Lavender Sugar, Butter and Salad Dressing - Blue Monday

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...While folks more sensible than Bob and I were enjoying their air conditioned homes or breezy decks, we were traipsing through fields of lavender doing our part to make the Oregon Lavender Festival a success. Our intent was to tour several operations and find a good local source for culinary lavender. I was easy to spot. Fair skin demands full sun protection on these hot sunny days. I was the gal who looked liked a bee keeper. High temperatures and blazing sun aside, we had a glorious day, met some kindred spirits and even picked up a few recipes that I can share with you today. The recipes are very easy to make and use less lavender than many of the recipes floating in cyberspace. Lavender has a distinctive taste that borders on bitter if too much of it is used. If you like its flavor, you might want to increase the amounts I have suggested in each of the recipes below. The first recipe is for lavender sugar. I've also included recipes for lavender butter and a salad dressing. I use dried flower buds in all these dishes because of the seasonal nature of fresh lavender. If you'd like to dry your own lavender, instructions can be found here. English lavender is the best to use for culinary purposes. Here are the recipes.

Lavender Sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons coarsely ground dried lavender buds

Combine lavender and sugar. Store in an airtight container for at least 3 days. Strain before using. Yield: 1 cup.

Lavender Butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon honey
1-1/2 teaspoons dried lavender buds, whole or lightly ground

Combine butter, honey and lavender in a small bowl. Mix well. Shape as desired. Refrigerate until firm. Serve with sweet bread. Yield: 1/2 cup.

Lavender Salad Dressing
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1-1/2 tablespoons dried lavender buds, ground
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, mustard, honey, lavender, salt and pepper in the jar of an electric blender. Pulse to combine. Transfer to a serving container. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Yield: 1 cup.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Peach-Lavender Cobbler - Delish
Apricot Clafouti with Lavender and Pecans - Cooking with Corey
Lavender White Chocolate Cookies - Life Lightly Salted
Brandy Tuiles with Lavender Cream - My Easy Kitchen
Bouquet Cupcakes: Lilac and Lavender - The Conscious Kitchen
Raspberry Lavender Lemonade - Kahakai Kitchen

This post is being linked to:
Smiling Sally - Blue Monday

Po Cha and Clues to Our Destination

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...The suspense is over. Our holiday plans have been finalized. Selection of a location was really difficult this year. Bob and I had different adventures in mind and the final decision was made in the only fair way possible. We quite literally pulled a photo from a stack spread like playing cards of the table. There was a randomness to it that made the whole thing seem more fair than might otherwise have been the case. I'm happy to report we are both happy with the decision the gods of chance made on our behalf. It will be an adventure and I'll be counting the days until it actually begins. October is a ways off but that gives us time to get visas and study more about the places we'll be visiting. I'm going to keep you in the dark for a while longer. I've put together some photos of people and places we'll be visiting to see if you can identify the three countries we'll be touring. I'm also including one recipe associated with the most remote of the places on our itinerary. We have promised the children, who don't like the words trek or safari used in the same breath as their parent's names, that this is absolutely, positively our last visit to remote locales with sometimes fragile political systems. They are dubious. Seems I said that last year as well. I really meant it, but the back and legs and brain have held up well and this seems like the right thing for us to do. At any rate, here is the recipe for a drink that really should be made with yak milk and butter. I must say it is a real challenge to the palate even when made with cows milk and butter from a local creamery. I don't always do well with foods that fall into the acquired taste category. It took me years to enjoy a martini. I comfort myself with the knowledge I tried it, and who knows, it may taste better in country. Here's the scoop for other brave and kindred souls.

Po Cha......from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
5 -6 cups water
3 black tea bags or 2 tablespoons loose black tea
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk, half-and-half or 1 teaspoon milk powder

Directions:
1) Bring five to six cups of water to a boil. Reduce heat. Add tea bags or loose tea and simmer for several minutes more. Remove tea bags or strain loose tea.
2) Pour steeped tea, salt, butter and milk or milk powder into a blender or chandong, a type of churn. You can also shake the tea in a thermos bottle. Churn, blend or shake the mixture for 3 to 5 minutes. Our into cuos and serve piping hot: Yield: 4 servings.

















You might also enjoy these recipes:
Ginger Tea - One Perfect Bite
Blueberry Tea - One Perfect Bite
Himalayan Salted Butter Tea - Not Quite Nigella
Yak Butter Tea - The Greedy Glutton

This recipe is being linked to:
Designs By Gollum - Foodie Friday

Linzer Cookies

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I love Linzertorte when it's made by someone other than myself. It's a lot of work to assemble and I have trouble with the lattice that typically covers it. I make up for it's absence on our dessert table by making Linzer cookies for the holiday. The cookies are very easy to do and the ingredients used to make them are the same as those used in the torte. While the cookies are far simpler to assemble than the torte, they need to be chilled before being rolled. That means you'll need to build wait time into your plans should you decide to make these luscious morsels. These are basically a butter rich sandwich cookie. It can be a trick to get the top and bottom layers to line up with so soft a dough. I recently read the problem can be overcome by rolling the cookies on parchment paper and transferring the paper to a cookie sheet, rather than attempting to move the cookies. Makes sense. I still haven't tried it, but I've put it on my must try list for the coming year. Linzer cookies are traditionally filled with black currant jam. That can be hard to come by, so feel free to use whatever jam you have available. Raspberry and apricot are always safe alternatives. If the dough becomes too soft as you are working with it, return it to the refrigerator to chill again. All scraps can be saved and reused if they are chilled before an attempt is made to roll them. If you keep the dough cold and use a cookie cutter no more than 2 inches in diameter, you'll have no problem making this classic cookie. Here's the recipe.

Linzer Cookies...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup ( 2 sticks) sliced butter at room temperature
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg, separated
2/3 cup finely chopped almonds, divided use
1/3 to 1/2 cup good jam or jelly

Directions:
1) Combine flour, butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg yolk and 1/3 cup almonds in bowl of a food processor. Blend until a smooth dough is formed. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes. I chill my dough for 3 to 4 hours before rolling.
2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
3) Roll dough on a well-floured board until it is 1/8-inch thick. Use a cookie cutter or thimble to cut centers from half of cookies. Brush cookies with centers removed with egg white. Sprinkle with reserved 1/3 cup almonds and 3 tablespoons sugar. Plain rounds should be left without topping. Transfer cookies to prepared cookie sheets.
4) Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges just begin to brown and center of cookie is set. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
5) Top each plain cookie with 1/2 teaspoon jam. Cover with a cut out cookie making sure to keep almond-sugar side up. Yield: about 50 sandwich cookies.