Lavender in your cooking!

Manor Farm Herbs
Manor Farm
Fringford
Bicester
Oxfordsire OX27 8DP

Starting a Herb Garden	Hedging and Edging	Prostrate herbs for cracks and crevices, walls and paths.
Herb Teas and Tisanes	Pots of Herbs!	Lavender in your cooking!

Lavender for culinary use as got to be one of the most 'up and coming' herbs of the moment.
It is to be found everywhere from drinks to divine tasting chocolate, from roast meats to desserts.
When using lavender for cooking it is important to use a 'culinary' lavender. Our two favourite dwarf English lavenders - Hidcote and Munstead - are both ideal for flavour and fragrance. The french lavenders - Lavandula stoechas - have very fine flowers but a rather antiseptic scent, not ideal for eating!

Lavender Hidcote - a traditional Engish lavender

The best time to pick lavender, both for using fresh in cooking or preserving and drying for the winter, is just as the first part of the bud starts to open. At this point there are maximum essential oils in the flowers to be used.

Use whole heads of lavender, either fresh or dried, to enhance the flavour of fruit when it is cooked, as it reduces the acidity. Blackcurrants and other soft fruit, apples, pears - the choice is endless!
Make a stock sugar syrup, by gently dissolving 270g sugar in 500ml of water and simmering for 10 minutes. Add a handful of lavender heads and allow to infuse and cool completely. Strain and keep in a jar in the fridge to use in drinks, summer puddings and other desserts.
Mix lavender heads with any mixture of crushed coriander seeds, fennel, oregano or sage. Grind together is desired to give a seasoning mix with a difference. The warm sweetness of these herbs and spices enhances the flavours from the lavender.
Poach peaches in sugar syrup with fresh lavender heads and a couple of bay leaves for an exciting flavour.
If you think about it, lavender and rosemary are very similar sorts of herbs for flavouring.

Lavender goes as well with roast lamb as the more traditional addition of rosemary.
Cut small slits or pockets all over a lamb joint and stuff each slit with a sliver of fresh garlic and a lavender head or two. Warm together a tablespoon each of lavender honey and olive oil and drizzle over the meat before roasting.

Lavender and peppercorn rub for roasted meat
3 tsp mixed peppercorns
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp sea salt crystals
2 tsp dried lavender heads

Combine all the ingredients and coarsely crush in a pestle and mortar, or in a strong plastic bag with a rolling pin. Store in a small jar and use to rub onto your roasts or barbecue meats, then leave them to marinate for an hour or two to really enhance their flavours.

Try out some of the more old fashioned recipes like

Lavender Flavoured Sugar.
Dried lavender flowers are layered with sugar, in a glass jar this looks very decorative and can make a really unusual gift. Use the sugar after a month or so to make biscuits or even meringues for a especially amazing flavour.

Apple and Lavender Cocktail
100 ml gin, vodka or white rum
Juice of a large lime
50 ml apple juice
1 tbls caster sugar
2 small handfuls of lavender flowers
Ice cubes

Bruise the lavender lightly with a rolling pin to release the essentials oils.
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake for a full minute.
Strain into two chilled glasses and decorate with a couple of sprigs of lavender.

Lavender is such a traditional British fragrance, used over the centuries in a multitude of ways.
It's good to see its use in cooking becoming more and more popular in such a host of very different dishes.