Cooking with Lavender

Lavender makes a wonderful addition to bread

Love it, hate it or perhaps just a little afraid of it. Blue, mauve, indigo and pink, wonderful aromatic lavender isn't always in vogue  ..  but it always seems to get a reaction.  I'm a fan and simple dishes such as lavender infused sugar sprinkled on strawberries and cream or lavender laced crème caramel seems to elevate the top notes with purple fresh mint tones.  It's a hard taste to describe ..  but really wonderful and so thank goodness lavender is fashionable to cook with again.

I suppose the best way to describe Lavender is that it overlays a sweet fruity floral mintyness to food works with both sweet and savoury and it somehow transforms the everyday into something remarkable just by showing up in the dish, however it is worth noting that with lavender  .. less is more. 

There is a superb article by Sudi Pigot in The Independent a few days ago and it’s interesting to read that lavender is really in back in fashion in the upper elisions of the culinary world, however it is also worth noting that not all lavender is delicious. 

The Intermedia varieties such as  Alba, Grosso, Dutch white, Old English and Seals that are grown commercially for perfume have far different culinary properties from the cottage garden Angustifolia used for cooking..  frankly I find that the Intermedia varieties are almost always revolting in food being both harsh and camphorous. Before you panic and wonder which lavender  to cook with, it is the bog standard cottage garden species of lavender Angustifolia, that gives the sweet vanilla tones and is perfect for culinary use.  Hidcote, Munstead, Rosea or indeed any Angustifolia will be beautifully scented and absolutely delicious to use.

To get the very best lavender flavour you must pick the unopened buds.  Chose a warm day about midday when the sun is high because the heat concentrates the oils for more intensity. Once opened the flowers lose the essential oils that impart the flavour. Dry your lavender upside down, spaced out to allow air around the flowers, in a well-aired dark environment.  3 days is enough to dry lavender picked in this way. Do keep them in the dark you keep the intensity of the colour.  Store in an airtight container, out of sunlight.  You should make a fresh batch each year; if you don’t have lavender in the garden there are many pick our own farms or you could be really cheeky and ask a friendly neighbour.

Perhaps the simplest way to infuse lavender into food in a gentle way is to make lavender sugar, but you can also use it fresh by using double the amount of fresh lavender to dried lavender in a recipe, and although you can buy books with lavender recipes in them .. somehow just adding on to sprinkle to your normal everyday cooking seems to me the best way to enjoy. 

So do you love it, hate it or are you a wee bit scared of it? 

Which lavender can I use to cook with ?

 Hidcote, Munstead and Rosea which flower late May, June and July

When I put together the flavours for Prepped I know that there would be one in particular that would attract the most attention - Lavender.  I used to write about cooking with lavender for several small magazines and looking at these photo's on this page from five years ago I recollect a famous TV chef literally lifting every recipe in an article I wrote without even changing the slightest detail cooking the all on his show.

I had about 50 phone calls from outraged viewers who knew me. There was nothing I could do (.. but  I remember..  and he'd better watch out .. because when I meet him I am going to give him what for!*)

Throughout the Middle Ages lavender Angustifolia was dried and used in religious communities as medicine. The first ever mention on lavender was by musician and herbalist Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098 - 1179) where she mentions it as having  "strong odour and many virtues of the plant. "

There are also references to culinary lavender in some arablic articles at the same time, however in Hildegard's writings she refers to lavender flower wine which was considered to be a liver remedy.

Throughout history lavender has been used in culinary terms but also as a medicine. With a constant connection with royal gardens it was de riguer from the 1400's until 1600s were it was used in much the same way as we use rosemary.. to make jellies and eat with meat.  lavender is also a great insecticide and I often pop some in the dog basket to ward off any extra guests.

There are however so many different varieties of lavender that choosing the right one to use in you making or cooking is rather difficult.  Pick the right one and you have a delicious light minty sweet perfumed one.

 Choose the wrong one and its camphorous and revolting. Well I've had so many people contact me in the past 24 hours after putting up my lavender sugar recipe wanting to know which is the right variety that I have spent a happy morning looking into my photography archives and found some photo's that might make it clearer which varieties to use and which NOT to.. so here is your guide to which lavender to use and what to look for

To make a really good lavender sugar you should use Angustifolia.  There are many you can use but the most common you can find are Hidcote, Munstead and Rosea which flower late May, June and July You can see all three of these in my daughter's handful above.  The Rosea is pink , the Munstead lillic and at the back is the dark blue Hidcote.

As you can see here some of the buds are closed and tight. The best flavoured is made from these close buds as This keeps the essential oils in and that gives you a good flavour.

The best time of day to pick is as the oil is at it's most concentrated.  Between midday and 2pm is ideal. 

The right lavender to cook with Angustifolia 

It's best to avoid lavender intermedia completely. These are mostly the larger bushes you see and flower later in the season.. July and August, September but they do make super lavender bags!

There is considerable size difference between the two. Intermedia is much much larger than Angustifolia  ( good to cook with)  

You can see that the stems are much shorter than the intermedia above

The shape of intermedia flowers below is much longer and tends to be fatter at the bottom with a peak at the top - avoid these in cooking

Although beautiful French Lavender or lavender Stoechas below is not great in cooking. It has two flowering a year in mid spring and again in early autumn.  You can use the petals to cook with but it doesn't have a great taste and does not store so my advice it to avoid it!

There is also a really pretty lavender called Canariensis - a species widespread in the canary islands it is no good to cook with I am afraid - Pity really as it's very pretty !