Saturday 23 June 2012

Lavender and Honey Pancakes

Around this time it should be the season for the lavender to turn Provence purple. So far I didn't have the chance to witness it myself. I was around at the wrong time of the year. Nevertheless it's very pretty around Provence. Mainly we did hiking and exploring villages and ruins.


Nature is always working at winning territory back. Somewhere around the neighbourhood here I saw even a house with a car next to it, where plants started to crawl up on the car (obviously not used recently).
However before looking around at the above shown ruin, there was a warning sign: "Dangereux ..." something. Rocks could fall on your head and snakes could bite you. None of these happened, though. Luckily! Although, my friend, I sometimes call him "Nougat" (you might know him already from one of my older posts: Chocolate Marzipan Cake), somehow attracts danger and things happen to him. But not this time.


I also very much like those villages resting gently at the slopes of the hill. Whatsoever, I have no photo with lavender for you - at least not from France.
The one in my garden, doesn't look to good either.


The lavender of the neighbours looks much much better at the moment. However, I am glad that it survived winter (-15°C), although it didn't look like that. I would never dare to give up on my plants. It's over when it's over!
Back to lavender! To a large extent, lavender in Provence is used to make perfume and soap. Apart from that, lavender is also part of the well known herbs of the Provence, together with hyssop, oregano, basil, rosemary, sage, fennel, thyme, and savory. There are many more ways to use lavender. According to my herbs encyclopaedia, it can calm you down or help against cramps when you use it in your bath. Furthermore it helps against nervousness, stomach problems, sleeping problems, headache, stress symptoms, moths (doesn't quite fit at this point, but ... whatever), and when you have problems concentrating.
For that (concentrating) briefly cook one tablespoon of lavender buds with half a litre wine and let cool down. Have a small glass of it before and after your meal. I said a small one. It's medicine, not for getting you drunk.
Well, then, you can use lavender buds also directly for cooking. That is what I wanted to do today for breakfast. The Internet planted the idea in my brain some days ago. So when I fell out of bed this morning, my first thought was: LAVENDER!
Fine!
Let's do some Lavender and Honey Pancakes.


I don't want to give you a list of ingredients, but we do it again as we go, because it is quite simple.
Have a small bowl ready (this will do for 1-2 persons). Crack one egg to it and add a pinch of salt. Fill a mug (or large cup) with flour and try to remember how much you took after you added it to your bowl.
Use the same cup and fill it to the same level with milk. Give the milk a splash of lemon juice (a good thing to do when you have no buttermilk in the house).
Add a half to a whole teaspoon of dried lavender buds (depending on taste) to your bowl, but beware, the taste can get quite strong. So if you are not sure, take less. You can add more later or next time.
After you had the milk working a bit, pour it into the bowl (including those bits that started to form). Now to complete the batter use 2-4 teaspoons of runny honey. Whisk things through well.
Then you can bake your pancakes with a drop of oil at high heat in your pan. When things dry nearly completely up at the top, you can turn your pancake. For the other side you have to guess when it's ready, but it will not be too long.




Serve it with some yogurt and extra honey and lavender buds. If you are greedy, you will eat them all alone. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. At least this is what some say.
However, that would be a different subject.
Enjoy your Lavender and Honey pancakes and maybe one day you will have the chance to see the lavender flowering in Provence.

2 comments:

  1. What a wonderful place to go on holiday - i really must get out more! And your lavender pancakes sound most delectable. I've only used lavender once in food and that was in a chocolate cake. It worked really well so I'm not sure why I don't use it more often - probably because our lavender died in the hard winter of a couple of years ago.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yes ... it was really a wonderful time back then. I wish I could go there once more again. Maybe today I would appreciate it even more.
      The only thing with lavender is, you have to be careful or the taste gets too strong.

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