NOTES. from nature's larder // angelica
Recipes and remedies to nourish, heal, and style – June is the month for harvesting tender stems of angelica to make tutti frutti ice cream, or combining with rhubarb for a gin-flavoured jam.
This tall, earthy ‘Viking Herb’ biennial with purplish-green stems and greenish-yellow umbels – resplendent in several Chelsea Flower Show gardens this year including Sarah Price’s homage to Cedric Morris and his garden at Benton End – was regarded as a virtuous cure-all for much of the past two millennia.
Indeed ‘Angelica’, the garden kinde, is so good an herbe,’ mused John Parkinson in Paradisi in Sole, Paradisus Terrestris (1629), ‘that there is no part thereof but is of much use … whether you will distill the water of the herbe, or preserve or candie the rootes or the greene stalks, or use the seeds in powder or in distillations, or deceptions with other things.’
Today we know it as a large, aromatic, garden ornamental (I left mine in my old garden and must plant some new ones as it’s such good value aesthetically and herbally), and for its bright green, candied stalks, a key ingredient in tutti frutti ice cream – recipe below. Fresh stems can also be used to make a gin-flavoured angelica jam, or are traditionally dried for an invigorating tea or to cleanse the home of negative energy, while flowers are a sweet addition to cocktails (plus the hollow stems can be used as straws). Find all recipes in The Heritage Herbal: Recipes and remedies to nourish, heal, and style by Sonya Patel Ellis (British Library Publications, 2020) or upgrade your subscription (just £3.50 a month/£30 a year) for a continuous flow between newsletters.
Tutti Frutti Ice Cream
Old preserving books almost always include a recipe for candied or crystallised angelica, as way to conserve the herb. Once a popular decoration for cakes and desserts, candied angelica is also the emerald-green component of traditional tutti frutti ice cream.
Serves 8–10
For the candied stems:
100g (3-5oz) tender angelica stems
200g (1 cup) granulated sugar (plus extra for tossing)
For the tutti frutti ice cream:
2 egg whites
110g (1/2 cup) white caster sugar
300ml (10fl oz) double or whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g (2oz) candied angelica (see above)
60g (2oz) candied pineapple
60g (2oz) natural glacé cherries
1 Strip the stems of the leaves. Cut into 7cm (3in) lengths. Blanch in simmering water for 15 seconds. Place in a bowl.
2 Combine the sugar and 250ml (1 cup) of water in a separate pan. Bring to the boil until syrupy. Pour over the stems. Cover and chill for 12 hours. Repeat twice, then remove the stems and blot dry.
3 Dehydrate the stems in a low oven (40ºC/100ºF) for around 4 hours, or in a warm, dry place for several days. Cool, toss in sugar and set to one side.
4 Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Sprinkle in half the caster sugar. Whisk again. Fold in the remaining caster sugar.
5 Whisk the cream in another bowl until it thickens. Gently fold in the egg white, vanilla extract, candied angelica and pineapple and glacé cherries.
6 Spoon the mixture into a lidded tub, cover tightly and freeze for 4–6 hours until firm. Or churn in an ice-cream maker for 45 minutes.
7 Serve in bowls with small wafers or in cones.
Other uses:
Burn dried angelica root to help ward off negative energy in the home.
Use angelica flowers, leaves or stems (as straws) in gin cocktails.