Thursday, April 17, 2008

Lavender-Rosemary Potatoes

I love lavender and rosemary so I have been wanting to try this combination on potatoes for a long time! Finally did it last night since I was making roasted potatoes for DH to go with his tuna melt.

In the future, I think I'd use more lavender and less rosemary - the rosemary really over-shadowed the lavender which was a bit of a bummer. They were still really good, though! Even my picky DH tried one and liked it! :)

My next experiment with this lavender-rosemary flavour combination - butter cookies. :)

**I didn't take a separate photo of these but you can see them in the margherita sandwich post. :)

4 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb. small red potatoes
1 tsp. dried rosemary
1 tsp. dried culinary lavender
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil (superfood!)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt (I'm lucky to have a huge bag of Hawaiian sea salt that a friend brought back from her honeymoon... it's amazing stuff!)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 525 degrees.
Quarter the potatoes and place them in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and toss gently to coat. Sprinkle the salt, pepper, lavender, and rosemary over the potatoes and toss again.

2. Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with fat-free cooking spray. Arrange the potatoes on the sheet in a single layer. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring twice during cooking. Raise heat to broil for the last 2 minutes.

Reference:
I based this on the Lavender-Rosemary Roasted Potatoes recipe from the August/September 2005 issue of Cooking Pleasures magazine.
I can't find the original recipe on their website but here are my changes/what the original called for:
*I used dried rosemary in place of fresh sprigs (I'm starting a herb garden, soon - can't wait!) - original called for using 1/2 cup of sprigs and placing those under the potatoes on the foil. Maybe if I'd done this, the rosemary would not have over-powered my lavender..
*Original said to bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. If I'd had the time, I would have done this but I was in a bit of a rush so I used my other roasted potatoes recipe for the temp/time guidelines.
*If you are lucky enough to have lavender in your garden (I hate you...! Kidding!), you can use fresh lavender sprigs and flowers. Place these under the potatoes, too. If you use the fresh rosemary and dried lavender, place the rosemary sprigs under the potatoes but toss the potatoes with the lavender just like I did.

3 comments:

gaga said...

I've never cooked with lavendar before! This looks interesting. I'll give it a try next I get my hands on some lavendar!

Anonymous said...

These sound wonderful. I never had the nerve to try lavendar in a recipe, but you're making it sound awfully good! :)

Elizabeth said...

You have an award!

http://elizabethscooking.blogspot.com/2008/04/blogging-with-purpose.html