Cooking with Lavender

I love lavender, the little purple flowers and their heady aroma. I have a very productive bush on my front path, which provides me with flowers throughout the summer. I've also successfully propagated lots of little lavender bushes which have exploded beneath my clothes line, and have begun to surpass the productivity of the original bush. I often cut flowers which last for ages in a vase. Last year I cut some flowers for drying and ventured into culinary uses for the dried flowers. They add quite an unusual flavour to dishes, obviously floral, but quite a musky depth of flavour. It might not be to everyone's taste, but I really like it, particularly in scones and cupcakes. With such a strong flavour, only a very small amount is required for most recipes I've found.

Stephanie Alexanders's Kitchen Garden Companion has a whole section on lavender, on growing, harvesting and drying the flowers. She suggests whizzing up a dried flower head with caster sugar and using the sugar to top iced cakes and make meringues. There is also a recipe for some nice lavender scones.

Lavender Scones

2 1/2 C self raising flour, plus extra for dustine

1/4 C pure icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

1/2 C thickened cream

2/3 C milk

jam and cream to server (of course!)

Preheat oven to 240C. Sift flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl and add lavender. Cut cream in with a pastry scraper or broad spatula. Mix in mile quickly.

Sift a little flour over a chopping board and over a baking tray. turn dough onto floured board. Pat into a rectangle and cut into 6cm squares. Separate and place dough squares onto floured baking tray. Bake for 5 minutes or until browned on top. Reduce over to 180C and bake for a further 10 minutes.

A quick google search will also provide you with many more culinary options. I've made these really nice cupcakes with lavender, an usual and sophisticated change from vanilla cupcakes.

Other ideas that would be interesting, lavender icecream, lavender flavoured cream in profiteroles or in a sponge cake, lavender icing. Dishes with lamb or rabbit might work as well, like as a stuffing.

We also had a wine when travelling in France that had been spiked with lavender that was amazing on a hot day. It was a white wine (not sure what type), with a sugar syrup added in and a sprig of lavender. It was then left for about a week before drinking. Serve very cold.