Ossetian: Къаппа-къуппа
Upper Sorbian: mlóč
Old Prussian: pėinė
Ukrainian: Кульбаба лікарськ
Estonian: võilill
Faroese: Vanlig várhagasólja
Basque: txuntxumela
Aymara: qhanapaku
Luxembourgian: Bettseechesch
Persian: قاصدک
(pic taken from wikipedia)
May is the only month here in Central Europe to collect dandelions. There are so many reasons to collect them! To decorate your living-room sunny-yellowish or to several culinary purposes: false capers from dandelion buds, salad from leaves, kind-of-honey, lemonade and marmalade from flowers, kind-of-coffee even... yes, from roasted roots... and even alcoholic drinks (liqueur or something like this, I am thegreatest dabbler of the world about alcohol). Anyway, we are in the middle of spring here now so if any of you have a meadow or a lea full of dandelion somewhere around, don't hesitate and dedicate oe morning (this is very important: collected in the morning and in the sun, dandelions will contain pollen and nectar!) to collect dandelion blossoms! You will need three days to prepare the dandelion syrup, called in Poland sometimes miodek majowy (may honey) but it is worth it!
500 dandelion blossoms :D
1 lemon
1 orange
1 kg sugar
1st day
- Collect dandelion blossoms, as already said, before noon. If you find yellow stains on your fingers it means, there are pollens in your dandelions and that means the syrup will be tasty and healthy :P At home, let the flowers rest for one hour on a white paper, so that all the tiny insects could leave their homes. Don't wash!
- Leave dandelions in 1 liter water, together with orange and lemon slices. You can peel the fruits or cut with their skins (if bio) and cook for about 15 minutes. Leave.
2nd day
- Drain the flowers very, very, very wel, using a drainer and a spoon. Add sugar and cook 1-2 hours on a medium heat.
3rd day
- Cook again, for about half an hour or until you receive your beloved thickness.
- Stir into glasses, close them and then... eat on a toast together with frish cheese or butter or take a spoon to sweeten your tea!
I hope that the recipe is clear. If not, leave your question in the "comments" field and I will answer quickly. There are some more ways to use dandelions in the kitchen; even if at the moment I have no good camara, I will tell and show you how to prepare some more flower food soon!
2 comments:
It's probably to late for this year (in CANADA) but I'd tried some a friend made last summer as a sweetener in tea and I was impressed. I'd googled how to make it and came across your site.
Thanks for making it so clear.
Do pop by and blog and say hello.
Hello Carol!
Nice to see you here :) Well, you know, I was waiting the whole year to prepare my first dandelion syrup, so I suggest you could add it to your New Year's Resolution, just like I did, to not forget :) But probably it is not too late for you to make lime tree blossom syrup, which I just posted (http://milk-and-pumpkin.blogspot.com/2008/07/lime-tree-blossoms-syrup.html), maybe you will like it too?
Greetings,
Ewa
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