Recipes for elderberry

Elderberry Vinegar - Good enough to drink:

Ingredients:
400g ripe elderberries
500ml red wine vinegar
700g white sugar
Method:

Put the crushed elderberries in a jar and cover with the vinegar. Cover the jar with muslin.
Leave for 5 days.
Strain the vinegar through muslin or a fine seive.
In a saucepan add the sugar to the vinegar and warm until it is dissolved, keeping stirring all the time.
Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Bottled in sterilised bottles, seal using a cork or plastic cap as the vinegar will corrode metal.

Why not try a shrub for fiveties tonight? Click here  for recipes Cocktail recipes that suit elderberry vinegar

Basic shrub cocktail:

1 ½ - 2 parts base spirit
1 part complementarily flavored liqueur
½ part shrub
2-4 dashes complimentary flavored bitters.
Stir it up with ice, strain it into a chilled cocktail glass or over ice, garnish with something that makes sense, and enjoy.

Elderberry antiviral jam to fight cold and flus:

Adapted from James Wong " Grow your own drugs"
To view recipe click here James Wong's easy jam recipe

Pontack sauce for dark meats - apparently delicious enough to pour over icecream:
Adapted from Pam Corbins

Ingredients:
1 lb. 2 oz. elderberries, stripped from stems
2 c. cider vinegar
4 oz. sliced onion
1 small clove garlic, sliced
tiny pinch of mace
tiny pinch of cloves
 1 T. tellecherry peppercorns
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, bruised

Method:
Place berries in a glass baking dish, and roast at 200 degrees for about 2 hours until they are soft and starting to "bleed" their juices. Strain through a sieve (I used a china cap), and transfer juice to a wide non-reactive saucepan.

Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer over low heat for about a half hour. Strain the sauce through a sieve.

Transfer the sauce back to a small saucepan, and bring to a rapid boil. Boil hard for 5 minutes. Pour sauce into a sterilized jar or bottle, and store in a dark, cool place.


Elderberry jelly-jam:
Adapted from Nigel Slater's Tender II makes 3 cups

Ingredients

750 grams elderberries (weight should be berries already removed from stems)
600 ml water
400 grams tart apples (I used Granny Smith, but if you have access to crab apples, even better), halved and left uncored and unpeeled
750 grams granulated sugar

Directions

1. Place elderberries, apples and water in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until apples are tender. Remove from heat and then place mixture in a jelly bag to drip over night. Don't squeeze the bag or its contents, as you'll end up with a cloudy jelly.

2. The next day, pour the collected juices into a dutch oven along with the sugar. If you would like fruit in your jelly, add in some of the berries from the jelly bag. Discard the rest. Bring mixture back to a boil and boil hard for 10-15 minutes, or until jelly reaches its setting point.

3. Pour into sterilized jars and process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Elderberry Syrup:  For recipe, search my blog under "elderberry syrup". There should be a recipe there already

A Temp's Perfect Fish Pie

Basic Ingredients:

1-2 Tinned tuna (smoked hapuka, or salmon if affordable)
4-5 Large waxy potatoes
1 Cup of bread crumbs
3 Eggs
Flour
Water
Butter
Parsley

Method:

Heat oven to 180 degrees celsius

Choose a number of potatoes that will be sufficient to make enough mash to fill the pie dish you have selected to use.

Boil potatoes and while you are at it, throw a couple of eggs into the water with them and cook them for ten minutes until they are hard boiled.

Butter the pie dish, take your fish and use the whole lot to cover the bottom of the dish.

Fish out the eggs, and check your potatoes if they are ready to drain.

Run the eggs under cool water, peel and cut into halves and put them aside for later.
Drain the potatoes and mash them until they are smooth.

When preparing white sauce make sure that you focus entirely on one step after the other as it easily goes wrong if you are not used to making it

First prepare a roux. Take a generous nob of butter and gently melt it in a medium size sauce pan. Stir in enough flour into the liquid butter to make a greasy ball of goo and then add a cup of boiling water.

Whisk the sauce at all times. As the sauce begins to thicken, add another cup of water and another and so forth, until you have reached the desired thickness you would like your sauce to be.

Make sure to season with S&P to taste. Depending on what type of flavour you favour, some nutmeg, chilli, black pepper, fresh parsley or chives make a markable difference and go a long way to add that "je ne sais pas quoi" element to this dish. Why not give it a punt, arrr! Well shiver me timbers, after all this is a sea dogs pie, isn't it!

The secret of making white sauces is to make sure to whisk them at all times and make sure it does not get lumpy and dry, so keep adding water as required and whisk, whisk, whisk to stop it burning.

Note that you can use milk instead of boiling water!
But because the dish has already enough dairy and protein, in order to cut back on fat, water works just as well and allows for a healthier option.

Pour white sauce over the fish then heap the mash on top of it until a half an inch off the top of the dish. Bury the eggs in the mash and make sure they are cover.

Sprinkle with bread crumps and for the crowning glory pop a few nobs of butter on the top.

Make sure to cover the dish with aluminium foil to prevent it from burning and create a nice crusty finish.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Elderflower Eyebright Tea

Start drinking plain elderflower tea by infusing dried elderflowers at least 2-3 months before you normally start getting symptoms.

Then when the hay fever season arrives, start drinking the tea.

You can just drink plain elderflower and do not need eyebright or nettles. For nettles make sure to pop off and use the very top of the plant only for tea.

Can't be bothered? Try this Twinings range. It's a lovely drink. Not sure about benefits however.

Pick elderflowers & allow to dry (like roses).Repeat for eyebright and nettles as required.

Combine 100g dried elderflowers, (150g dried eyebright and 50g dried nettles). Use 1-2 per teaspoons per cup of boiling water.  Cover and leave to infuse for 10 minutes before straining, then drink.  Take a cap as often as desired.

In Southland "eyebright" is found sparingly at Waituna Lagoon,  as documented on this retired botanist's absolutely fabulous blog http://theobrominated.blogspot.co.nz/2011/08/bright-eyes.html

The elderflower will also help with keeping a regular toilet cycle. Just make sure you don't ingest too much elderflower cordial or tea, as  you may otherwise experience tummy upset and possibly a spot of diarrhea.

Reference: James Wong (BBC), Evelyn (Arrowtown)

Quiche Au Prisonier

I went to prison today for a tour. it was the most depressing thing and some place I don't think I will ever get used to. When we passed the kitchen, however, the prisoners seemed in the most normal setting and almost likeable.
At home I crossed a whole tray of leftovers (old cream and gravy to process) so naturally I transformed them into a spineless, ahem, crustless quiche ...

Ingredients
1 onions
2 carrots
1 c frozen beans (or peas, mixed vege)
3 leaves of silverbeet
1 tsp ginger
*4 eggs
*1 cup milk or cream
*1/2 c self raising flour
1/2 c gravy
Salt and pepper

Marked with an asterix are the standard ingredients for preparing a quiche. After that any thing goes and throw in whatever you like.
Soften onions, carrots and other vege
Mix cream (or milk), self raising flour, cheese
Combine


Bake at 180 degrees