Hete bliksem nieuwe stijl oftewel Hot Lightning revisited

This Dutch traditional of cooked apples and potatoes underwent a restyling. I cooked the apples seperately with a heaped teaspoon of lavenderbuds from an organic shop. In the garden only a few sprigs are still in bloom, I used that one for decoration.
The first time I tried with lemonapples, this time I took Notarisappel, slightly sweeter, but not sweet enough, I added a full teaspoon of honey to two apples and the juice of half a lemon. I left the buds in, for a splash of flavour during the meal. If you chew well, the retronasal smell is wonderful. But the buds – as did the sprigs – lost their colour. So I had the smell, the flavour and the texture, but not the colour.

I decided to cheat! I took Vitelotte noir potatoes this time. Cooked, they are a deep purple. And mashed, they look just great, they taste very intense.

I first cooked them in lavendertea, but that was not a good idea. Somehow it distracted from the lavender-apple combo. The next set I cooked in plain water, and I added salt and a little soy cream while mashing it. The colour is just right, and the taste and creaminess of the texture too.

I will serve this tonight as a side dish to a slow roast of free range pork from a Berkshire pig, which is now in the oven in a large dish with a circle of coarse seasalt. The salt does not touch the meat, that I rubbed with olive oil, and than added fresh laurelleaves, rosemary and thyme from the garden, and garlic.

Because of the sunny autumnweather, I took the picture now, at approx. 16.30 hrs.

I’m not a chef, I experiment with historical and traditional recipes, so I don’t work with exact measures much. It’s the feel of it, the smell of it, the flavour of it, that makes me decide to add or to leave out.