Delicious Summery Lavender Shortbread
Home-Made Lavender Sugar Recipe
Lavender Sugar is one of those things I’ve always looked at and loved the idea of, but never really known what to do with. I’ve always liked crystallised lavender – it’s both pretty and tasty – but aside from medicinal or household use, I’ve never really known how to actually use lavender in food. Partly due to its strong flavour and partly due to its very floral flavour, it’s something you have to use with care, but should definitely use!
Making lavender sugar couldn’t really be simpler – the two ingredients are in the name, after all. If you don’t have a food processor you can just mix the two and stir, but I like making the sugar just a little finer, so it’s not so crunchy. Be careful though – I don’t like making it icing sugar either! Just a finely granulated sugar is perfect.
Leave the lavender for a week or so, allowing the flavours to infuse thoroughly into the sugar. You can make Lavender Sugar ahead as a hostess gift, Christmas gifts, wedding favours and other gifting opportunities, and even include a recipe card or two with the jar. It’s a cheap and beautiful gift to make!
Make the Lavender Sugar two weeks before you’re going to gift it, and make sure to leave instructions to use withing 9 -12 months, so aside from drying out, I can’t image the lavender would go bad!
Recipe for Lavender Sugar
Lavender Sugar Recipe
Recipe Type: Dessert, Sweet, Condiment
Cuisine: Foraged
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1kg
Ingredients
- 2 tsp lavender flowers
- 1kg white sugar
Instructions
- Use a fork or your hands to remove the flowers from the stalk
- Add them to the food processor
- Add the sugar and blend together – depending on your food processor, adjust your speed to make sure you don’t end up with icing sugar.
- In the Thermomix, hit the Turbo button 2 – 3 times quickly.
- Decant the sugar into jars, and seal tightly.
PIN FOR LATER:
Calamari, Tomato & Basil Pasta Recipe
I’ve been enjoying the summer weather lately, and been loving the entertainment opportunities that presents too. When I have guests though, I like having pre-prepared, or quick to prepare meals as I don’t like spending ages in the kitchen! That’s just one of the reasons I really enjoy this Calamari, Tomato & Basil Pasta: it’s easy to prepare before hand, leaving just 10 minutes cooking time required.
I prefer to use fresh pasta when pasta is the main part of the meal, so I’ve used fresh pasta in this recipe. Dry pasta works, but needs to be cooked for longer. It can also be served in a salad, or with quinoa or other starch of your choice.
Use a good quality squid for this recipe too – nothing worse than leathery calamari!
Now, if you want to prepare this meal for later cooking, chop the garlic cloves, wash and dry the cherry tomatoes – halve them if they are the larger variety – wash the squid, clean it and cut it into rings, and chop the basil leaves roughly. Store all the items in the fridge till about 20 minutes before you’re going to cook them, leaving it to warm to room temperature a little.
If your calamari loses a lot of liquid in the cooking, you can pour it out about before adding the cherry tomatoes.
Serve immediately – and if you’re having wine, Calamari, Tomato & Basil Pasta pairs really well with a dry white wine, like a Pinot Grigio – a wine I don’t normally like, but it works fantastically with this. Another alternative is Riesling.
Calamari, Tomato & Basil Pasta
Author:
Prep time:
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Serves: 4
There’s a lot of flexibility in this recipe, with room for adaptations to make it your favourite. You may not like anchovies, but don’t miss them out as they really add to the flavour of this dish.
Ingredients
- Pasta for four people
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- 4 anchovy fillets
- 250g cherry tomatoes, washed and dried
- 450g squid, cleaned and cut into rings
- bunch cut basil leaves
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Prepare the pasta as per brand instructions. Set aside. (I bring 1000g water to boil in the Thermomix – Varoma/8 mins/ speed 4 – then add the pasta in the internal steamer for 3 – 4 minutes / Varoma/speed 4)
- To a heated pan, add the oil, garlic and anchovy to a frying pan and heat till the anchovy sort of ‘melts’.
- Add the squid and fry for 1 – 2 minutes, tossing them as you do.
- Next, add the cherry tomatoes and fry them for 3 – 4 minutes, till they begin to soften and leak juice – I prefer the cherry tomatoes to still have some bite to them, but it’s personal choice, really!
- Test the squid to make sure it’s nice and tender, then add the basil, salt and pepper.
- Serve with the pasta, or as a salad with green leaves.
Chia Raspberry Cacao Nib Peanut Butter Slice
This peanut butter slice is adapted from the original Degustabox The Chia Co recipe. I had to make some changes to it as my kids wouldn’t eat cranberries if they were the last food on earth, and human survival depended on them. So I went for the freeze dried raspberries in the cupboard, and filled them out with some cacoa nibs for a raspberry and chocolate flavour to this ‘slice’ which could also quite easily be called a flapjack, except it has no sugar or butter and isn’t baked.
So, if you want a sugar free, butter free, no-bake flapjack, congratulations. You’ve found it in the form of a peanut butter slice.
I must then immediately caveat that by saying that in the 0 – 4C temperatures we’re having at the moment, these hold really well straight out the fridge. It’s likely that in hot temperatures, you could end up with a delicious peanut butter muesli. Try it and let me know?
Here’s the original recipe from Degustabox:
And here’s the adapted peanut butter slice version.
Chia Raspberry Cacao Nib Peanut Butter Slice
Recipe Type: Snack
Cuisine: Healthy, Free From
Author:
Prep time:
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Serves: 20 bars
Ingredients
- 70g whole almonds, roasted
- 150g oats, toasted
- 75g raisins
- 50g desiccated coconut
- 50g cacao nibs
- 5g freeze dried raspberries
- 2 1/2 tbsp chia seeds (about 15g)
- 105g honey
- 100g smooth peanut butter
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 160C (320F)
- Place the oats on a baking tray and toast for 15 – 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t burn. On a separate tray, toast almonds for 10 – 12 mins, allowing to cool slowly.
- Add the almonds to the Thermomix, pulse quickly twice.
- Add oats, raisins, coconut, cacao nibs, raspberries, chia seeds, honey and peanut butter.
- Mix reverse/speed 4/ 2 minutes
- If you’re not using a pan with a removable base, line a 20cmx20cm tray or pan with baking paper, tip the mixture in and press down into the corners, flattening the mixture to make it even.
- Cover with cling film or plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
- Once it’s set, remove, slice and cut into bars or bites.
- Store in the fridge.
These are easily adaptable and are very tasty. They make fabulous breakfast bars on the go and can hold a plethora of hidden healthy foods that might not otherwise go down well. They are very filling and they freeze well too, so you can make a huge batch, and keep some in the fridge and some in the freezer, so they’re ready when you need them.