Seasonal pantry: Sonoma County’s love affair with lavender

About 25 years ago, Sonoma County caught lavender fever.

Sandra McIver, then owner of Matanzas Creek Winery in Bennett Valley, had planted a 2½-acre field of lavender, and an increasing number of locals and visitors were drawing attention to the similarities between this place and Provence, where lavender covers the rolling hillsides surrounding Grasse and saturates the air with its fragrance.

Soon, chefs were putting lavender on their menus, sometimes to good effect and sometimes not. When lavender isn’t combined with a bit of something sweet - apple juice, sugar, honey - it tastes an awful lot like soap.

In 1998, Robert Kourik, a landscape consultant and gardening writer based in Santa Rosa, published “The Lavender Garden” (Chronicle Books, 1998), which includes a chapter on cooking with the drought-tolerant plant. Most cooks focus on the flowers, but Kourik brought the leaves into the kitchen, too, in a dramatic process that involves a lot of smoke.

Lavender typically reaches its full bloom in June, which is why it is now known as Lavender Month throughout Sonoma County and the North Bay.

The lavender field at Matanzas Creek Winery is abuzz now with millions of happy bees feeding on the flowers, and celebrations of the flower are coming soon.

This weekend, the Sonoma Lavender Barn hosts the first of two weekend open house celebrations. The second is June 25 and 26.

Matanzas Creek Winery’s Days of Wine and Lavender Festival takes place June 25.

You’ll find recipes for pork tenderloin with lavender-infused polenta, currant lavender sauce and others at “Eat This Now” at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.

Pear juice is not often used in cooking, but it has a fragrant, delicate flavor that pairs beautifully with chicken and lavender. Serve this with wild rice, quinoa or egg noodles.

Roasted Chicken with Lavender & Pear Cider Mop

Serves 3 to 4

1 pastured chicken, 3 to 4 pounds

3 cups pear cider, pear juice or a combination of the two

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon culinary lavender

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

- Kosher salt

8-10 lavender stalks, tied with kitchen twine

Rinse the chicken inside and out with cool tap water and pat dry with a clean tea towel. Set aside to let the skin dry while you make the mop.

Pour the cider into a saucepan, add the butter, lavender, thyme and a generous tablespoon of freshly ground black pepper. Set over a medium flame and when the butter begins to melt, remove the pan from the heat, cover and let steep for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper, set it on a rack in a roasting pan, swirl the lavender stalks in the mop and brush the chicken with it.

Set the roasting pan with the chicken on the middle rack of the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 425 degrees and cook until the skin is golden brown and the thigh juices run clear when pierced with a dinner fork. It will take about 12 to 15 minutes per pound; do not overcook. As the chicken cooks, brush it every 10 minutes or so, using enough of the mop that some pools in the roasting pan.

Remove the chicken from the oven, cover with a tent of aluminum foil and let rest for 10 minutes.

Carve the chicken and arrange on a platter. Taste the pan juices, season with salt and pepper as needed and add just enough of the remaining mop to achieve an irresistible flavor. Heat the juices, if necessary, spoon over the carved chicken and serve.

This delicious lemonade should be made only when basil is in season. It is like a summer afternoon in a glass.

Lemonade with ?Lavender & Basil

Serves 4 to 6

1 cup simple syrup, hot (see Note below)

3 tablespoons culinary lavender

1½-2 cups fresh lemon juice, preferably from Meyer lemons

2 fresh basil sprigs

3 cups spring water

Combine the hot syrup and lavender and let steep for at least 30 minutes and as long as one hour. Strain the syrup into a pitcher, add the lemon juice, basil sprigs and water, stir and chill thoroughly.

Serve over ice.

Note: To make simple syrup, pour equal amounts of granulated sugar and water into a saucepan set over medium high heat and simmer, without stirring, until the sugar is fully dissolved and the syrup is clear. Remove from the heat, cool thoroughly, and store in the refrigerator. Simply syrup keeps almost indefinitely.

Michele Anna Jordan is author of the new “Good Cook’s” series. Email her at michele@micheleannajordan.com and visit her blog at pantry.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.