This was written during the summer when the lavender were in full bloom...

Lavender is one of my favourite plants, I love the fragrance but it is often be associated as a scent of feminine (except when it is combined with the scent of sandalwood..very masculine kind of fragrance.. 

I did two experiments with lavender flowers!

The lavender is in blossom at the moment, the garden fills with the hint of this lovely scent. I have never use lavender for cooking before. I love lavender scented soap, but not sure about using it for cooking, especially with pork! Scented lavender pork loin steak sounds a bit strange!

But I gave it a try...Twice!

I tested the lavender using 2 cooking methods, one is roast, and the other pan-fry.

Ingredients:

1. 2 Lion steaks
2. 5og butter
3. 2 tbsp olive oil
4. 1/2 tbsp Lavender flower (chopped finely)
5. Few stalks of Lavender flower
6. Salt and pepper (to taste)
7. 2 coves Garlic (sliced)
8. Fresh salad leaves garnish

Heat the butter and oil under low heat until hot. Stir in the chopped lavender and garlic, and fry gently for 2 minutes. Add in the loin steaks, and cook gently over low heat until lightly brown. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the steak is cooked, remove from heat and plate it with some fresh salad leaves.

Heat the same oil in medium heat, add the stalks of lavender flower and fry for less then 1 minutes. Garnish the pork with the lavender flower and serve hot.


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Ingredients:

1. 2 Pork  loin steaks
2. Handful of lavender flowers (with stalks)
3. Salt and pepper (to taste)
4. 2 tbsp Olive oil
5. 2 clove Garlic (sliced)

Pre-heat the oven to 180'C.
Marinate the steak with oil, salt and pepper for 30 minutes. In a roasting tin with wire rack, put the lavender flower under the wire rack, and place the steak on top of the rack, and roast them in the hot oven until cooked and lightly brown.

Serve the pork with the juices and the lavender...

Verdict:

For the whole duration of cooking and tasting of the steaks, I get hints of the scent of the lavender, the felt like dinning al fresco by the lavender bushes! The kitchen was filled with the scent of lavender when the pork was in the oven. I can not really taste the lavender in my mouth, but the scent lingering around...even after few hours of the dinner!

What makes cooking exciting is that it is almost like painting a picture, one can use different ingredients to create a plateful of interesting colour combinations. One of the aims of the blog is to explore using natural colours and ingredients to create colourful meals that pleases our senses of visual and taste.

I have always been fascinated with the colour of black (darkness) since my university days studying Architecture. I even once painted a place I used to live ALL in black!

Black reveals as much as it's concealing things. It reminded me to a very old conversation I had with Tom from New York about the city at night. That conversation later became my design philosophy for an architectural design project at the university...

• Loong: I thought light reveals things, but it can also hides things. 
  
• Tom: Beautiful 
  
• Loong: If you look at the street during the day, you see the street, but not the internal spaces. But at night you see nothing on the street but the internal spaces visually extended into the street. 
  
• Tom: I’ve always gotten out on the chaos theory of how offices are lit at night 
  
• Tom: .....random Christmas tree. Brilliance. 
  
• Loong: I thought isn’t it the case that internal spaces are private and at night we want privacy? 
  
• Loong: .....but then at night we reveal our private domain more than during the daytime. 
  
• Tom: I am going to think of that tomorrow night when I leave work 
  
• Tom: .....you have added to the way I will see my city 
  
• Loong: . . . . . . . (pondering) 
  
• Tom: I work in midtown and love the night time skyline 
  
• Tom: .....how it fluctuates with every step 
  
• Tom: Now I will see the internal is leaking out. Virtual real space in the city 
  
• Tom: I was serious about how I will see a little bit different tomorrow night.

I was at Peter Zumthor's Serpertine Summer Pavilion few weeks ago, It was very excited to see and experience how he utilised the black pavilion to showcase the landscaped centre piece. It inspired me to want to continue my exploration with the "darkness" theme but this time focusing in food.

I can think of only two natural ingredients that is black in colour - the black glutinous rice flour and squid ink. 

I am sure there is a proper way to make squid ink risotto, but I thought I should just make it up! For this experiment, I cooked the risotto the normal way with gently fried garlic, onion, leek. stock and seasoned with salt and pepper. Just before the rice is cooked, I then add in the squid pieces and the ink. 

Meanwhile, I deep fried the squid pieces coated with the combinations of corn flour, pepper, salt and turmeric powder. 

Just before serving, when the rice is still hot, stir in a generous amount of grated parmesan cheese.Garnish the rice with the turmeric calamari pieces and spring onion.

I love how the lightly blackened (It might look more intense if the rice is darker) rice highlight brilliantly the bright golden calamari. It is almost has a "Photoshop" effect. 

I am very pleased with the colour combinations! What colour combinations next?!