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What parts of elder plant are edible?
The only edible parts of elderberry are its cream-colored flowers and ripe fruits, known as elderberries.
The flowers are very aromatic, and the fruits are highly nutritious and medicinal, given their phytochemical content (citric acid, malic acid, antioxidant polyphenols, anthocyanins, quercetin and vitamins). However, the rest of the plant, bark and leaves, is toxic.
In fact, the elderberry is one of the trees that presents more dualities: the good and the bad, the useful and the useless, the edible part and the toxic part… Be that as it may, it is one of the most mentioned plants in all manuals of medicinal plants in the European tradition.
Recipes with elder flowers
Elderflower flowers are edible and with them you can prepare many recipes, to which they bring their soft , sweet, penetrating and delicate fragrance. With them, recipes such as wildflower jelly, ice cream, cookies, salads, fruit salad, aromatic herb yogurts, and other recipes with wild flowers are made.
Here are some that allow you to savor the intense aromas of elder flowers, a discovery for the palate.
Elder flower fritters
This is perhaps the most popular and well-known elderberry recipe, partly also, because it is the easiest and fastest to make.
Ingredients for the recipe of elderflower fritters
- Whole corymbs of elderflower, with its peduncle
- 200 gr of flour
- 2 eggs
- Half a liter of cold milk
- Sugar or honey
Preparation of elder flower fritters recipe
- Prepare a batter paste with flour, eggs and regulate its thickness with milk.
- Prepare a pan with hot oil, take the flower corymbs by the peduncle and bathe them in the pan. The flowering stem should not be fried, rather it will only serve to facilitate the handling of “fritters.”
- Place them on a plate with absorbent paper.
- Serve hot, with sugar on top (optional).
Elder flower cake
Ingredients of the elder flower aroma cake
- A roll of broken pasta
- A large glass of ground almond
- A large glass of elder flowers
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 250 cl oat milk
Preparation of elder flower cake
- Spread the broken dough in a baking dish suitable for the oven, previously buttered.
- Prick the dough and put it to pre-cook with the medium oven, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, we will have deflowered the elder flower corymbs, even the stems, until we can fill the size of a large glass with flowers.
- Mix the warm oatmeal drink with the diluted sugar, elder flowers and ground almonds. Remove the precooked dough from the oven and distribute the ground almond dough that we have just prepared on the surface. Press well with a spoon.
- Garnish with some pieces of the same dough, to decorate, and bake it again at 180º or until the dough is toasted, about 30 minutes.
Apple compote with elder flowers
It consists in the preparation of a sweet apple compote, which is flavored with elder flowers. The result is a recipe of exquisite floral flavor, delicious!
Ingredients of the applesauce recipe with elder flowers:
- 1 kg of sweet apples, very ripe, more or less, 4 or 5 units
- 70g sugar (optional)
- About 2 teaspoons of lemon peel
- 5 medium of elderflower corymbs (approximately), without twigs
Preparation of the compote recipe with elderflower
- Prepare the apples (the skin must be removed so that it is better crushed) and cut into small pieces so that they are cooked before. Then, put the apple pieces in a pot, with the sugar, and add just water to cover.
- Cook over moderate heat for about 10-15 minutes, until the apple with its juice is well gelatinous.
- Add the elder flowers, turn off the heat and keep covered for 5 more minutes.
- Shred everything together. There will be small remains of elderflower that can not be crushed, but that give an exotic touch to the recipe.
It is served in small plates for breakfast, snack or dessert. They already have an exceptional applesauce of very delicate flavor, with the unmistakable sweet and floral aroma that elder flowers bring, delicious!
Elder flowers yogurt Recipe
Ingredients for elder yogurt
• Half a kilo of plain yogurt without sugar
• About 2 teaspoons of lemon peel
• 70 grams of almond flour
• 70 grams of sugar (to taste)
• 6 corymbs of elder flowers
• 250 ml of mineral water
Preparation of elder yogurt
• Bring the water to a boil, along with the sugar. When it is boiling, turn off the heat, pour the elder flowers, submerge them well and let them to infuse completely water covered. Do not strain the flowers, let the infusion cool with them, so that it has more flavor.
• When the elder tea with sugar is completely cold, strain it.
• Add the almond powder to the infusion of previously cast elderberry, and mix with the blender. Let stand for a while to allow time for a little almond flour to hydrate.
• Apart, we prepare the yogurt and put it in a deep bowl.
• We will add the infusion and almond mixture to the yogurt, stirring and mixing gently with a spoon. The more infusion is added to yogurt, the more intense the elder flavor will be in the final preparation. Ideally, everyone experiences the degree of elder aroma that they like the most. In the end it has to be creamy and not very liquid.
• Keep it refrigerated a couple of hours before eating it, it is served very cold.
Note: This recipe is a variation of the homemade yogurt recipe with rosemary and lemon flavor.
Article prepared by courtesy of Montserrat Enrich, author of the blog Gastronomia salvatge
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