Summer has been a challenge this year! The Met Office have announced that Scotland
has had the coldest summer for 43 years, and this lack of sunshine and warmth
has had a real impact on the natural world.
Everything has been late coming into flower, but most significantly for
me and the chocolates, these flowers have very little aroma and scent. Elderflowers (Sambucus nigra) looked
magnificent – fulsome and waxy – but carried little flavour; meadowsweet (Filipendula
ulmaria) is out everywhere at the moment – fields of it – it absolutely
thrives in damp places so this is a great summer for it – but as with the
elderflower, there is little of that characteristic aroma as you walk past.
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| elderflower |
We persevere though, and just have to adjust recipes and
accept that this year our flavours may just be a little subtle and
understated. I am exploring using fruit
jellies more this year – and used a gooseberry jelly to counter the sweetness
of an elderflower white chocolate ganache – which worked really well.
I have been trying to capture some new flavours this year;
gorse flower (Ulex europaeus) and Sweet cicely (Myrrhis oderata)
are two that I have been attempting for a number of years and I hoped I would
crack them this year. Gorse was
everywhere this spring – we had clear sunny weather in April and the gorse
loved it, whole hillsides were vibrant with its yellow flowers. However, even picking in bright spring
sunshine, the air temperatures were cool if not cold, and again no aroma – we
should have been bowled over with that gorgeous coconut scent – but
nothing. Sweet cicely has proved as
elusive, although I did manage to make some ganache in early summer that was
lovely, with a delicious delicate aniseed taste lingering in the mouth after
eating them. Timing though seems to be
important and the younger plants with flowers and green seed heads seemed to be
the most effective. We even tried the
root – which seems to have a powerful aroma, but as always with Sweet cicely,
heating seems to destroy that.
