The smell of the coconutty gorse in full bloom has been heavenly on these warm days we've been getting recently. I remembered to take a plastic tub with me on a walk yesterday and filled it with flowers. (Forgot gardening gloves though and got a few sore fingers). Last night I made some cordial. There are various recipes on the internet. This a hybrid of a few of them....
Recipe
4 handfuls of gorse flowers
600ml water
250g caster sugar
juice and zest of 2 lemons
Rapidly boil the water and sugar for 10 minutes to create the syrup. Take off the heat and add the lemon zest and juice and the gorse flowers. (I spread these out on a tea towel before hand to let the insects crawl away). Leave for 3 or 4 hours before straining through a muslin cloth and sealing in sterilised bottles. Makes about 500ml. Delicious diluted as a drink, as a syrup on ice cream or other desserts or made into a granita.
Other variations include the addition of orange or grapefruit juice and if I was to pick 10 pints worth of flowers I could make wine from this River Cottage Gorseflower wine recipe.
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