Darina Allen: Where many just see weeds, I see beauty and dinner

Here are three recipes using meadowsweet

Delicious panna cotta with berries, sauce and mint wx010826

If you’ve been meandering or driving through the countryside recently with your windows open, you’ll have seen and smelled the drifts of fluffy meadowsweet blossoms, I think it’s the very best time of year for this fragrant plant.

I’ve just driven down from the West of Ireland; there was an abundance of meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) throughout the countryside in fields, meadows, and along riverbanks.

It grows between 2ft and 4ft tall with rich creamy coloured flowers on reddish stems. I love it for a myriad of reasons. It’s gorgeous in floral arrangements but I also look forward to experimenting with it in the kitchen.

Now, it’s the turn of the frothy meadowsweet. It comes into season just as the elderflowers fade and I find it can be used in similar ways to perfume syrup and infuse spirits.

The famous Tudor botanist, John Gerard, called this beautiful wildflower that blossoms from the end of June till mid-September ‘Queen of the Meadows’ and described how it delighted the senses and acted as an air freshener at a time when animals still shared some dwellings with their owners.

There are many references to it being strewn on the floor of cottages and churches to sweeten the air.

In common with other wildflowers and herbs, meadowsweet has many medicinal qualities and is particularly known to contain salicylic acid, one of the components of aspirin. Herbalists also value it for its pain relieving and anti-inflammatory properties. Bees and hoverflies love it too.

There are numerous mentions in both folklore and literature. Meadowsweet was considered to be sacred by the Druids who used it in rituals and medicine.

I’ve been adding to my repertoire of meadowsweet recipes for the past few summers. By the way, it also dries perfectly. I particularly love this meadowsweet panna cotta.

To make an irresistible tisane in minutes, just pop a fistful of flowers (less if dried) into a small teapot. Fill with boiling water and allow to infuse for a few minutes. Occasionally, I love to add some lemon balm, spearmint or lemon verbena leaves.

It flavours panna cotta, ice cream and custards deliciously. I’ve also strewn some flowers under a sponge cake mixture in a tin to perfume the cake, then sprinkled the frothy blossoms over a lemony icing with frosted rose petals, a quintessential midsummer cake (careful to pick young blossoms).

Meadowsweet syrups, cordials, and lemonades also work well and it’s fun to add some to jams or jellies.

Loving raspberry and meadowsweet jell; apple and meadowsweet jelly also work very well.

Once again where many just see weeds, I see beauty and dinner.

Enjoy!

Meadowsweet and Cherry Frangipane Tart

recipe by:Darina Allen

This all-purpose tart can have many flavours. Vary the fruit with, peaches, nectarines or figs.

Servings

8

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 300g fresh cherries, stoned

• For the shortcrust pastry

• 175g plain flour

• pinch of salt

• 100g butter

• 1 egg (to bind)

• For the frangipane

• 50g butter

• 50g caster sugar

• 1 egg, beaten

• 55g ground almonds

• 25g flour

• 1 tbsp kirsch

• To finish

• 100ml approx. redcurrant glaze (apricot glaze may also be used)

• 18cm diameter flan ring or tart tin with a removable base

Method

1. First, make the shortcrust pastry,

2. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl, cut the butter into cubes and rub into the flour with the fingertips. Keep everything as cool as possible; if the fat is allowed to melt, the finished pastry may be tough. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, stop. Whisk the egg.

3. Take a fork or knife (whichever you feel most comfortable with) and add just enough liquid to bring the pastry together, then discard the fork and collect the pastry into a ball with your hands. This way you can judge more accurately if you need a few more drops of liquid. Although slightly damp pastry is easier to handle and roll out, the resulting crust can be tough and may well shrink out of shape as the water evaporates in the oven. The drier and more difficult-to-handle pastry will give a crisper, shorter crust.

4. Flatten the pastry and wrap in parchment paper, leave to rest in the fridge for a minimum of 15 minutes or better still 30 minutes. This will make the pastry much less elastic and easier to roll.

5. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

6. Roll out the pastry, line the tart tin with it, prick lightly with a fork, flute the edges and chill again until firm. Bake blind for 15-20 minutes.

7. Next, make the frangipane.

8. Cream the butter, gradually beat in the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is light and soft. Gradually add the egg, beating well after each addition. Stir in the ground almonds and flour and then add the kirsch. Pour the frangipane into the pastry case, spreading it evenly. Arrange the stoned cherries on top of the frangipane.

9. Bake the tart for 35-40 minutes or until the fruit is tender and the frangipane is set in the centre and nicely golden.

10. Meanwhile, make the redcurrant glaze.

11. Redcurrants are also in season at present; this is a brilliant recipe if you have some.

12. Melt a little redcurrant jelly with drop water in a small stainless-steel saucepan to thin and make a glaze.

13. To finish.

14. When the tart is fully cooked, paint generously with the glaze, remove from the tin and serve warm or cold with a bowl of softly whipped cream.

Meadowsweet Sorbet

recipe by:Darina Allen

Light and super refreshing, serve alone or with a compote of summer fruit.

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 60g young meadowsweet flowers and leaves

• 600ml cold water

• 185g sugar

• 200ml freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest (3 lemons approx.)

• 1 organic egg white (optional)

• To serve

• Meadowsweet flowers

•  

Method

1. Crush the meadowsweet leaves tightly in your hand, put into a stainless-steel saucepan with the flowers, water and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 2-3 minutes. Leave to cool completely. Add the lemon juice and zest.*

2. Strain and freeze for 20-25 minutes in an ice-cream maker or sorbetière.

3. If you do not have a sorbetière, simply freeze the sorbet in a dish in the freezer.

4. When it is semi-frozen, whisk until smooth and return to the freezer again.

5. Whisk again when almost frozen and fold in 1 stiffly beaten egg white if using. Keep in the freezer until needed.

6. If you don’t have access to a sorbet machine, freeze the sorbet completely in a tray, then break up and whizz for a few seconds in the processor, add 1 slightly beaten egg white, whizz and freeze again. Serve.

7. Serve in chilled glasses or chilled white china bowls or on pretty plates lined with meadowsweet leaves.

8. Sprinkle a few meadowsweet flowers over the top.

Meadowsweet Panna Cotta

recipe by:Darina Allen

Meadowsweet is also used here to flavour the cream for the panna cotta (‘cooked cream’).

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 600ml cream

• 50g caster sugar

• 6g meadowsweet flowers

• 2 leaves of gelatine

• To serve

• 250g ripe raspberries

• mint leaves

• softly whipped cream

• 8 ceramic, glass or tin moulds, approximately 100ml each, brushed with non-scented oil such as sunflower or grape seed

Method

1. Put the cream and sugar into a stainless steel saucepan over a low heat, add the meadowsweet flowers. Slowly bring to the shivery stage - turn off the heat and infuse for 15 minutes or more.

2. Cover the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water until pliable, 3-4 minutes. Pour the meadowsweet cream through a sieve.

3. Return to the saucepan and add the well-drained gelatine leaves. Stir to dissolve completely. If necessary, warm the meadowsweet infused cream slightly. Divide the panna cotta between the oiled moulds and chill for at least 3 hours or until gently set.

4. Serve with fresh berries or a seasonal compote - particularly good with poached apricots.

August at Ballymaloe

Autumn Preserving with Darina Allen and Gary Masterson on September 17

This afternoon demonstration class with Darina and Gary will focus on various preserving
techniques using seasonal ingredients:

• Jam
• Jelly
• Chutney
• Pickle
• Seasonal drinks
• How to dry/dehydrate food

Afternoon cookery demonstrations at Ballymaloe Cookery School are open to the public - Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

• Limited places, booking essential.
• Copies of all recipes and light tastings included.
• ballymaloecookeryschool.ie