Ecology of consumption: Lavender has taken a strong place in cooking. It is especially popular in the south of France (in the district of Provence and on the French Riviera), on the coasts of Italy and Spain. Due to its strong aroma, it is used in small quantities.
We all have an idea of what lavender looks like, but we know little about it. But there are more than 35 varieties of it in the world. The vast majority of people associate it with the bright purple color and incredibly beautiful lavender fields, from which you can’t take your eyes off.
Lavender is now grown most industrially in Bulgaria (140 tons per year) and France (40 tons per year). They are followed by Croatia (22 tons) and Ukraine (18 tons). It is not difficult to find lavender in garden plots in Spain and Italy, not to mention other countries.
The name of this plant comes from the Latin word "lava", which means "to wash". This is because the ancient Romans and Greeks made extensive use of lavender for its cleansing properties and also added it to baths for relaxation.
In Ancient Egypt, lavender was part of a very long composition of herbs for embalming and was highly valued among the nobility. At the beginning of the last century, it was found in urns with incense from Tutankhamun. Since they were sealed, scientists, upon opening them, felt the wonderful aroma of lavender - and this was 3 thousand years after the burial!
In Medieval Europe, during the war with the Inquisition, lavender was also considered clearly not an ordinary plant. From myths and legends, people learned that it could be used to scare away evil spirits, witches, and even the devil himself. In France, residents even wore dry lavender around their necks as a talisman and hung bunches of it everywhere in the house, especially at the entrance.
During the Renaissance, lavender began to be used to create women's and men's perfumes. Most often she performed in tandem with rosemary. Perfume sellers told stories about how lavender helps ladies maintain beauty and prolong youth for many decades.
During the mass construction of classical French geometric gardens (the Baroque era), lavender filled the gardens of rich palaces and castles.
Now, among other things, lavender is used in folk medicine and cooking.
Lavender has taken a strong place in cooking. It is especially popular in the south of France (in the district of Provence and on the French Riviera), on the coasts of Italy and Spain. Due to its strong aroma, it is used in small quantities.
For example, lavender is added to sauces, soups and salads, but most of all it is suitable for meat dishes - for example, stewed or fried lamb.
In desserts, it plays a leading role in flavoring and decoration. It is especially often used in the preparation of various pies, muffins and cookies. Lavender, along with rosemary, is also used in many bread recipes.
Lavender is a strong fragrance. If you put lavender flowers in sugar and close the container with a tight lid, then in a week you will get lavender sugar, which can be safely added to tea or culinary products.
When smoking sausages, it is added to the smoldering sawdust along with juniper berries. Some special admirers of lavender have a fashionable dish: stewed vegetables with a whole bunch of spices: dill, sage, savory and lavender.
Lavender is also widely used in medical practice, in the form of essential oil. It contains more than 300 organic compounds and is useful for diseases of the nervous system, insomnia, fatigue and general loss of strength. Lavender also has pronounced antiseptic and bactericidal properties, which makes it indispensable in medical practice.
Ingredients:
Cream (at least 35%) 3 cups
Dried lavender flowers 2 tbsp. l.
Sugar 1 cup
Eggs4 yolks
Wheat flour 2 tsp.
Cooking method:
1. Combine the cream and lavender flowers in a suitable container and bring to a boil over heat. Let it brew for 10-15 minutes with the lid closed.
2. Beat the yolks with sugar and add flour to them.
3. Strain, separating the cream from the lavender. Slowly add them to the flour and egg mixture, whisking constantly. Place on low heat again. While stirring with a whisk, do not let the mixture boil. So bring it until it thickens.
4. Now you should strain the mixture through a sieve into a large jar, cool in the refrigerator and freeze.
You can also prepare a delicious
Cooking instructions
6 hours Print
1. In a large saucepan, combine milk, cream and lavender. Heat over medium heat, stirring, until the milk mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Crib Hob timers
2. In a separate bowl, beat the yolks, all the sugar, 1/4 cup liquid honey and a pinch of salt. Beat until the mixture becomes creamy and pale yellow in color.
Crib How to separate whites from yolks
3. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the beaten egg yolks, stirring constantly. After stirring evenly, pour the mixture back into the saucepan, place over medium heat and stir constantly, including the edges and the middle of the bottom of the pan. Stir until thickened, but do not allow the cream to boil. Once the cream reaches the consistency of liquid sour cream, remove from heat.
