Rhubarb has been a bit of a thing for us these past few weeks, but it now has to make way for all things elderflower!
We're kicking off with elderflower fritters - easy to do, and they have all that delicate flavour along with doughnutty loveliness!
You'll find lots of different recipes for the batter, and it doesn't really matter if you don't have self rasing flour - use whatever you do have. The same goes for sugar - use icing sugar if you have it, otherwise go with granulated or caster.
What you need:
1.Some freshly picked elderflower heads - make sure you know what they are! They're on a tree, rather than one of those annuals like cow parsely (see pictures below if you're unsure!).
2.100g self raising flour
3.175ml sparkling water
4. one egg (we used our hen's eggs, but she only lays tiny ones, so there are two!)
5. 2 tablespoons icing sugar
6. oil for frying
Above: these are elderflowers
Below: Not elderflower! Although the flowers are similar, they're a very different plant - and they certainly don't have that lovely fragrance of elderflower!
How to make the fritters:
1.Put the flower and icing sugar into a bowl.
2.Add the egg and fizzy water, mixing it all together until there are no lumps.
3. Put enough oil into a frying pan to be able to shallow fry the fritters, and heat the oil before you start frying.
4.Gently shake the flower heads to get rid of any loose twiggy bits or bugs, then dip them into the batter, holding them by the stalk. Let any excess drip off before putting them in the oil.
5. Put the battered flower head into the oil, and fry for two or three minutes until it's golden and the you can see bubbles in the dough.
6. Place the fritters on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil, then sieve icing sugar over them. Pull out the big stalks before eating them whilst they're still warm.
Try them with ice cream...
