Elderflower is the X-Factor winner, Meadowsweet is the more talented, struggling artist. And I do love an underdog.

This year, I haven’t done this miraculous plant justice, as the only thing I could think to make with it was a cordial. I make cordial once a year, and it is usually Elderflower, but in a fit of fevered rebellion (well, maybe not fevered) I decided to ditch it in favour of my new fascination with Meadowsweet. “Surely,” I thought to myself “I just make this in the exact same way?” And I did.

I use the Elderflower cordial recipe from Darina Allen’s beautiful book “Forgotten Skills of Cooking” (a masterpiece of a book). The only thing I changed was that I added 14 Meadowsweet flower heads to the 10 Elderflower heads in the recipe, purely going by the fact that the flower heads are smaller and more delicate so in order to get a sufficient flavour from them I would need more.

Once the cordial is made of course there are endless uses for it: flavouring ice creams, desserts – panna cotta in particular (my favourite dessert!), and, of course, cocktails!

I decided to pair my Meadowsweet cordial with Dingle Gin, Blueberries and Mint for a surprisingly refreshing yet luxuriously delicious simple cocktail.

If you are quick, the last few Meadowsweet flowers are still in bloom. Harvest them, and see what inspires you. Else crack open the gin – either is good!

Ingredients (for 1 cocktail, served in a Champagne flute):

  • 10ml of homemade Meadowsweet cordial
  • 35ml measure of Dingle Gin
  • Blueberries / Wild Bilberries / Hedgerow Blackberries (any of these is good!)
  • Mint sprigs
  • Top up with any of the following: Fizzy water / Plain tonic water / Prosecco (any fizzy as long as it isn’t too dry, so I’d stay away from Champagne, it’s all about the Meadowsweet so don’t mask it with a dry fizz).

Method:

  • Pour in the Meadowsweet cordial, top with the measure of gin.
  • Add in your berries.
  • Fill to the top with your chosen fizz.
  • Garnish with fresh mint sprig.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Green Gooseberry and Elderflower Compote

Posted on by flavourie

As a child, I was lucky enough to grow up in a household where we made the best possible use of our garden. This included quite a large fruit and vegetable garden that was about 50ft long by the width and a little bit more of our 1950’s end of terrace house. This meant that all year round we had access to fresh and seasonal fruit and veg.

 

My sister and I were taught how to know when things were ripe for picking – a cunning way to deploy child labour. We learned early on what it meant to have a “glut” of something and also that this meant learning to be very creative to disguise the fact that we were having different versions of the same thing every day!

One such fruit that we always had a ridiculous glut of was gooseberries. Or, if you are blessed with a Bristolian accent like me, Guzbrizz. Small, round, green, hairy and tart. I feckin loathed them by the time I moved out of our family home. Never really touched a gooseberry since; except for recently when, as part of my #foodieproject2014* I find myself searching everywhere for green gooseberries. They have fallen a tad out of fashion apparently, and so this is why they are difficult to come by, unless of course you grow your own. But I had to get some because I also had spotted a load of wild growing Elderflower and in the spirit of keeping going with my #foodproject2014 I had to make Green Gooseberry and Elderflower Compote and defeat was not an option!

Cue panic buying gooseberries in the one place I could find them locally followed by a spot of ditch climbing and tree jostling to be able to harvest the Elderflower. Having just the right amount of both in my possession I made the compote. Quite a lot of it as it turns out and, contrary to my childhood memories, actually really quite delicious! It was clear I was going to have to think about what I could do with it all! So below is the very very easy recipe for Green Gooseberry and Elderflower Compote (courtesy of “The Festive Food of Ireland”, by Darina Allen) and some suggestions below for what to do with it all once you’ve made it – all delicious options!

Ingredients:
900g / 2lb green gooseberries, topped and tailed and washed.
3 Elderflower heads (decent size).
450g / 1lb white granulated sugar
575ml / 1pint of cold water
Method:
Put the elderflower head in a stainless steel pan, add the sugar and cover with water.
Bring slowly to the boil and continue to boil for 2 minutes.
Add the gooseberries and simmer just until the fruit bursts.
Remove the Elderflower heads.
Either decant into sterilised jars or set aside to cool for use straight away in any of the following ways.

Cakes
Mix the compote with whipped cream and use as an alternative filling in a sponge cake.
Fool
Mix the compote with lightly whipped cream and vanilla custard.
Decant into a serving glass / bowl and grate good quality white chocolate over the top (I suggest Green & Blacks)
Mess
Mix the compote with whipped cream, a little vanilla bean paste and crushed meringue nests.
Serve with a dusting of crushed ginger nut biscuits over the top.
Pavlova Topping
Use the compote mixed in with whipped cream, icing sugar and a little vanilla bean paste and spread over the top of a cooked meringue. Reserve a little of the compote to dot on the top of the whipped cream mixture.
Crumble Filling
Decant the compote filling into either one large pie dish or several smaller ramekins.
Make a crumble topping using oats and chopped pecan nuts mixed with a little ground ginger, muscovado sugar and some unsalted butter. Drizzle maple syrup over the top.
Bake in the oven until the fruit is piping hot and the topping is toasted and golden brown.
As an Accompaniement to Oily Fish
The sweet tartness of the gooseberries will cut through the rich oilyness of fish such as Mackerel and Herring.
It would also be a great accompaniement with fresh poached River / Rainbow Trout, served hot or cold.
Serve the compote cold with these dishes.

*#foodieproject2014 is my attempt at cooking my way through a book of Irish traditional dishes and their link to the seasons and festivals in Ireland. It is a book I picked up a couple of years ago from a second hand bookshop in Clonakilty. I’m about a third of the way through it and this recipe above is actually in relation to May Day but is delayed due to the fact that the gooseberries were not available to buy anywhere until now!

Kate Ryan

Food Writer

Secretary Irish Food Writers Guild

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