Elderflower Ice Cream and Undisciplined Digressions

Thanks to June, of the excellent Bread, Water, Salt, Oil, I schlepped out to IKEA, primarily to pick up some elderflower cordial, with which to make some wonderful ice cream. You do not see a picture of that ice cream here for reasons involving greed. I made the award winning recipe June linked to, and believe it deserved all the glory. I had hoped to make the perry and berry jelly to go with it, but am thus far unable to find pear cider here in the 'burgh. Of course, no trip to IKEA takes place without some unplanned purchase, so I now have some very nice picture frames as well, and have spent the afternoon framing a couple of rolled up David Lance Goines posters which have been sitting in my closet for over a year.*

I first tasted elderflower cordial in England a few years ago, and was smitten. I love it on ice, mixed with sparkly water and with food. especially. Elderberry bushes can be found in untended, overgrown areas everywhere around here (sadly not on the carefully "landscaped"-within-an-inch-of-its-life grounds of the building where I live, of course). But we North Americans don't make much of our elderberries, missing out on possibilities for wines, cordials, and jams, unlike the wiser-in-this-regard Europeans.

After reading June's recent directions for making the cordial, I've been scanning around for some neglected elderberry bushes, with low thoughts of trespass and pilferage. No luck so far. (I have, however, begun harvesting the burgeoning mulberry tree which stands, ignored by all but the birds, right by my bus stop. Last year, I picked enough for a mulberry ice cream, which was nice, if a bit over-subtle. I prefer to view myself as naughty, and Tom Sawyer-ish, rather than as a thief, per se.)

Anyhow, the elderflower ice cream is gorgeous, and I cannot recommend it too highly. I have become a total convert to eating food with flowers, a practice I once viewed as silly in the extreme. Quite a lot of them taste really good...squash blossoms, lavender, rose jelly...who knew?

*The reason these were unframed is that I have no current wall space for them. They will definitely have to go to work, as my office is the only place with remotely enough wall space for them. My walls at home are pretty well covered, and I recently rearranged everything to hang a favorite painting, inherited from my mother, over the dining room fireplace. There's no more room to wriggle, it's just full up around here.

As I generally take a bus to work, they may be a while getting there. Meanwhile, all this stuff takes up way more space now that it did a couple of days ago, when it was rolled up, along with an extra-giant , still unframed "Once More with Feeling" poster, which may be unsuitable for the office anyway, I suppose. The thing is, as an ex-custom picture framer (7 years worth, between college and law school), I know a bargain frame when I see one. You can't get standard sized wood frames of a similar simplicity and reasonable quality anywhere else, for anywhere near the rock bottom price. I don't seem to be able to pass them by. I do usually add my own stretched brown paper dust backing, as that is simple to do, and requires no tools beyond an exacto knife and a sponge.

The elderberry print is from Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597. Lavishly illustrated, this reference book is an interesting mix, text-wise, of early botany and fantasy. It has been a source for a number of artists and designers, including,e.g. William Morris, whose copy can be seen at his house museum in Walthamstowe, in Essex. He is said to have referred to it constantly, and I think you can see that in his fabrics and wallpapers. My partial reproduction (circa 1960), which I bought used, has mildly alarming handwritten notes from someone apparently engaged in some kind of spell-casting.

Comments

[Tanna]

Elderflower Ice Cream with the cordial sounds pretty grand.
I always look forward to your Undisciplined Digressions, Spell casting on the print - I like that.

[Elizabeth]

Ah another Elderflower post--lovely...or should I say brilliant?! And synchronistic with my discovery of this blog just two days ago, while looking for Elderflower cordial. I loved the blog and then found out - behold! a fellow Pittsburgher wrote it. Although I am now of the diaspora variety, I have often considered moving back to my wonderful mountains and three rivers. The mysteries of Pittsburgh indeed.

The ice cream sounds delicious. I will try it on my next ice cream foray.