4. Strain the cream through a sieve to remove the lavender flowers. Strain into a clean saucepan. Tool Chinois sieve To ensure that there are no seeds, pulp, skins or other parts that are unnecessary in terms of consistency in the sauce, it is filtered through a fine sieve. In a cone-shaped one - for its resemblance to a Chinese cap it is also called chinois, Chinese - it is convenient to squeeze out the cake to the last drop, and the filtered sauce flows out of it in a thin stream.
5. Place the strained cream in a cold water bath. To do this, fill a large bowl halfway with very cold water and ice cubes. Place a saucepan with cream on top of it. Stir the cream occasionally for 30–40 minutes until it cools. This stirring will prevent the ice cream from crystallizing.
6. Remove the saucepan with ice cream from the water bath, tightly cover the saucepan with a lid and place in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours to further cool.
7. Let's prepare honey pine nuts.
8. Place a small frying pan over medium heat, heat for 2 minutes and place the pine nuts on the hot surface. Stir the nuts occasionally for about 5 minutes until they turn a reddish-golden color. Add 2 tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon of still water and 1 teaspoon of oil to the nuts. Cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, pour the honey-nut mixture onto a plate and cool at room temperature. Tool Cast iron frying pan The crust on cast iron turns out right away, it holds and releases heat perfectly, so it copes with stewing, simmering and other long-term tasks perfectly. Modern ones (for example, French Le Creuset) differ from Soviet cast-iron frying pans in that their inner surface is covered with enamel, which means they do not need to be calcined.
9. Remove the ice cream from the refrigerator and pour it into an ice cream freezer and churn for 20-40 minutes. At the last minute of swirling, add the honey pine nuts. Fill the container with the resulting mass and place it in the freezer for 3-4 hours until it completely hardens. Ice cream maker tool In order to prepare sorbet or ice cream without unnecessary hassle, an ice cream maker will come in handy, which will take care of the freezing and mixing. There are devices that freeze on their own, and there are those that first need to be in the freezer themselves. Afisha-Eda conducted a revision of the latter, and after long and careful experiments, the Nemox Dolce Vita ice cream maker turned out to be the best.
10. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, immediately pour the frozen mixture into a container, stir in the nuts and place in the freezer. Remove the container and stir the contents every half hour until it hardens.
Monday and a new recipe. Maybe not quite in season. But last week II had to urgently add that incredible amount of crème anglaise,which I prepared while taking my first pastry class. And the ice cream there is none other than frozen crème anglaise. ANDWe love it, ice cream, all season long. Therefore, the problem of disposalresults of my educational processdecided on its own. So today’s recipe can also be considered as a recipe for the most basic cream in confectionery, which very often serves as the basis for other desserts.
First, I’ll show off the results of my exercises.
This is what a properly prepared crème anglaise looks like. Yes, its consistency is liquid and more like a sauce.
And at the same time so dense that it retains the pattern without spreading into a shapeless puddle. For example, a drop flowing down a gravy boat left a clear trace.
And very creamy, very smooth and incredibly tender. But this can no longer be shown in the photo, unfortunately.
Now about the ice cream.
Our classic ice cream is made differently, I know. It contains no eggs at all, and the milk mixture is thickened with starch. Ice cream based on crème anglaise is a European recipe. But, we must pay tribute, it is in no way inferior to our ice cream. It seemed even softer and creamier to me. 
Lavender ice cream
(for 1 serving or 2 small glasses of 100 ml each, slightly more than half filled)
100 g heavy cream 33-35%
100 g milk 3.2%
2 yolks
20 g sugar
another 20 grams of sugar
1 coffee spoon of lavender flowers*
*If you don’t like lavender, replace it with another flavoring - vanilla pod (cut and remove seeds), coffee beans, favorite liqueur, aromatic herbs, bergamot tea, etc.
- Combine cream and milk in a saucepan. Add the first 20 grams of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, but do not boil for long so as not to lose some of the liquid in the process.
- Add lavender flowers to the hot mixture. Cover the saucepan with cling film and leave for 2 hours.
- Return the now cooled mixture to the heat and heat well again.
- Pour the second 20 grams of sugar into the yolks and immediately whisk. Do not beat, just grind. And never combine the yolks with sugar in advance. Only immediately before mixing with hot liquid.
- Pour a small portion into the yolkshot liquid, stirring continuously with a whisk.The design of the whisk is such that air penetrates into the mass when stirring. In this case, we need it for cooling. As a safety net so that the yolks don’t overheat.
- Pour some of the hot liquid into the yolks again, stirring continuously with a whisk.
- When the egg mixture is warm, pour it into a saucepan.
