Local San Juan Island Chef, and one of Pelindaba's long-time friends, Anna Maria de Freitas shares her experience of her initial foray into the wonderful world of cooking with lavender.
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| Photo: Jeremy Dubs |
My Culinary Lavender Backstory
"Not too long before moving to San Juan Island, I planned a dinner party featuring scallops crusted with lavender. I searched gourmet and specialty stores up and down the Baltimore and Washington D.C. corridor. All I found were essential oils. There were no culinary lavender buds to be had. Cooking with essential oils is not advised, so I scrapped my initial recipe and made something else. Fast-forward a few years….
"My husband Dave and I moved to Friday Harbor in 2005 to own and operate our own bed and breakfast. Now I was looking for lavender essential oil for the production of our inn's private label soaps and skin care products. I connected with this farm I had heard about on the island, Pelindaba Lavender. At that time their production of oils was limited and reserved for in-house production only. But they did have culinary lavender buds available. Wow! I could actually try the aforementioned recipe I shelved several years prior. So I purchased a tin of culinary lavender, excited to get started.
"Honestly, I didn’t know where to start. I had this romantic notion of the scallop recipe from years past, but once I had the lavender buds in my hands I couldn’t make the connection with the floral fragrance to food. Lavender reminded me of grandmother’s linen closet. It was a new food flavor that I never tasted before, so I had no reference. To prepare, I sought out lavender recipes from Provence, France, a region that is known for cultivating lavender varieties and using it in their cuisine.
"As I read recipe after recipe, I found a correlation between ingredients and flavor combinations. Once I understood what flavors paired with and complemented lavender I was off and running. I ditched my earlier recipes, turned to my new repertoire and started experimenting."
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| Photo: Jeremy Dubs |
Experimenting with Lavender in the Kitchen
"I added lavender to baked goods – scones, tea breads and pound cakes; I paired the buds with almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, strawberries, blueberries, pears, peaches, lemon, oranges and honey. I made lavender syrup to use with pancakes, ice cream and cocktails. I paired lavender with goat cheese and ricotta and experimented using it with and in place of thyme, rosemary and Herbs de Provence. Lavender butter on fish, lavender in a savory marinade with garlic, ginger and yogurt for chicken, a lavender sage rub on baby back ribs and lamb kabobs threaded on lavender skewers -- all were delicious. One of my last discoveries was the wonderful interplay between lavender and chocolate.
"I finally understood the flexibility of this herb, which is best used in delicate baked goods and to stand up to strong flavors in savory dishes."
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| Photo: Jeremy Dubs |
Lavender in the Flavor Profile
"I liken the use of lavender to tasting wine. You want lavender to be one component of the flavor profile; prominent at either the beginning, middle or end. We should always be watchful to strike the right balance with the other flavors. Lavender can be quick to overpower. For our lavender ice cream at the Inn, the flavor profile begins with the sweet aromatic notes of honey, followed by a hint of lavender grounded in a base of vanilla bean. Another consideration when cooking with lavender is the contact time with the ingredients. The longer lavender is in contact with another component, the more dominant the flavor. When using lavender as a rub or marinade for chicken or fish, or as a crust for a delicate cheese, be mindful of the time frame from when you marinate or encrust to when you will enjoy the dish. After all, “how much” is a very personal decision. Just “season to taste.”
"In my kitchen, lavender fleur de sel, lavender pepper and lavender Herbs de Provence are always at the ready to crack atop potatoes, eggs or fish. We use lavender in many dishes at the Tucker House and Harrison House Inns. For some guests, this is their first experience tasting the floral herb. They often struggle to identify the flavor as it is so familiar, but so unique. It is fun to share with them the epiphany we had some 15 years ago."
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| Photo: Jakie Donnelly Baisa |
Anna Maria de Freitas is the owner of the San Juan Island Inn Collection, including the Harrison House Suites, Tucker House Inn, Coho Restaurant and Island Special Events and Catering. Her first cookbook, La Cucina Anna Maria: Good Life Recipes from San Juan Island, published shortly after moving to San Juan Island in 2005 is a compilation of recipes chronicling her passion for food, cooking, and entertaining from her family heritage and travels throughout the globe. Her new book, Savor San Juan Island: Good life Recipes from Friday Harbor is a new set of recipes developed by her and her colleagues over the past decade. This new edition contains many of the recipes she has adapted with lavender. She has shared her love of cooking with lavender at the San Juan Island Lavender Festival, hosted by Pelindaba Lavender Farm, every year since 2005. Her team loves catering events in the fields surrounded by a sea of purple and the intoxicatingly relaxing scents of lavender.
Sounds wonderful!
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