Snapshots from the UK: Elderflower: Pressé, Collins, and Jell-O
Elderflowers. Photograph by Smoobs on Flickr
English gardens may be world-renowned, but what most people around the world don't know, is that the English eat them! Well, not exactly. They eat elderflowers, which always remind me, when I taste them, of eating a perfect, fluffy, and white English flowerbed.
The Elderflower Pressé is common place in England: elderflower syrup mixed with soda, and comes deliciously prepackaged. That was the first English secret garden flavor I discovered. Then I came across an Elderflower Collins: pressed elderflowers, green, green mint, lemon juice, gin, and soda. It is to date the greatest cocktail I have ever tasted.
But the thing that positively shocked me was a dessert that I found first at the chain restaurant Carluccio's, and then at the chain packaged food store EAT: Elderflower Jelly with Berries. Jelly means gelatin to we Americans, and the dish is an English answer to our canned fruit salad suspended in Rit-dyed, Bundt-molded Jell-O.
I hesitated, and then I tasted. It's, to use an English expression, brilliant. The flowery jelly is hardly sweet, and is punctuated by the sweet and tart of the blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries respectively. Every time I taste it, I am surprised but how unusual it is, and am always refreshed and enlivened by it.
Just another reason to respect your elder(flower)s!
Have any of you tried Elderflower? I've found it here in the States at Ikea.
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13 Comments:
When I lived in London I bought elderflower cordial and elderflower sorbet at Waitrose. Delicious! I have never seen anything like it here in New York, though.
jrmanor at 7:52PM on 12/17/08
Crown 116 in New Haven makes an Elderflower Collins, no mint, but tasty
zyang07 at 7:58PM on 12/17/08
Isn't St. Germain liquer (sp?) made with elderflowers? I recently tasted it, and found it good.
Likeswords at 8:38PM on 12/17/08
Pimm's with Elderflower Cordial and lemonade, with whatever fruit you have on hand cut up and added. Hard to beat.
NotAmerican at 8:50PM on 12/17/08
I had the elderflower-flavo[u]red soda from Tesco when I did a semester in Edinburgh...it's actually pretty brilliant with Korean food.
missmanders at 9:01PM on 12/17/08
Just last week I found Elderflower Pressé at World Market! I'd never tried it before but am enchanted with it. I'm intrigued by the Collins or sorbet idea...
lissame72 at 9:18PM on 12/17/08
Whoa, the elderflower jelly at EAT is new! (ok, newer than 2006 - I've been away too long)
DTSSer at 11:54PM on 12/17/08
Elderflower is big in Denmark, too, and I have various drinks made with it quite often. Good stuff.
mongoose at 4:55AM on 12/18/08
The soda is sold at markets here in Cleveland. I love it because it reminds me of a soda I drank while I was in Japan. My coworker brought a few jugs at one of our office parties. All everyone did (but me) was to complain about how it tasted like dishwashing soap. Poor thing...but more for the two of us!
Cassaendra at 12:07PM on 12/18/08
Last time I was in New York I went to the Jeff Koons exhibit on the roof of the Met. They had cocktails to match each of his large pieces on display. I had the Balloon Dog. It was vodka and elderflower and sparkling pear juice. It was insanely good. The best cocktail I have ever had, hands down.
GretchinF at 12:57PM on 12/18/08
I do love elderflower liqueur with proseco. Delish!
Laurel E at 1:43PM on 12/18/08
foragers used to bring elderflowers and berries to my restaurant. i made a elderflower "champagne" with them. also, tried a recipe for tempura battered elderflowers. it was okay. a nice crunchy dessert garnish.
dmarina at 4:03PM on 12/18/08
I was working a conference one summer in Oxford. Groups do conferences in the colleges all the time: especially American groups who want that 'Oxford' experience. This one in particular was a bunch of Southern Baptists from below the Mason-Dixon, and I was out on the quad serving pre-dinner drinks. We had elderflower pressé and iced tea. My academic advisor walked by and asked if I could pour him a glass of champagne on the sly, but when I told him that there was no alcohol to be found, he threw his hands up into the air and asked what the point was. Unfortunately, that's my primary memory of elderflower.
shoneyjoe at 4:51PM on 12/18/08