The Elven Relm of Kæleðia/Kæleðian Nectar

My friend Lauren wrote me the other day talking about when they play DnD (Dungeons and Dragons), and the Dungeon master talks about Eleven Pudding every time they go to a street vendor.  She wanted me to make up a recipe for Elf Pudding.  I thought that doing fiction inspired recipes would be a really cool idea, so I ran with it.

I thought about what elves would eat and compiled a sort of spread-sheet of what I thought would be feasible for elves to eat.  From there I developed a lot of other ideas of elven culture.  I even went as far as to ask people what they thought about elves and what their perceptions were.  There is a thread on my facebook group discussing what people think elves eat.

I've gotten some good ideas from people and have thought about expanding it a bit.  I want to have an elven culture night in which I get every person to do some research and develop their own elven recipes based on what they think elf culture would be like in the world that they think elves live in.  I want the recipes to be original and show a true universal flair for elven uniqueness.  

I have made my first recipe from the realm of Kæleðia (Kay-lee-thee-uh). Kæleðian Nectar is a drink made seasonally and drunk by the elves in celebration of the coming fall.  It's made using osmanthus flowers, a fragrant flower common as an ornamental around the world.  They smell of very sweet nectarines and are commonly used to make tea in china.  I easily get them every fall equinox at the student Center of the church I used to attend.

Kæleðian Nectar

½ cup fresh Osmanthus flowers

2 Quarts of Water

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp flavorless citric acid

¾ cup sugar

Soak flowers in 1 cup of water for about 2-4 hours and try to keep it cool.  Also try not to bruise the  flowers too much as it can mess up the flavor.  Once they have soaked you can remove the golden liquid from them by straining it through a fine sieve or mesh strainer.

 This liquid is a very high concentrate of osmanthus essential oils and is great for adding to tea, can be used to make Kæleðian nectar, and could be used to extract osmanthus essential oils for perfumery (although you would need a lot more flowers for that).

If you want to make Kæleðian nectar then you need to take about  50 mL of the concentrated stuff and mix it with the ingredients in water.  Another method is to simply add the flowers into the 2 quarts of water and let them sit about 6 hours before straining them and mixing in the other ingredients.

Serve it the temperature of tap water in a wine glass, A) So you can drink it like the elves and B) Because if it's the temp of tap water, them it helps you taste the essential oils in the osmanthus better.

I imagine you can do something like this with other flowers like roses, jasmine, and maybe even honeysuckle, but I've not tried it yet (also MAKE SURE THEY ARE FREE OF PESTICIDES and are organic).  Trust me...there will be more elven recipes to come, including some elven desserts and hopefully one day Elven Pudding.

Bon Appetite! 

Kyle S.