Daffodill Sprout
An Easter egg with chocolate, dill and tarragon
Most commonly associated with Easter are daffodils and Easter eggs.
For most Danes Easter is also associated with the coming of spring and we celebrate the longer days and first spring sprouts as the sun returns. This is no small thing in Scandinavia and the rest of the northern hemisphere where the winter months seem long and dark.
Around Easter you’ll se Scandinavians having a ball in the streets almost as if they had forgotten that the sun would ever return. Most of us get so over enthusiastic that we forget that the temperature hasn’t really caught up yet and drop our coats and scarfs. This also makes Easter a season for colds and a lot of sick leaves… But this we happily forget each year too.
There are several other reasons that eggs are associated with Easter. In peasant society Easter was the season for plowing and sowing. This was tiresome work and solid meals were called for like “plovgrød” (plowing gravy) and “skidne æg” (which literally translates as “dirty eggs” but better described as smiling eggs in mustard sauce).
The “dirty eggs” were usually served on the Saturday before Easter which was known as “skiden Lørdag” (dirty Saturday). This Saturday in-between the Easter holidays (Maundy Thursday and Good Friday where you were not allowed to clean) was a day for cleaning out dirt (hence the name) after having your house full of guests. You needed something easy for dinner and “dirty eggs” was an easy and delicious dish. It’s still a wide spread Easter dish in Denmark today.
“Daffodill Sprout” combines the traditional Danish Easter ingredients of egg and mustard (dirty eggs) with the light dill aquavit and the return of spring in the form of a tarragon sprig.
4 cl black tea infused dill aquavit*
3 cl lemon juice
2 cl acacia honey
1 cl of mozart dry chocolate spirit
1/2 bar spoon dijon mustard
Egg whiteDry shake all ingredients. Shake with ice. Serve over ice cubes in an egg shaped glass (we use a beautiful egg shaped Holmegaard glass from Rosendahl designed by Peter Svarrer in his Cabernet-series). Garnish with a sprig of tarragon.
*Simply add some black tea to the dill aquavit and let it infuse for at least half an hour before filtering out the tea leafs.
Dill aquavit is the white wine of aquavits and is often drunk with pickled herring for Easter. It is more herby and summery compared to the caraway spiced aquavits and a better fit for a spring cocktail.
Acacia honey is a perfect sweetener for aquavit. The aromas of black tea and tarragon blends extremely well with mustard and dill. The subtle hint of chocolate from the Mozart dry chocolate spirit ties all this together and makes this cocktail interestingly complex.
Complex is not always a good thing. But it’s definitely not a bad thing if you find the right synergy of aromas!
If you are intrigued by the mix of dill and chocolate, also check out Lidkoeb’s “Green & White” or for another use for your dill aquavit Duck and Cover‘s “Beetroot Basher“.
