Authors: Ana Sortun
Spice (68 page)
Orange-blossom and rosewater are added to sugar syrup and then drizzled over fruit and pastries or added to drinks. You can also use them to add an exotic Middle Eastern flavor to lamb, chicken with white wine and grapes, and rice dishes.
R
OSE
June is a lucky month at Oleana: we receiveEva Sommaripa’s rose petals, which she handpicks from the beach roses in Westport, Masshacusetts. Beach roses are soft in texture and sweet andgentle in flavor, and when used with a careful hand, they add honeylike sweetness to many dishes. You can use dried rose petals—which you can find in Middle Eastern markets—in spice mixes for pilafs or grilled meats like chicken and lamb or game birds like quail.
Maura Kilpatrick, our pastry chef, uses Eva’s harvest to make rose petal jam, which we then freeze and use throughout the year. Maura uses the jam to soak beignets—a kind of French pastry similar to doughnuts—as well as glaze fruit tarts and flavor frozen desserts and custards.
Rosewater has been used in Middle Eastern cuisine since the tenth century, and it still flavors pastries, dried fruit, pistachios, almonds, baklava, halvah, ice cream, and rice pudding. It also lends it lovely flavor to lassi, an Indian yogurt drink.
Both orange-blossom and rosewater essences are sold in Middle Eastern stores and some specialty food stores. Rosewater sold in pharmacies is not suitable for cooking.
C
HAMOMİLE
Chamomile flowers are small and daisylike and have a sweet, applelike, honeysuckle flavor that brings comfort and relaxation. The flowers are lemony and wonderful when you’re aiming for more subtlety than orange blossoms or rose petals. At Oleana, when we want to flavor our desserts with flowers other than the standard rose and orange blossoms, we use chamomile to impart a gentle, honeylike sweetness.
Chamomile is used in Asian cuisine, but not much in the Arabic world. Chamomile tea is the most common use, and the French also use the flowers to scent white chocolate and honey desserts.
L
AVENDER
Lavender is most often associated with sweets, but today many chefs are taking the French example and adding the herb to savory dishes. The French include lavender in their blend called herbes de Provence, and just a touch adds a beautiful floral aroma and romance to a chicken dish or rice pilaf.
Lavender is a member of the mint family and is similar to rosemary, sage, and thyme. It tastes sweetly of fresh-cut wood and rosemary, and it adds a pleasant accent to a wide array of foods. Try it in sweet or savory baked goods, with chicken and lamb, potatoes, herbal teas, jams and jellies, and as a flavoring for vinegars and honey. Ground lavender with granulated sugar adds a twist to dessert recipes and is also a wonderful way to sweeten lemonade.
Although the woolly leaves are fragrant and edible, the pretty purple flowers and buds are the best for cooking. Use a light hand when seasoning with lavender; too much gives an astringent taste.
J
ASMINE
Jasmine flowers are intensely sweet and fragrant and, like chamomile, are traditionally used in making tea. Maura Kilpatrick, the pastry chef at Oleana, infuses them into sweet sugar syrups, which she uses to flavor berries and ice cream. She makes her infusions with the dried whole blossoms, which you can usually find in specialty tea stores.
RECIPES WITH NASTURTIUM, ORANGE BLOSSOM, ROSE, CHAMOMILE, LAVENDER, AND JASMINE
G
RANO WİTH
G
REEK
Y
OGURT AND
O
RANGE
B
LOSSOM
H
ONEY
W
İLTON’S
C
ORN
C
AKES WİTH
N
ASTURTİUM
B
UTTER
Z
UCCHİNİ
F
RİTTERS WİTH
N
ASTURTİUM
A
İOLİ
R
UTH
A
NN
A
DAMS’S
R
HUBARB
R
OSE
J
AM WİTH
Q
UAIL
C
HAMOMİLE
B
ERRY
S
OUP WİTH
C
HAMOMİLE
S
ABAYON
P
ALACE
B
READ:
S
YRUP
-S
OAKED
B
READ
P
UDDING WİTH
T
HİCK
C
REAM AND
P
İSTACHİOS
P
OACHED
N
ECTARİNE
S
TUFFED WITH
N
OUGAT
G
LACÉ
W
ATERMELON
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RANİTÉ AND
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ROZEN
Y
OGURT
P
ARFAİT WİTH
R
EAL
R
OSE
P
ETAL
J
AM
F
ROZEN
J
ASMİNE
S
OUFFLÉ WİTH
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ROPİCAL
F
RUİT
S
YRUP
Grano with Greek Yogurt and Orange Blossom Honey
I ate this elegant breakfast almost every day when I was in Sicily, where grano grows everywhere.
