with Mary Anne Mohanraj
Grilled brats for dinner tonight, and I was looking at what typical toppings are, and caramelized onions with some crushed red pepper is common, and you know what seeni sambol is? Basically spicy caramelized onions. I mean, with added flavor, but I thought it’d go great with brats, and y’know what? It does. I feel like I should get some kind of genius award for this one…
I promised y’all an elderflower cocktail & mocktail, didn’t I? Here you go!
*****
Elderflower & Ginger White Wine Spritzer
This is a sweet summer drink, with spicy ginger balancing the sweet florals of the elderflower. If you’d prefer to let the elderflower be the star of the show, try combining the wine with 1.5 oz. elderflower syrup and 1.5 oz. sparkling water instead.
All ingredients should be well-chilled! Combine in a glass and enjoy.
5 oz. white wine
1 oz. elderflower syrup
2 oz. ginger beer
*****
Elderflower Rose Float
2 oz. elderflower syrup, chilled
12 oz. (1 typical can) sparkling water (I used blood orange, but you can use the flavor of your choice), chilled
1 scoop rose ice cream (vanilla would also work well)
Combine and enjoy!
Kevin asked me why I kept making cherry clafoutis — was I developing a recipe? Nope — I just love it.
Although now I wonder whether I could do a mango clafoutis? The mango might just dissolve — maybe if I used slightly green mango it might be good? With strawberries for color? And adjust the flavoring to be a little more Sri Lankan — skip the almond extract, go with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves? Hmm…
Had a late night craving for seeni sambol, so made some while Kevin and I were watching the first episode of The Witcher season 3 — and yes, I know it’s supposed to be a terrible season, but I figured it should still be okay background TV while I’m doing stuff, maybe?
Had it on buttered toast for a snack last night, and then the same + a scrambled egg for breakfast.
Happy mouth, happy bundi (tummy). 
Recipe in comments.
Well — I posted to my local garden club group about having made too much elderflower syrup, and people asked if I was selling it, and I basically sold it all in about 20 minutes? That was funny. I’m throwing in some of my extra redbud syrup to each order, just ’cause.
I’ve used up all the elderflowers on my bush, since I wanted to let a bunch go to berries, so that’s it for this year….
Okay, it turns out that the recipe I used makes a LOT of elderflower syrup. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with it all, but I suppose it’s time to go look up some recipes. At least one cocktail, though, I think! I’m thinking an elderflower white wine spritzer would be perfect for accompanying a lot of sweaty gardening….
I might offer a small bottle or two in the next flash sale — would people be interested? I also have some little bottles of redbud syrup left.
I left a fair number of flowerheads on the bush, so those are turning nicely into berries, so soon I’ll be able to harvest these and make jam. (Elderberries need to be cooked to be edible.)
Stephanie’s here, and we’re finishing up this little e-book, Serendib Cocktail Party. We promised to do this, and Serendib Tea Party as part of our Vegan Kickstarter, and we’re finally getting these out. If people like them, I may do expanded print versions.
This will have 14 recipes, mostly fruity tropical-ish cocktails & mocktails. If there’s an interest in my doing an expanded print edition, I’d like to add:
– more recipes overall (maybe 16-20 total?)
– a tasty and interesting mocktail for every cocktail (not just ‘leave out the alcohol’), so the book is equally as useful for those who are sober or throwing a sober party
– seasonal divisions, so there are cocktails for spring, summer, fall, and winter (which means I have to develop a bunch more fall and winter cocktails, oh noes)
– suggested appetizers that you could serve with them (I don’t want to fill the book with food, I think, but at least 1-2 for each season?)
Exciting! Book book.
Finally harvested some elderflowers to make syrup. Followed the recipe from SpruceEats: https://www.thespruceeats.com/elderflower-syrup-recipe…
It’ll be ready in 3-5 days, so we’ll have to check back to see how it tastes.
Benjamin left Monday afternoon, so I ended up doing one last big feed before he left. We fired up the grill with burgers for us (veggie burger for him), corn, asparagus, bell peppers and red onions. I topped my burger with Divina caramelized onion jam, yum.
The corn served with fresh cilantro from the garden, combined with a little mayo and lime juice, salt and pepper. Rhubarb lemonade (rhubarb simple syrup courtesy my friend Nara) with raspberries from the garden, and plenty of sliced watermelon.
Summer cooking.
