Name: Poached Trout in Spiced Lavender Jelly
Yield: serves 6
Ingredients: one 75 cl bottle dry white wine; a generous splinter of cinnamon; ½ teaspoon allspice (Jamaica pepper), coarsely crushed; 3 bay leaves; about 0.5 cm/¼ inch fresh ginger; a pinch of saffron; 2 or 3 lavender spikes, plus extra for decoration, together with some glossy greenery such as purslane or watercress; 1 tablespoon sea salt; 3 cloves; 150 ml/5 fl oz white wine vinegar or lavender vinegar; ½ teaspoon white peppercorns, coarsely crushed; 6 medium rainbow trout; 1 litre/36 fl oz water; ½ teaspoon black peppercorns, coarsely crushed

Preparation info

serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Scented Kitchen

By Frances Bissell

Published 2012

About

One of the simplest and best lavender recipes in the medieval culinary repertoire comes from II Libro della Cucina del Secolo XIV，edited by Francesco Zambrini. I particularly like it because, most unusually, the lavender is used in a savoury dish. A modern version of poissons en gelée is given in La Gastronomie au Moyen Age, a fabulous collection of 150 medieval Italian and French recipes tested， compiled and brought up to date by Françoise Sabban and h