Grano
, which means “grain” in Italian, are the polished, whole berries from durum semolina wheat. Commercial yogurt companies in Sicily sell grano mixed with yogurt on the shelves in supermarkets and to hotels. It’s a delicious alternative to oatmeal in the morning. See page 88 for more information on grano.
I usually cook a big batch of grano, since it takes awhile, and then I freeze it in small portions in plastic bags. This way, I can just pull a bag of grano out the night before and use it to create a healthful and elegant parfait the next morning.
You’ll want to choose your favorite honey for this recipe—one with a floral fragrance. I like to use subtle, delicate linden blossom honey (available at www.formaggiokitchen.com), but orange-blossom and clover honey work very well.
Another fun alternative is to layer this parfait with a sweetened homemade apricot or peach purée; see variation below.
S
ERVES
4
½ cup grano, soaked in 3 cups of water overnight
1 teaspoon salt
1¼ cups orange or linden blossom honey
4 cups Greek-style or plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup fresh berries (such as raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, or strawberries), washed and dried well
1.
Drain the soaked grano in a colander or sieve and then place it in a small saucepan with 4 cups of water over medium-high heat. Bring the grano to a boil and reduce the temperature to medium-low and simmer it for 40 to 50 minutes, until it is tender but still a tiny bit chewy.
2.
Drain the cooked grano in a colander and place it in a small mixing bowl; at this point, you should have almost 2 cups of grano. Stir in the salt and ¼ cup of the honey. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature for at least 20 minutes.
3.
Spoon ½ cup of the yogurt into the bottom of each of 4 parfait cups or little glass bowls. Spoon 3 tablespoons of grano over the yogurt and then top each with 2 tablespoons of honey. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of berries over the top of each.
4.
Repeat another layer of yogurt, grano, honey, and berries. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Variation with Peach or Apricot Purée
Split 6 well-washed peaches or apricots in half and remove the pits. Place the fruit in a saucepan large enough to fit the pieces in a double layer at the most. Simmer the fruit on low heat for about 10 minutes, until the fruit softens and is juicy. Cool the fruit for at least 20 minutes and then purée it in a blender for about a minute, until very smooth. Strain the fruit through a fine sieve or a food mill to remove pieces of skin. Use in the purée in place of honey in this recipe.
Wilton’s Corn Cakes with Nasturtium Butter
Wilton Osorno, the sous-chef at Oleana, makes scrumptious corn cakes called
arepa
that he grew up eating in Don Matias, Colombia. Arepa are a staple in Colombian cooking, and the cakes are served with meals instead of bread in many variations: some are puffy and some are flat, they can be eaten with loads of butter and cheese or plain, and they can be made with different varieties of corn. Arepa are perfect to make and eat when fresh, local corn hits the farmer’s markets in August and September.
Seasonally, nasturtiums are usually at their peak at the same time as corn, and I love using the flowers in concentrated butters to smear on these savory pancakes. Nasturtium flowers are lemony, a little peppery, and bright with color and also make a beautiful addition to a summer salad. Nasturtium butter freezes well, so you can enjoy the flavor after flower season is long gone. The butter is also delicious on grilled fish and corn on the cob.
Serve these arepa as a side dish with grilled or roasted salmon or as hors d’oeuvres. They pair wonderfully with a glass of dry sherry or a light-style beer, like Corona, with plenty of lime.
M
AKES
8
MEDİUM-SİZE CORN CAKES TO SERVE
4
TO
8