A GIVEAWAY that comes up smelling of roses!

Do you have a passion for roses? Then be sure to read to the end for a great giveaway... 

I make no secret of my passion for roses. Not the tight-lipped imported ones, but the big blowsy, highly scented old fashioned ones which have graced the gardens of cottages and castles for centuries. There is nothing more sensual, exotic and heavenly for me, than the scent of roses... they are my favourite flowers...

I have filled our garden with roses, light and dark pink,yellow, white... and even a rather odd lavender coloured one! But I don't celebrate them just for their visual beauty, or even their scent... but for their flavour. If you haven't discovered roses as edible magic then follow me on Pinterest and  check out my board on edible flower delights!

A couple of weeks back I shared my recipe for raspberry and rose sorbet (which resulted in a couple of friends knocking on my door asking if there was any left to sample!)

My son makes a divine rose petal lemonade. This summer I have been living off my own fairy flower tea of fresh lemon balm, rose geranium leaf and rose petals... and my favourite chocolates are... yup, you guessed it, rose creams!

Ha! I've just realised that my tea pot and tea cups and chintzy plates are all covered in roses too... ooops this is becoming a little obsessive!

I want to share my passion for roses with you in person, and offer you the chance to win a pair of tickets, to a very special event at the inaugral Ballymaloe Garden Festival in East Cork, Ireland. 

Bring a friend to hear award winning gardener, Helen Dillon, of The Dillon Garden in Dublin, & Rory O’Connell ex-head chef of Ballymaloe House for a sensual celebration of roses. Helen will talk about growing roses and Rory will talk about the many wonderful uses of roses in the kitchen. It's on Saturday August 31st from 11.30am to 12.45pm in The Grainstore, Ballymaloe House. You will also get to meet The Queen of Puddings in the flesh - that'd be me - I'll be wearing a pink rose in my lapel!!!!

The Ballymaloe Garden Festival is dedicated to sustainable gardening, and features names like Alys Fowler, Michael Kelly, Joy Larkcom and Darina Allen who will be joined by experts on rare plants to garden design, wetland systems, urban gardening, herbal medicine, through to flower arranging and watercolour painting. There will be a family friendly fringe festival of fun and food, plant stalls, and free guided tours around the Ballymaloe Cookery School Gardens. Tickets for individual events are available at the doors on the day, and day passes can be purchased from The Grainstore.

Click for a complete programme of events.

To enter the GIVEAWAY you need to:
1) LIKE the Queen of Puddings page on Facebook 
2) Share this post on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest
3) Leave a comment here or on FB to let me know you've shared.

The winner will be announced next Thursday, 22nd August by midday (BST). I will give you the tickets in person at the event! Good luck!

Raspberry Rose Sorbet

Summer is well and truly here, we've been basking in a heatwave for weeks now, which is unheard of for Ireland. We have been living off ice cream, and so, after years of dithering, I finally invested in an ice cream maker. And mama are we having fun with it.

This was one of our first frozen delights. An intense ruby red sorbet which taste of pure summer. The tart juiciness of raspberries, mingling with the airy floral notes of rose. A match made in heaven.

We were looking to recreate a divine raspberry sorbet that we had whilst wandering the sweltering streets of Toulouse, France, on the first day of this month. I humbly think we bettered it!

Ingredients

1 pack frozen raspberries (350g) (about 4 1/2 US cups)

Sugar syrup made from 1 cup water and 1 cup granulated sugar

1/2-1 teaspoon rose water.

Method

First make the sugar syrup, by dissolving the sugar in the water in a pan, stir until fully dissolved and almost simmering.  Cool in fridge for an hour. Put the fruit in a blender, still frozen, pour over the cooled syrup and liquidise.

If the syrup is cold and raspberries frozen you should have a slush (this is very handy if you don't have an ice cream maker). Sieve. Discard pips. Add rose water, less is more, try 1/2 teaspoon first, then add more if desired. Remember it should taste over-sweet at the moment, it will seem less sweet when frozen.

Put in cream maker, (or straight in freezer tub and take out and stir once after an hour.) It should be ready to eat after 2-3 hours.