- Place the pan on medium heat and boil the cream to 82-85C. This is the temperature at which the cream will begin to thicken. If we heat it longer and exceed the specified temperature, we risk getting an omelette. For the same reason, it is important to stir the mixture thoroughly when cooking, especially the bottom of the saucepan.
- Strain the finished cream to remove the lavender flowers. Cover with cling film "in contact", cool, and then put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to stabilize.
- Pour the cold cream into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the instructions.
- Remove the film from the cream and put it in the freezer. Every 30 minutes, remove and beat with an immersion blender. When the cream freezes to the consistency of soft ice cream, divide it into serving cups and freeze for another couple of hours.
In general it would Most of all, I love ice cream with grated chocolate, crushed cookies and nuts. This is from childhood. In the children's cafe where my parents and I went, in the window at the cash register there were vases with additives: cookies, grated chocolate, peanuts and syrup. You order ice cream and you can choose the topping to your liking. I could never decide and chose three - chocolate, cookies and nuts))) I think all three would be a wonderful addition to this ice cream. Still wouldmetal bowlson a white plastic leglike in childhood, to find...
Have a delicious week everyone)
I'll bring it in at the same time olga_ro on FM "A summer evening is permeated with romance"
Recipe for lavender ice cream on the website "I'm a Cook"
Ingredients:
Ice cream:
1 glass of baked milk
1/2 tbsp. lavender flowers (fresh or dried)
a pinch of purple dye
2 tbsp. honey
3 egg yolks
1.5 tbsp. Sahara
100 ml cream 35% fat
Nut caramel:
2 tbsp. Sahara
1 g soda
1 g baking powder
handful of pine nuts
Preparation:
Let's start with lavender ice cream.
Pour baked milk into a saucepan, add lavender flowers. Bring to a boil, cook for 3 minutes over low heat, then turn off the stove and leave covered for 15 minutes.
In a separate container with 1-2 tsp. dilute the dye with milk.
Grind the egg yolks with sugar until the mixture turns white.
Pour about 100 ml of hot milk into the egg mixture in a thin stream, whisking vigorously so that they do not cook. Pour the resulting mixture into a saucepan with the remaining milk in a thin stream, stirring. Bring to a boil over low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the cream thickens. This will take about 5 minutes.
Turn off the heat and add honey and cream to the hot lavender custard. Stir until the honey is completely dissolved. Add purple dye a few drops at a time, stirring until you get the color you want.
In principle, you can do without dye: homemade ice cream with yolks, cream and baked milk turns out to be a very pleasant beige color. But I wanted to emphasize the presence of lavender, so I decided to use food coloring.
Strain the lavender cream mixture through a sieve into a large bowl and let cool completely. Cover with a lid and place in the freezer for 4-5 hours. Every 30-60 minutes (depending on the temperature in the freezer), the lavender ice cream should be taken out and stirred so that it does not freeze into large crystals.
If you have an ice cream maker, the whole process is much simpler: place the lavender mixture in a container and prepare the ice cream according to the instructions.
While the dessert is freezing, prepare crispy caramel with nuts.
To do this, toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan until they turn golden brown. Pour sugar into a saucepan and heat over low heat until it begins to melt. As soon as bubbles appear in the melted sugar, add baking powder and soda. A violent reaction will immediately begin, the caramel will be saturated with air bubbles and, after hardening, will be tender, not hard. Quickly add the nuts, stir and pour the caramel onto a sheet of parchment, spreading it in a thin layer. In just 5 minutes the caramel will harden and can be broken into pieces of any shape.
Using a special spoon, place the finished homemade lavender ice cream into bowls and decorate with caramel. You can sprinkle with fresh lavender flowers. 
Recently I got the hang of making ice cream from a ready-made dry mixture. Mixture for making cream. Ice cream made with this mixture cooks quickly and produces a good creamy taste. To make the ice cream more than just creamy, I suggest preparing it with lavender, which will give the ice cream additional taste and aroma.
So, to make lavender ice cream we need a dry mixture for making cream, milk, lavender, sugar to taste.
Add sugar and lavender to the milk. You need to add a little lavender, as it will taste bitter if there is too much of it.
Bring the milk to a boil; the sugar should dissolve. We taste the milk; if the taste of lavender is not noticeable, then the milk needs to be infused. If there is already enough taste, strain the milk and cool it completely.
When the milk has cooled, prepare the dry mixture according to the instructions. Combine milk and dry mixture, beat for 2-4 minutes until fluffy foam resembles whipped cream.
Transfer the cream into ice cream molds. Place the sticks and put them in the freezer to completely harden.
