After last Sunday's beautiful frosty start, I'm sorry to say it's mild & wet today. The dogs and I delayed our 7 O'clock start by an hour to allow the torrential downpour to pass, and then set of to witness the aftermath.
Flooded roads
Burst river banks
And flooded fields.
The dogs were put out that 'paddling' was not allowed today.
Anyway, my thoughts turned to the hunter gatherer in me and I began looking for Rosehips.
Easy to recognise & good to turn into Rosehip syrup. I must warn you it doesn't taste like the Delrosa of our childhoods, which was packed with Vitamin C but had enough sugar to rot all your teeth before you were 10! Nether-the- less it is delicious drizzled onto porridge, pancakes, crumpets & ice cream. So here is my recipe.
Rosehip Syrup
2kg rosehips
4.5 litres water
1kg sugar
jelly bag (or old tea towel) for straining.
Put 3 litres of water into a large pan and bring to the boil.
Wash, and then chop the the hips quite finely. You can blitz then briefly in a food processor if you prefer.
Add the hips to the pan of boiling water and bring back to the boil. Remove pan from the heat & leave to sit for 15 mins.
Pour the pan contents through a jelly bag or tea towel suspended over a large bowl.
When the juice has drained through, tip the pulp left in the bag back into the pan and add the remaining 1.5 litres water. Bring to a simmer and leave simmering for 10 minutes. remove from the heat & leave for 15 minutes.
Pour through the jelly bag again.
Pour all the juice into a pan and boil until reduced to about 1.5 litres.
Stir in the sugar on a low heat, until dissolved, then boil rapidly for 5 mins.
Remove from the heat & pour into sterilised bottles.
Now whip up a few pancakes & afternoon tea is sorted!
Recent Comments