Rose geraniums are so intensely fragrant, you’re tempted to eat them.
And Pelargonium Graveolens is indeed an edible flower. Just now, having soaked up lots of sun, rose geranium blooms and leaves are full of heavenly essential oil. The lightest brush with your finger releases a scent that makes you feel like you’re standing in a rose garden.
In a region where cooks often scent pastry with rose and orange blossom water, it’s natural that scented geraniums should also have a place. But flavoring with geraniums is viewed as folklore, a cute thing to do with kindergartners baking cookies (carefully placing one leaf in the middle of each cookie before the teacher slides the tray into the oven). Still, lovers of old-fashioned teas enjoy breaking a few leaves off to make a fragrant brew.
So let me show you how to make a rose geranium liqueur. It’s a treat to serve with dessert, candy-like but not cloying. It impresses your guests. And it couldn’t be more simple to make.
Rose geranium liqueur
PrintIngredients
- 1 bottle arak, or failing that, a bottle of vodka
- 1 cup fresh, rinsed, chopped rose geranium flowers and leaves
- Water
- Sugar
Instructions
Using arak:
- Pour off about a third of the arak and reserve for some other purpose. Stuff the empty space with rose geranium flowers and leaves.
- Keep adding herb, pushing them down with a chopstick or the handle of a wooden spoon, until the bottle is almost full.
- Pour a little of the arak back in to cover the flowers.
- Cap the bottle and leave it alone in a dark place for two weeks. Then strain the liqueur and re-bottle into a clean bottle, capping it tightly.
Using vodka:
- Make a simple syrup of 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar, boiled together until the sugar dissolves then cooled.
- Remove 1 1/2 cups of vodka from the bottle and proceed to stuff flowers into it.
- Top with the syrup and mix well. If there’s empty space, use the reserved vodka to fill it up.
- Keep unused syrup, refrigerated, for sweetening later.
- Cap tightly and store in a dark place for two weeks. Taste for sweetness, adding more syrup if you like. Just remember: the more syrup, the less alcohol content. Also, the flowers have a sweet taste themselves, so don’t over-sweeten by mistake.
