Day 269 of 365 - Lemon & Lavender
Yummy, both the scent and the taste of lemon and lavender turns out to be. Browsing through my recipes recently, I decided on a couple of things for Sunday dinner. There happened to be fresh lemon zest in both. Lavender was an addition I decided to make to the dessert recipe.
These were both very healthy and delicious recipes. The entree I made was lemon garlic marinated chicken breasts. They were served with roasted cauliflower and garlic which was blended to a mashed potato consistency with added Parmesan cheese and freshly cooked bacon bits. For dessert I made a lemon blueberry loaf to which I added some culinary lavender for an extra flavor boost.
Some friends of mine recently gave me a tin of culinary lavender. I had the pleasure of tasting his blueberry loaf last year and enjoyed the flavor. My recipe was different but still delicious. Culinary lavender is a member of the mint family and is often used with savory herbs. The flowers and leaves of mature plants can be eaten and buds and stems can be dried for different purposes. English lavender is the one most commonly used in cooking. Culinary lavender has not been treated with pesticides. Do not eat lavender which is not food grade.
Culinary lavender has a sweet, floral flavor, with hints of lemon and citrus. Thus, it also works well in recipes containing lemon, like the blueberry loaf I made. Drying lavender makes it more potent, so used in the dry form, a little goes a long way. Apparently, if you use too much in cooking it can actually make your dish bitter.
What my friend suggested to me, and I did, was to start with one tablespoon of the dried culinary lavender buds. I partially ground it in an old coffee grinder to break it down to a softer consistency before adding it to my recipe. It yielded a subtle, but pleasant additional flavor to the lemon blueberry loaf.
It's easy to find recipes which use culinary lavender. What is interesting about it is, that it pairs well with both sweet or savory dishes. I'm told it tastes very good for example, on roasted potatoes accompanied by rosemary. I plan to try that soon.
Up until now, my exposure to lavender had been sniffing garden flowers, having it as a component of potpourri, using soap embedded with lavender, or using lavender essential oil in my diffuser. This summer I will experiment with some other recipes using culinary lavender. Perhaps I'll have more to report about it another time.
These were both very healthy and delicious recipes. The entree I made was lemon garlic marinated chicken breasts. They were served with roasted cauliflower and garlic which was blended to a mashed potato consistency with added Parmesan cheese and freshly cooked bacon bits. For dessert I made a lemon blueberry loaf to which I added some culinary lavender for an extra flavor boost.
Some friends of mine recently gave me a tin of culinary lavender. I had the pleasure of tasting his blueberry loaf last year and enjoyed the flavor. My recipe was different but still delicious. Culinary lavender is a member of the mint family and is often used with savory herbs. The flowers and leaves of mature plants can be eaten and buds and stems can be dried for different purposes. English lavender is the one most commonly used in cooking. Culinary lavender has not been treated with pesticides. Do not eat lavender which is not food grade.
Culinary lavender has a sweet, floral flavor, with hints of lemon and citrus. Thus, it also works well in recipes containing lemon, like the blueberry loaf I made. Drying lavender makes it more potent, so used in the dry form, a little goes a long way. Apparently, if you use too much in cooking it can actually make your dish bitter.
What my friend suggested to me, and I did, was to start with one tablespoon of the dried culinary lavender buds. I partially ground it in an old coffee grinder to break it down to a softer consistency before adding it to my recipe. It yielded a subtle, but pleasant additional flavor to the lemon blueberry loaf.
It's easy to find recipes which use culinary lavender. What is interesting about it is, that it pairs well with both sweet or savory dishes. I'm told it tastes very good for example, on roasted potatoes accompanied by rosemary. I plan to try that soon.
Up until now, my exposure to lavender had been sniffing garden flowers, having it as a component of potpourri, using soap embedded with lavender, or using lavender essential oil in my diffuser. This summer I will experiment with some other recipes using culinary lavender. Perhaps I'll have more to report about it another time.
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