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LAVENDER BASICS
Buying: When cooking with lavender, look for a culinary variety such as English lavender, which presents flavors that are more herbal than floral. Lavender should have bright purple flowers, whether fresh or dried.
Cooking: Ground lavender works well in baked goods, while lavender syrup is perfect for cocktails. Use a light touch when cooking with lavender to avoid an overly soapy taste in the final product.
IN BLOOM
This fragrant flower has been used for centuries in applications both culinary and medicinal by everyone from the Egyptians to the Romans. A member of the mint family, lavender has been cultivated for over 2,500 years and is native to the Mediterranean, Middle East and India.
AROUND RVA
Lamplighter: This Fan coffee shop presents a sip of spring via its lavender latte, offered iced or hot and laced with house-made lavender syrup.
Karmalita’s: Marshmallow provides a blank canvas for lavender and is enhanced by fresh blueberries in Karmalita’s fluffy spring confection, blueberry-lavender-lemonade.
Whisk: Stop by Whisk for a seasonal treat: a toasted lavender meringue atop a light, flaky eclair bursting with sweet lemon curd.
“I make my husband plant lavender on the walkway to my house so I can rub up against it.” —Beth Dixon, Salt & Acid
COOK LIKE A LOCAL
Beth Dixon (Photo by Chelsea Diane courtesy Beth Dixon)
Bee Gold
By Beth Dixon, Salt & Acid
While some bemoan the perfumy aroma of lavender in culinary applications, bar consultant Beth Dixon of Salt & Acid says it’s an ingredient she adores. “It's relaxing, makes you smell nice, and it tastes wonderful,” she says. For her garden-to-glass cocktail classes at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden this June, Dixon harnesses floral flavors in three different cocktails. For Bee Gold, a drink inspired by New York cocktail bar Milk & Honey’s Gold Rush, she swaps honey for a honey-lavender syrup that is equally welcome in a nonalcoholic concoction.
2 ounces Four Roses bourbon
3/4 ounce honey-lavender syrup
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
Fresh lavender sprig for garnish
Add all ingredients to a shaker tin, then add ice and shake for around 20 seconds. Strain into an Old Fashioned glass with ice and garnish with a sprig of fresh lavender. Enjoy!
To make the honey-lavender syrup:
1 cup honey
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon dried lavender buds
Add all ingredients to a small saucepan over medium heat and simmer until honey is dissolved in the water. Remove from heat and let the lavender buds steep for 20 minutes before straining. Store in a food-safe jar in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Learn to make this and other botanical cocktails with Beth Dixon at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden on June 16. Register here.
