Susan Morris's Blog

Posted by Susan Morris

Today marks the calendar month anniversary since I picked all the ripe blackcurrants in my garden and adapted a recipe for a blackcurrant wine.

The homebrew wine demands a protocol of daily doses of sugar to feed the fermentation process for three months. My blackcurrant wine will be ready for drinking at Harvesttime and Halloween. Fingers crossed its not too sweet .I'll publish the blackcurrant wine recipe if the testers rate it.

This summer's elderflower with lime sparkling drink was outstanding and stocks were quickly demolished. Some restraint was shown in harvesting the elderflower heads so there should be reasonable number of berries appear. Making a homebrew elderberry wine in September could work out this year.

Posted by Susan Morris

The discussion started with how to hang laundry indoors rather than hanging out on a washing line – straightforward advice on action that would quickly make a difference to many hay fever sufferers.

Then an intriguing comment was made by Colin, a poet and former botanic gardens librarian, who argued that there was research evidence to support the medieval remedy of eating locally produced honey to combat hay fever at home. As the local honeybees use the local pollen in their honey making, eating local honey regularly during hay fever season or around high pollen count days can help build immunity.

I was curious to find out more. There is a growing research base to suggest locally produced honey is a food remedy to symptoms of hay fever whether at home or travelling interstate or overseas. Check out the recipes on Suite101 for some ideas for cooking or drinking honey on sale in your local area.

Posted by Susan Morris

Oral traditions have passed on the know how about eating edible flowers in salads. As a child I tucked into marigold flowers with round lettuce and cucumber without question because it looked pretty and it was served by my mother.

Today there are many salad leaves to eat and grow at home including romaine or cos, endive, lollo rosso and plain round. Whatever your choice of salad leaf there are edible flowers to suit preferences and local availability. If you have zucchini flowers this summer, try eating them in batter.

Simone Seekers in her book Celebrations (National Trust 1995) suggests "nasturtium, marigold, borage, small pansies, chives, rose petals." for her 'Festive Summer Salad'. These are good suggestions and can bring yellow, orange, red and blue to green and red salad leaves.

Adding herbs such as basil, chives, tarragon, flat leaf parsley and chervil to your summer salad can accent your choice of color for edible flowers plus provide a herbal base for the simplest of salad dressing - freshly ground black or white pepper and olive oil.

Posted by Susan Morris

In many parts of Scotland, the seasonal larder from the elder tree includes elderflower in June and elderberries in September.

If you’re a gardener-cook, then a blossoming elder can be seen quickly in June and gathered up to ferment into alcoholic sparkling drinks such as Elderflower with Lime Fizz, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Elderflower Champagne or used to create chic eats, Champagne and Elderflower jellies, displayed in Olive magazine.

Elderflower will bring a heavy summery fragrance to fruit drinks and cold desserts. Be sure to use the elderflower heads quickly after picking though to avoid the tom cat aroma which kicks in after an hour or so.

Paul Waddington in his Seasonal Food: A Guide to What’s in Season When and Why (Eden Project Books, 2004) writes about creating ‘fragrant fritters for pudding’ with elderflower - you could try this out by dipping small whole elderflower heads in a tempura batter and add castor sugar before serving.

If an elder tree in the wild or at home kept some of its early summer blossoming flowers, then a second visit in September for berry picking – best with a small pair of scissors - to make a quality seasonal country homebrew elderberry wine or non-alcoholic elderberry cordial and elderberry juice. Elderberries can also made a cracking pie using short crust pastry, with or without cooking apples which will also be ripening in late summer.

Elderberries are as fiddly to prepare as a good haul of blackcurrants so take your watch off, play some music and sing and enjoy a seasonal ritual of separating the elder's tiny black berries from the bright red stalks ready for some creative cooking.

Posted by Susan Morris

A year ago, I was living in Queensland, Australia. Pineapples were stacked high in all the supermarkets and greengrocers leading to some interesting suppers - pineapple madras and pineapple rice followed by pineapple and parsley ice cream.

Today it's wet wet wet and only dark chocolate is going to hit the spot for supper. Flicking through Unwrapped: Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes (Kyle Cathie Ltd, 2006) written and compiled by Caroline Jeremy, I am overwhelmed with how many cooks and chocolate lovers have experimented adding chocolate to savory main dishes - mixing lush and spice.

Chicken Mole created by Marian Ash is going to be supper tonight - apparently Marian "created this quintessentially South American dish when she was reading Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel and then had a chat with a friend about the magical effect of chocolate on savoury food... she suggests serving with corn tortillas and an avocado salad".

I enjoyed reading Like Water for Chocolate so this is enough to go shopping for chicken from the butcher and check I have the other ingredients of garlic, onions, paprika, dark chocolate and tins of chopped tomatoes and red kidney beans at home. It looks a one-pot meal easy to cook and serve - will everyone like it?