Violet Cream

Dorothy Hartley describes a fourteenth-century recipe for a violet sweet, a pottage, in which the flowers are pounded with almonds, ground rice and sugar then boiled in milk. It is not unlike a flavoured ground rice pudding, and led me to experiment with rice milk and rice flour. These are very delicately flavoured ingredients, particularly suitable for subtle flower flavours and an excellent alternative if you do not want to use milk, cream or almonds.