I too discovered elderflower cordials in England, while breakfasting at the V&A about 6 years ago with my mother. They offered this beautiful and slightly delivate OJ and EF cordial over ice that was heavaenly (of course, as we noted, it was surrounded by the V&A which is pretty much heaven in a big box. I soon found it at Waitrose (what a frikin store!) and drank it in my hotel room while I was there. In fact, I think I did alot of eating my room on that tour, but I diverge.) It blew me away. I've ordered it a few times since off the Internet - Belvoir Organic is an excellent brand that I've found; although with shipping, it's PRICEY stuff.

Fresh (a supermarket here in Columbus) has a Belvoir product called Presse, which is a sparkling water with elderflower. It's good but not as flexible as the cordial. Is the IKEA stuff as good as the Belvoir?

Here is something wonderful on a summer's night - combine about 1/3 elderflower Presse (or maybe a few Tbsp of cordial) with Prosecco, the Italian's superior interpretation of a champagne -like wine. Oh, it is soo good.

SO, I love your blog and wish I had the same time and drive to cook as you. An inspiration!

[ilva]

As a Swede I have grown up with elderflower cordials etc but sadly I have to admit that I have never made my own despite the fact that I have lots of it growing around here where I live in Italy. My mother always picked the flowers from the bush in her garden and froze them so that she could use them all year round. I'm ashamed to say that I don't even that...your post made me realize that I have to it next year!

[farmgirl]

Forget the ice cream (OMG I can't believe I actually just typed that), let's talk about David Lance Goines! Why am I not suprised to find that you have some of his work? He's one of my favorite artists, and I, too, have posters that sadly haven't seen the light of day in years. I really must remedy that. Lack of wall space is a problem here as well, but I know art should be looked at, not tucked away in storage.

Thanks for the poster reminder--and the chicken name nudge. I'm waiting to see who turns into a rooster. Unfortunately I think at least 3 of the 7 are getting ready to cock-a-doodle-do! anytime now. . . : )

P.S. I LOVE that they're house is now called Graceland. That still has me laughing out loud. You always leave the best comments, Lindy.

[farmgirl]

P.P.S. I forgot the most important question: Which posters do you have?

[robin]

National Public Radio (NPR) just had a report last week about pear cider (perry). If you go to www.npr.org you can locate the report, which includes links to US importers of European perry. They don't produce very much and export even less, so there is a very limited supply. You might be able to find it in the 'Burgh at a wine shop. Good luck! The NPR report had me salivating to sample the "perry."

[lee]

Yeah, I bought a whole case of the stuff last time I was at IKEA. I haven't used it as much as I should. (Isn't it crazy how you can want something so BADLY and then as soon as it's in your possession you forget about it?)

However, there was that Saturday where the dairy people at market were out of the smaller sizes of cream so I got a 1/2 gallon of farm fresh cream. I know. I had never seen a 1/2 gallon of cream before either. Anyway, I made elderflower ice cream by just mixing the cream with the cordial to taste and churning it. Heaven on earth.

[Dayna]

You can find elderflowers at IKEA?
Fantastic, thank you!

[Judy]

Yes! Let's cook with flowers. This summer I've been making preserves: elderflower apple jelly, for one. Then I found a place over the river in PA (I'm in NJ just a couple of miles from the Delaware River) where they're growing 15,000 lavender plants. Niko was gracious enough to sell me a huge bunch of Grosso lavender, and did I have a ball. I developed recipes and made peach lavender jam, apricot lavender jam, and blueberry lavender jam. All excellent, attributable in large part, I think, to the fact that all the fruit came from orchards within 15 miles of my home. Cannot get better than this. What a summer. Fun, fun, fun.

[zephyr]

i too, love elderflower cordial
and stash as much of the Belvoir as i can get my hands on at one time.
i attempted to make my own this summer, with American elderflowers (Sambucus canadensis), but it was a huge disappointment. Our elder shrubs are a different species than the European shrubs )Sambucus nigra)...which must account for the dramatic difference.
it's worth attempting to grow the European species...just to have my very own flowers to make my very own cordial.