Camera came home!!! Elderflower fritters!

After a long hiatus around the woods, my camera finally made its way home and with it, my pictures for making elderflower fritters. You may still be able to find some along the roadsides, but blossoms are making way to green berries, so this recipe may need to be just set aside for next summer. No worries, I will link you then :)

So first of all, you need yourself a big pile of flowers. The flowers themselves make a wonderful tea that works as an expectorant as well as a mild laxative. If you feel a cold coming on, take a handful of dried elderflower and a handful of dried peppermint, pour boiling water over them and let them steep into a tea. Drink the tea just before bed to promote sweating and detoxifying.

Okay fritters. You need a some flower heads:

You want to leave the stem on and pick them early enough so there is lots of pollen, that is where most of the flavor is.  You can inspect them for bugs at this point as well.  Some people like to rinse them off with cool water, but I don't because I pick them in a very rural area so I know there is no road poison and I want to preserve the pollen.

You want some kind of light oil, like olive or grape seed.  The benefits of the flowers are pretty much compromised by frying them anyway, so if your going to kill yourself with grease, at least use a decent and flavorful oil.

Put your oil in a pan to about an inch deep and turn your flame on medium-low.

Then, you make the batter.  Now, there is a ton of different recipes on line.  You can certainly pick the one that you want, but in my opinion, wild food is all about working with what you have.  I happened to have a half bottle of almost-flat Coke that was well on its way to going to waste.  The batter is a cup or 2 of flour, 2 eggs and almost-flat Coke until the mix is like pancake batter.  There is no need for exact amounts, but make sure you have enough for all your flowers.  At this point, you will hold your bundle by the stem and dip the heads into the batter, coating well.

Now, for the fun part.  Holding your dipped flower head by the stem, drop them in the pan of hot oil.  It's very dramatic.  It will not take but a few seconds before they will be a golden brown color, so keep your eyes open.

When your flower heads are a pretty brown color, take them out with a pair of tongs and put them on a rack or paper towel to drain.

At this point sprinkle them with super-fine sugar and eat them off of the stem (The stem serves as a "handle" throughout the process and is not eaten). They are very sweet and go well with ice cream while they are still hot. I think they stand alone as a meal as they are very filling.  One or two heads with a scoop of ice cream makes for a cool lunch on a hot summer day.

Enjoy!

First entry

The truth is, I'm sick of Live Journal and all its advertisements. I have 3 blogs now and all of them are here, together, as a family. It feels right. Sadly, I will miss all that stuff I had at LJ. I wonder if I can save it on a disk or move it here...something...

Well, last weekend we were all at the cabin. The "teens" Dean and his friend Josh, slept in a tent near the fire pit-bored out of their minds as they said-to the point that Dean and Josh decided to spray his 12-string, vintage-looking guitar with bug spray and light it on fire. I was so upset. I can't believe a child of mine would have such disrespect for property. Yes Josh, you got it for free-does that make it any less special? I would have taken that guitar in a heart beat just to have. I've never seen a 12-string guitar before and this one had roses on it-it was so pretty and cool looking. Now it's gone and I am so sad. Shame on you guys. To be honest, I am very tolerant of my teen and his friends. Very seldomly do they disappoint me with their choices. This was just sucky.

We decided to go to the lake and swim. I can't remember how long we were there, not that long. An hour or so? Anyway, I made sure all the kids were sprayed with sunblock, including some kids I didn't know, kids that weren't mine, my friend Heidi's kids...did I spray myself? Nope. Around campfire time is when I realized my shirt hurt me and my back and shoulders were an angry red with 2 perfect lily-white stripes where my swimsuit straps lay. It's not often that I decide to burn, but when I do I usually get sick to my stomach, like a flu and turn darned miserable. So was I the next day.

Curt was cutting wood. My dad wanted a shooting lane cut so he can hunt deer from the kitchen window. Curt's friend Tom was helping (Tom is a little different in that he LOVES to cut wood. Where was he when I was a kid?) and Tom's girly friend Rachel was hanging out with me while I tried to clean and do dishes all nauseated and sore. I'm sure Rachel was talking, though I was so preoccupied with not throwing up that I really have no memory of the conversation other than when I finally gave up and started packing to go home, I kept saying, "I'm sorry Rachel, I'm so sorry. I don't want to leave you, I don't feel good."

So I left her all alone with sweaty wood-cutting men while I got into my air-conditioned van and ran home leaving the rest of the cleaning and cabin what not to Curtis. Needless to say, he is going up this weekend for more woodcutting and to clean up his mess before my parents see it and to get my camera--it was laying on the kitchen table. I forgot it.

Having no camera brings me to my next subject, elder flowers.

I made and picture documented the making of elderflower fritters, but with no camera, I have no pictures. BUT I can tell you that they are gorgeous and sooooo good. Lucas ate them and loved them. I am saddened that the only way to make them is by frying them. On the other hand, they are such a good treat. On the other hand despite the deep frying they are very good for you. On the other hand, I wonder if I can make a baked version. There are so few recipes for elderflower. They being so fragrant and sweet, I think they would be delicious in a cake. Anyway, I promise as soon as I get my camera back home, I will post about the fritters-another almost-free food.

I also collected a few flower heads for drying for tea and they are about done and ready to be put in jars. I kind of wanted to wait to take them down and remove the blossoms so I can take a picture of them dried on the line, but I want to make room for nettles and comfrey. I'll post how to make the fritters and what elderflower tea is goof for when I get my camera back. AND, it turns out my friend had wild chamomile growing in her yard. Can I even tell you how much fun I am having right now?!