Food & Drink
Cooking...
with Mrs Simkins
Hurry! Hurry! It’s Elderflower Time! Elderflower Cordial Creamy elderflowers, like fragile hydrangea heads, festooning the hedgerows are the essence of early summer and happily, you can bottle it! As aromatic as fine Muscat grapes with extra honey and citrus notes, elderflowers make the most perfect summer cordial. The season is short: from late May to early June, so rush out and gather your elderflowers while you can! For best results, gather blossoms on a dry, sunny day, choosing large, fully open ‘ripe’ creamy and gorgeously scented heads, with absolutely no trace of browning petals. Use immediately. Snip behind the heads with sharp secateurs at the first joint: the tree isn’t harmed and even gets a bit of a pruning into the bargain. Avoid taking all the flowers: leave plenty to develop into elderberries and to benefit wildlife. Gather the flowers away from heavy traffic and fume polluted areas.
Makes approximately 2 litres of concentrated cordial: dilute to taste 3 large juicy lemons, scrubbed, zest and juice Zest of 1 large orange, scrubbed 30-40 large elderflower heads 1½ -2 litres water, just boiled 1½ kg caster sugar (dissolves faster than granulated) Water to cover You will need 2 x squares of clean muslin and a funnel, plus 2 x 1 litre flip-top bottles or similar Grate the zest of the lemons and
Mum’s Kitchen... Apple and Oat Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce Serves 6 Ingredients: 3 or 4 apples, depending on size, peeled, cored and cut into rings 200g butter 200g light brown soft sugar 80g porridge oats 100g self-raising flour 1 tsp baking powder 75ml milk 2 eggs, beaten Method: Preheat the oven to 180c, fan 160c. Put the sliced apples into a baking dish measuring around 20cm diameter and 6cm deep (or a 17cm x 21cm rectangular 42
dish. Put 70g butter and 70g sugar in a pan and heat gently to melt. Increase the heat and bubble for1-2 minutes until it becomes a sticky sauce. Pour over the apples and set aside. Save the empty pan too. Put 70g porridge oats in a food processor and whizz until coarsely ground. Add the flour and baking powder and pulse to combine. Put the remaining 130g butter and 130g sugar in the pan used earlier together with milk and melt and combine over a medium heat. Add to the processor with the eggs and whizz briefly to combine. Tip the oat sponge mixture over the apples, then scatter over the
the orange into a large bowl. Squeeze the juice from the lemons and refrigerate. Remove any insects from the flowers by shaking very gently: don’t attempt to wash them, the petals and scent are too delicate. Strip the flowers from the stems with a fork – or snip the little stalks close to the flowers with kitchen scissors – straight into the bowl with the zest. Pour over enough of the justboiled water to cover; you probably won’t need all of it, the
measurement is just a guide. Cover and steep overnight. The next day, strain through a muslin into a roomy saucepan. Add the sugar and lemon juice, and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Stir occasionally. Once the sugar is dissolved, skim away any scum and simmer gently for a couple of minutes. Strain again and pour into clean bottles (see below) using a funnel and the second muslin. Bottles and Storage Sterilised (sterilise with hot water or run through dishwasher) glass bottles look traditional: keep in the fridge and use within 2-4 weeks. Alternatively, freezing works well and means you can save some for Christmas: it’s always lovely to have some on hand at this time. Use plastic drinks bottles, well-washed and rinsed in hot water. For best results, drink within a year. Individual juice or smoothie bottles are excellent for freezing small amounts and defrost quickly. MrsSimkins.co.uk twitter.com/MrsSimkinsCooks email: info@MrsSimkins.co.uk
with Diana Holman
remaining 10g oats. Bake in the centre of the oven for 4050minutes. You may need to cover it after 30 minutes if it is
browning too quickly. Test with a skewer just through the sponge. Serve with cream, clotted cream or ice-cream.
