It's taken me a while to get Day 3 discovery sorted, but I feel like it's been well worth it. This is our bay leaf tree. This is it actually trimmed back. Ian cut it back last week and we literally had a bin bag *full* of bay leaves. We gifted a branch to our friends, and we really felt sad to get rid of them all, but alas we had to throw the rest away.
I love our bay leaf tree.
When we bought our house a year ago we had no idea it was there. There were quite a few plants in the garden, a few overgrown and this massive tree. And then all of a sudden one afternoon when we were gardening we saw it a little closer, smelled the leaves, and realised--yes, we were going to be blessed with awesome casseroles for the rest of our time here.
So, I was surfing the Martha Stewart website for wedding ideas and happened across her recipe for pear cocktails (random, I know). Part of this recipe involved making a herb syrup. I'd read about herb syrups and herb vinegars in my herb book recently and thought it would be a really good idea of preserving some bay leaves. So here's what I came up with:
My Apple & Bay Leaf Sugar Syrup:
About 25 fresh bay leaves
1 apple, sliced in to wedges
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Clean jam jar
I gave the bay leaves a good wash and a pat dry with kitchen towel, and measured out a cup of sugar.
Then I chopped a green apple in to wedges. They were on the side as I was washing the bay leaves and I thought a crisp tangy green apple would go quite nicely with the warm taste of the bay leaves.
Measured out a cup of water in to a saucepan and added the sugar, heating until all the sugar had dissolved. I didn't necessarily boil the water, I just got it hot enough for the sugar to dissolve.
Added the bay leaves! And my kitchen smelled amazing!! It's worth making JUST to smell this moment. I couldn't believe how strong it was, it was so nice.
Added the apple wedges. And then I turned the heat off and left it for 45 minutes - 1 hour. Martha leaves hers for 30 minutes. 30 minutes is plenty. When I make this syrup again I'd probably stop at 30 minutes, but I didn't have my jam jar ready so I actually had to run around the house frantically trying to find an empty container and then, when I couldn't find, one, grab my Cherry jam out of the fridge, put the end of it into a glass and wash the jar out. Oops :-)
Once it was finished steeping I drained out the bay leaves/apple and poured it in to my freshly washed jam jar. Sealed, Martha says you can keep it up to 1 month in the fridge. I'll let you know in a month if she's right. :-)
What did I do with this new Apple & Bay Leaf Syrup you ask? Well, made up a cocktail of course! :-)
I love a good gin & tonic, so I decided to make an Apple & Bay Gin Cocktail:
1 tbs Apple & Bay Leaf Syrup
45ml Gin
4-5 ice cubes
Top with soda water
Garnish with a couple of slices of apple
The syrup is stronger than I expected it to be, it has a really nice taste to it. I also tried it over a fruit salad and it was quite nice, but it definitely needs light fruit (I drizzled it over strawberries, grapes, and apple). It has quite a heavy taste. It is going to be really nice in stews and soups, and I think it will be perfect for using as a sugary topping on roast ham and roast pork.
But for today, it made a nice summery drink for sitting outside in the afternoon sun. Thank you, bay leaf tree! :-)
