Fiona Nevile on Fiona’s traditional elderflower cordial recipe Hello Angela, The link is to Andy's elderflower chamapgne - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gardening-blog/2011/may/12/gardeningadvice-garden… Besides being onerous, the shelling can be bloody. You must be careful not to let the knife slip. Eventually I put a plaster on my right forefinger and this helped enormously.

Make a slit in the skin of the chestnut and roast in a hot oven. Once cooked, and while the chestnuts are still hot, carefully peel the hard exterior shell and fine skin. Place in a cool and dark spot, and give the jar a gentle roll every 2 days until it’s ready. It takes a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks. Taste as you go to ensure it’s to your liking. Sweet chestnuts, either native or imported, are scandalously under-appreciated by the British. As the 17th century writer and gardener Evelyn laments: "But we give that fruit to our swine in England, which is amongst the delicacies of princes in other countries". Take chestnut flour; it's useful for making chestnut macaroons, florentines and, since it adds flavour instead of taking it away as flour tends to do, I use it in a roux when making sauces and soups.

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Place the nuts in a wide saucepan and cook very gently in 200ml of water for another 10 minutes with the lid on and without stirring. Carefully remove the nuts and stir in the sugar until dissolved. Return the nuts to the pan and cook gently with the lid off for another five. Place the nuts in a Kilner jar, add the liquor via a fine sieve then add the brandy. Veronica on Working hard on the cottage We are still happily settled in our little house in France, but have taken to spending a few months in Spain in the winter. At first we tried differen… While roasting chestnuts in a hot oven or griller works well, cooking them over fire or charcoal yields a more pronounced smoky note which adds flavour to the liqueur. The promise of this had Danny sitting, knife and chestnut in hand, for a good hour and a half last night. Shelling chestnuts is a bore. It’s fiddly. It’s very frustrating if you have bought a batch with a few bad ones as you can’t tell the state of the kernel within from the external appearance of the nut. But if you can tempt someone to help you, and have something distracting to listen to on the radio, it is well worth the effort.

Veronica on Working hard on the cottage Oh ... only just found this! What a wrench to leave your beautiful cottage, I hope whoever moves in loves it as much as you do. Iy's such a special pl…

Once it has cooled down, add the roast chestnuts to a glass jar, top with brandy, demerara syrup and the scraped vanilla bean. Close the lid tight and give the jar a gentle shake. Fiona Nevile on Fiona’s traditional elderflower cordial recipe Hi Peta, Yes it does ferment a little = that is what you want. Simmering would kill the brew. In a small saucepan, bring the demerara sugar and water to the boil. Simmer for two minutes then leave to cool. In this recipe, brandy is used as the base alcohol. If using high proof rectified spirit, the maceration time will be reduced.