Elderflower Vinegar

Flavoured vinegars bring to mind a foodie gift that no one uses, in a pretty bottle from a posh deli. At least that was until I started experimenting with making shrubs; flavoured vinegars for drinks and cocktails, and suddenly I've become a bit more interested...

At Cook House at the moment we have vinegars infused with pineshoots, cherries, raspberry and black pepper, lovage and parsley, and most recently Eldeflower. I've got a long list of other things that I want to get on the go as they come in to season; full tomato stems on the vine, fennel, nasturtiums, gooseberries, rhubarb...

The Elderflowers are out everywhere at the moment, it seems to be a bumper year as I've spotted their big white blousey flowers waving at me everywhere I go. I have a good spot near Cook House that I pass when I walk down in the mornings so I filled a bag as soon as they appeared.

I've made batches and batches of Elderflower cordial in the past, but wanted to do something a bit more interesting with them this year, and something that I could add to the preserving shelves and use all year round. I'll have to think of something else to do with them too as there are just so many it seems rude not to.

I gave the flower heads a gentle shake to get rid of the tiny black bugs that love them so. Some of these will no doubt get in to the vinegar, but you can strain it through a cloth before you use it and it'll be fine. I went for the most straight forward approach for this vinegar, no heating or additional flavours. Simply fill a jar with flower heads and pour over good quality white wine vinegar. That's it. Give it a bit of a shake to get rid of any air pockets and then leave.

I've been giving it a bit of a swirl everyday and after a week the smell was delicious, really powerful Elderflower, stronger than the vinegar. Sometimes it can smell a bit sickly sweet for me so it works well in vinegar which balances it out. It is great in salad dressings, drinks or a spritz over BBQ'd meat or fish in place of lemon.

I have left the flowers in for two weeks so far and it is smelling and tasting very good. I strained some off to use in a cocktail at Cook House's Spring dinner evening last week (you can see photos here). We served 1 part gin, 2 parts lemon cordial, 1 part Elderflower vinegar and topped up with soda water. It was delicious! The cocktail aspect has definitely got me thinking about what to pop in the next jar of vinegar that might go well with a gin...

Elderflower Cordial

It doesn't feel right somehow, telling you how to make Elderflower Cordial while I have the heating on, rain beating against the window and am watching the fence nearly blow down in the ever present wind. I don't previously remember a year this windy; every day my container doors are blowing open and closed at Cook House and generally annoying the hell out of me. Where is summer?

A man came in the other morning for breakfast and remarked that he thought we'd had it, that brief spell in April, or was it May... and it filled me with sadness that that might actually be true; because all I'd been focusing on was that at some point, it must get nice, at some point perhaps I could go out without a coat on?

It rained nearly all day at Jesmond Food Market on Saturday, but on a very positive note that didn't put people off at all. It wasn't as busy as last month but it was still full of people shopping and eating all day, only this time they were wearing rain coats and were under umbrellas. I admire the British spirit, a bit of rain won't keep me from cheese and pies... oh no...

Back to elderflowers, lovely summery elderflowers... It surprises me each time I pick them just how much of elderflower they smell, it's really powerful. I picked a big bag full on the way down to Cook House the other morning, about 20 heads, that should make about 2 litre bottles of cordial. They are best gathered on a warm dry day, so good luck with that; and also when not fully opened yet, just on their way. The ones around the Ouseburn are pretty much spot on at the moment.

Pick out any insects that might be lurking and put the flowers in a big bowl, grate in the zest of 3 lemons and then cover with 1.5 litres of boiling water. Then leave the whole lot to sit over night. The next morning strain through a piece of muslin into a pan and add the juice of the 3 lemons and 1kg of sugar. Bring it all to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.

Pour the cordial into sterilised bottle and it's ready to use. So far I have used it in a salad dressing, as a cordial with fizzy water, in a cocktail with gin and soda which was delicious, and reduced a bit to drizzle over a lemon cake... 

I also experimented with leaving the elderflowers to infuse for a couple of days, and ended up with a really dark cordial, that tastes a lot heavier, I think I prefer the light bright one, but I might just be being deceived by the colour. Have a go and see what you think?