Gorse Flower

This weeks Friday forage was a family affair and our prettiest to boot. And with gorse flowers being our most reliable forage throughout the seasons.  Therefore we thought it was about time we brought a spot of sunshine to make a winter warmer timed to perfection.

With burns night creeping up on us this Sunday. Thus we brewed up a gorse flower syrup to use as a cheeky ingredient to add to our scotch whisky sours.  So here’s how we did it and how you can too…

Gorse flower syrup

Time: 30 minutes

Makes: 2 small bottles

Ingredients:

500ml of water

500g of sugar

grated peel of 1 orange

squeeze of lemon juice

2 handfuls of gorse flowers

(Also you can add 1/4 tsp of citric acid as a preservative if you want it to last longer)

How-to:

To Start.

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and simmer until the sugar dissolves.  Then keep stirring to prevent the sugar from sticking.

After add the gorse flowers, lemon juice and orange peel and boil for 10 minutes to reduce the liquid.  Honestly, the longer you boil it the thicker it becomes.

Strain liquid through a sterilised muslin cloth to remove the petals and fruit. Then pour through a funnel into sterilised bottles. the syrup should keep for 4 weeks in the fridge.

Whilst you’re at it, why not try a gorse flower cordial too, that being the case (it would be rude not to!)

 

 

 

 

Gorse flower cordial

Time: 30 minutes

Makes: 1 large bottle

Ingredients:

1 litre of water

300g of sugar

juice of 1 orange

juice of 1 lemon

2 handfuls of gorse flowers

How-to:

All the same as above

Afterwards, laden down with our basket of sweetness, thus we headed to the hills to kick back and enjoy our whiskey sour al fresco.  So have a go it really is easy (squeezy) peasy…

Whiskey Sour Ingredients: 

5 tbsp whisky

1/2 cup of gorse flower cordial (or lemon juice)

1 tbsp of gorse flower syrup

squeeze of lemon juice

sprig of rosemary to garnish

ice (ours melted on the way up the hill – note to self bring ice box next time!)

How-to:

Finally add all the ingredients (apart from the lemon juice and rosemary) to a cocktail shaker and give it a shake.  Then stir in the lemon juice and pour over ice and finish with a sprig of rosemary….happy burns night to you : )

 

Psssssssst you don’t have to keep it a secret.  Always let the small humans enjoy it too!  By adding the syrup to porridge or pouring over icecream.. next .we will be making jelly with ours so watch out for that!

 

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