Due to the name I chose for my blog I thought it would be appropriate to kick off my posting with two of my most special and name appropriate recipes: Honeysuckle Ice Cream and Honeysuckle Panna Cotta.
As I passed a honeysuckle bush growing near my house I stopped and pickled one, eagerly pulling off the end to draw out that tiny bead of honey-sweet nectar and wished there was a reasonable and economical way to bottle it.
This was late spring, and I had been playing with a lot of herbal infusions at the time. I wondered -- if honeysuckle could be made into sorbet with water why not infuse heavy cream and milk with it, both of which are infinitely better to draw flavors into due to their fat content.
I couldn’t find any recipes for this, so I used the standard ratios for vanilla ice cream and played around. The results were beautiful, and it was an experiment I was proud of. Good enough to warrant the effort the harvesting takes (so says my mother, who was so in love with the ice cream that she was deeply disappointed when she ran out and somewhat impatiently had to wait for the next crop. The late spring honeysuckle season was over by then and the next wasn’t until the early fall. Each week I got to hear “when are you making more! Is it time yet?” I can’t complain though, it’s nice to have fans and she’s my biggest cheerleader.)
I loved the ice cream, but I kept feeling it needed something until I spotted the box of black tea sitting in my cupboard. The idea of the light, sunny creaminess with the slightly bitter, dark flavor juxtaposing it appealed to me and I decided to try the second batch of honeysuckle as a Panna Cotta with a black tea syrup, and boy was I glad I had. Definitely my favorite of my kitchen experiments to date.
This recipe brought to mind, at a later date, CB I hate perfume’s Tea/Rose perfume. Since I love the scent of both perfume roses and black tea (as well as the flavors) I thought this was a great inspiration for a second Panna Cotta. It’s also incredibly difficult to find rose water in my area, so more experimentation ensued. So here I am, kicking off my blog with 4 recipes (five if you count the whipped cream). As a free gift there’s also a guide to help you pick honeysuckle.
[Feel free to enjoy my recipes, but please don't repost on other sites (such as Allrecipes) or take without credit.]
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