Ingredients:
2 pounds stewing beef, cut in large cubes
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion sliced
1 head garlic, peeled and chopped
2 pounds Cremini or white button mushrooms
1 bottle (750 ml) red wine (we recommend North 4 Degrees Cabernet Franc)
5 1/2 oz. can tomato paste
1 tablespoon Serenity Lavender Herbs de Provence
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon vinegar
Instructions:
In a deep pot add oil and toss in enough meat to make one single layer. Sear the meat on all sides, until nicely browned. Repeat with the remaining beef. Once browned return all beef to the pot.
Add onions, garlic and mushrooms to the pot. Pour in r red wine and stir in the tomato paste. Add the bay leaves and herbes de provence and bring the pot to a simmer.
Cover the pot, cook until the meat is tender approximately1 ½ hours (depending on the cut of meat used). Finish your stew by stirring in the vinegar. Serve over baby spinach, your favourite pasta, rice or potatoes.
This recipe is from Bon Apetit. I combines the tannic and acidic flavours of the blackberries with the sweetness of the pears and creaminess of the ricotta for a tantalizing taste experience.
6 servings
• PREP TIME: 20 minutes
• TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 15 minutes
Recipe by Marlena Spieler
Photograph by Marcus Nilsson
Ingredients
•1/3cup + 2 teaspoons lavender sugar(available at Serenity Lavender online or in store or make your own using our culinary lavender)
•6 unpeeled pears (such as Bosc or Bartlett), quartered, cored
•2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
•1 pint blackberries
•1 cup fresh ricotta cheese, crème fraîche, or vanilla ice cream
Preparation
Preheat oven to 425°F. Generously butter large rimmed baking sheet. Toss pears, lemon juice, and 3 tablespoons lavender sugar in large bowl. Transfer pears, 1 cut side down, to baking sheet. Roast 20 minutes. Turn pears, placing other cut side down. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon lavender sugar; roast 20 minutes. Turn pears, skin side down. Preheat broiler. Sprinkle pears with 1 tablespoon lavender sugar. Broil until pears begin to caramelize, about 8 minutes. Arrange berries around pears; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon lavender sugar. Broil until berries begin to release juice, about 5 minutes.
Divide pears, berries, and juice among bowls. Top with dollop of ricotta and serve.
These lavender spiced baked apples are the perfect ending to any meal.
Yield: 6 servings
6 medium baking apples (about 2 pounds),
such as Gala or MacIntosh
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoon water
1 teaspoon lavender
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Core apples; peel a strip from the top of each. If necessary cut thin
slice from bottom of each apple so apple will stand upright. Place
apples upright in greased 11 x 7-inch baking dish.
In medium-size bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and
lavender pour into and around apples.
Set dish in a 13 x 9-inch pan. Set on oven rack. Carefully pour boiling
water into pan to 1-inch depth. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until apples
are tender, occasionally spooning sweetened condensed milk mixture in
bottom of dish over apples.
Serve warm
TIP If you don’t have sweetened condensed milk substitute a 1/4 cup of Lavender sugar or Lavender Vanilla Bean sugar in your regular baked apple recipe!
Last minute preparations for Super Bowl Sunday and of course I had to include lavender in something. So here’s my a quick creation:
2 ripe firm avocados mashed
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp Serenity culinary lavender crushed with a mortar and pestle
1 small Leamington greenhouse tomato chopped
1/8 cup black bean and corn salsa
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 small onion
pinch of ground pepper
dash of hot sauce ( I used our homemade habenaro paste made from our garden grown peppers but use whatever you like)
Mix together and serve with nachos.
Photo by Steven Depolo
