Appreciating the elderflower cordial glut

So much more than a drink! I accidentally made more of this than I can drink and give away, so am experimenting!

Recipe number 1:

Mixed salad leaves with elderflower dressing and wensleydale

Make the dressing by mixing oil, a light vinegar and some elderflower cordial. Add to mixed salad leaves (I used amorina, nasturtium flowers and mountain spinach). Cut some creamy semi-soft cheese into chunks and throw together (I used wensleydale with cranberries).

Gorgeous! Just finished eating this and I want some more!

Is good served with something zesty - I ate mine with tuna cous cous mixed with a bit of balsamic, some dill and cashews.

Recipe number 2:

Sausage casserole with tomato and elderflower sauce

Fry up sausage rounds, small pieces of bacon, onions and chunks of sweet red pepper. Once browned, add tinned chopped tomatoes, a splash of elderflower cordial, salt and pepper and as much chilli as you fancy. Eat immediately or put in oven in a covered dish to soften down for as long as you care to leave it (I left mine for an hour).

Great with creamy mash or baked potatoes and greens of your choice.

recipe number 3:

Sweet chilli sauce

The elderflower gives this a really nice fresh taste.

Finely chop and fry garlic, onion, chillis and ginger.
Add vinegar and tomato puree, simmer for a bit, then turn heat off, cover and leave on the side for a bit.
Add more vinegar, lime juice and zest and elderflower cordial + some extra sugar. Simmer for up to 30 mins.

Great with homemade fishcakes and potato wedges

Pear and elderflower cakes

This recipe makes 12 lovely moist muffin style cakes with chunks of fresh pear inside, bronzed sliced pear on top and a hint of elderflower throughout. They're a little bit fiddly - mainly cos of doing the sliced pear on top, but if you're in a rush just miss that bit out.

100g butter
1 cup (220g)caster sugar
2 eggs
2tbsp elderflower cordial
half cup of milk
2 cups (300g) flour
2 tsp baking powder
half cup (75g) ground almonds
1 1/2 pears
splash elderflower for frying with
optional dusting of icing sugar

- Thinly slice 1/2 pear and fry in elderflower cordial
- cream butter and sugar together
- beat eggs and very gradually mix in with butter
- mix in the 2tbsp elderflower cordial + the milk
- add and mix flower, baking powder, almonds and 1 chopped pear
- divide between sections of muffin tray and lay pear slices on top
- cook at 190C for 15 - 20 minutes
- when cool, dust off with icing sugar.

Great hot with ice cream or yoghurt.

We freeze vast quanities in 2litre ex ice cream tubs and drink it throughout the year but have never tried using it in other ways....the muffins sound extrememly yummy!

Thanks Zoe. Yeah, they're pretty good!

And yes - we've just got so much of the stuff left over from last year we've almost got sick of drinking it - which would be a terribly sad situation to be in cos it's so yummy, so I'm trying to use it in different ways to prevent myself from starting to dislike it as a drink... if that makes any sense... And it turns out to be fantastic as a substitute for sugar or honey in just about everything I've tried so far.

It's even good as a sneaky ingredient - I tried putting some into some hummus I made the other day that was a bit too sharp and needed some sweetness to take the edge off. The result certainly wasn't a sweet hummus, but you could just about tell the elderflower was there and it kind of filled out the flavour somewhat - gave it a bit of a light, fragrant edge to balance up all those earthy sharp tastes you get in hummus. Really good!

Rhubarb and Elderflower Fizz

Use your left over rhubarb water from boiling rhubarb and mix 50 50 with soda water and add a dash of elderflower cordial. Lovely refreshing summer drink.

budburst12 wrote:I'm trying to use it in different ways to prevent myself from starting to dislike it as a drink

I know what you mean! Its just too easy to make vast amounts.

I was thinking of using it as a syrup to add into the pears when they are bottled...

ooh yeah, I bet that'd be really nice - the flavours worked really well together in the cakes I made..