Lavender, long prized for its beauty, fragrance and folk-art medicinal uses, is becoming a culinary star, used in dishes from sweet to savory.

Although people may be most familiar with lavender's use in desserts, entire cookbooks have been devoted to this humble herb, well suited to growing in New Mexico's dry climate. Case in point: Cooking with Lavender, (Río Grande Books) written by Suzanne T. Smith of Los Alamos. The book is in its second printing, and was a finalist for a 2008 New Mexico Book Award.

Smith's love of lavender was sparked by a trip to the Provence region of France, renowned for its magnificent lavender fields.

"It was beautiful, very spectacular," Smith said. "I've always been interested in herbs, have always grown them. I had a lavender plant I bought for landscaping and wondered hmmm ... what else can you do with it? I started adding blossoms to things. Lavender is lemony and the leaves are savory like rosemary and sage. I don't know why it took so long to catch on.

"One of my earliest recipes was for lavender fried apples. We were having roast pork and I thought applesauce would be good with it but I didn't have any. But I had some apples and sprinkled them with lavender blossoms, clove, cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg."

Smith also prepares Greek-style lamb chops marinated in white wine, lime juice, olive oil, freshly chopped sage and lavender leaves, along with several flower heads. She uses a sprig each of lavender and rosemary much like a pastry brush to do the basting.

"In my cookbook, I have a lavender watermelon salad," she said. "Sometimes, instead of making a salad, I take the lavender heads and fresh chopped mint leaves — five of each — and spin them in the blender. It makes a refreshing drink.

"For the second edition of the cookbook, I include a lavender/fruit pizza using refrigerated sugar-cookie dough with an assortment of fruit. Bake the dough first. Use cream cheese, sugar, lavender and a little vanilla. Take strawberries, kiwis, and bananas and arrange the fruit in concentric circles. There's a glaze of orange marmalade, orange juice, mint and lavender. Pour the glaze on and top with lavender blossoms then heat enough to melt the glaze."

Smith recommends selecting a mild variety of lavender that hasn't been sprayed with pesticides for use in recipes. "Lavandula agustifolia, or English lavender, is the least camphory; Spanish lavender is very strong. French lavender is very hardy but not as tasty. It's very piney," she said.

Belying its name, lavender not only comes in deep purple, but blue, pink and white as well. Plants range from large to dwarves and it's best to buy a plant rather than starting lavender from seed, according to Smith. She even makes dog treats with lavender. "I have show dogs — two standard schnauzers — and they love it," she said. "You have to have something to interest the dogs in the ring."

"Lavender has some insect repellent in it," Smith added. "The smell the body puts off isn't necessarily detectible to people but it is to bugs. I also discovered that burning trimmings of lavender, rosemary and sage in a charcoal grill works as a bug repellent for the area."

Maria Elena Bustamante-Bernal is owner of the Tree House Pastry Shop and Cafe on Lena Street. The shop offers French macaroons with lavender and often serves a vanilla bean and lavender cupcake as one of its monthly cupcake specials. The bakery also prepares special orders for lavender cakes, lavender chocolate mousse, lavender crème brûlé, lavender sorbet and lavender ice cream.

"It's such a fresh smell and taste," Bustamante-Bernal said. "Lavender is a spectacular herb; you can do so many things with it, It can be sweet or savory and can be adapted to so many mediums. You can make soaps and lotions as well, and you can grow it very easily here."

Lois Ellen Frank, culinary anthropologist, author, chef and instructor at the Institute of American Indian Arts and Santa Fe School of Cooking, has been growing lavender for 10 years.

"I grow a lot of culinary herbs," Frank said. "I can use them in my cooking. Lavender's really good in desserts. For ice cream, I use my fingers and crush the lavender into a tea, which goes into the ice-cream base along with egg, sugar and cream. I also make a sorbet with citrus, lemon and lavender; it's almost like an Italian shaved ice.

"Lavender's so fragrant and so powerful some people shy away from it, but I love it," Frank said. "I use it as oil, like truffle oil, that you use as an essence. I like infusing it — making an oil or tea and using it as an adjunct, not a dominant flavor," Frank said. She also likes to use lavender in salad dressings and with citrus dishes. "It has a relaxing, wonderful smell. In the winter I put dried buds in the fireplace with a fire," she said.

Juan Contreras, chef at Café Paris on Burro Alley, regularly serves ratatouille seasoned with lavender as an accompaniment to the restaurant's lunch crêpes. This traditional stewed vegetable dish from the Provence region of France combines sautéed yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant and red, green and yellow peppers. "Italians make it with black olives and tomato sauce," Contreras said. "Some people don't like olives, so when preparing the dish, I use virgin olive oil, which has more flavor." Herbes de Provence is a combination of bay leaf, thyme, fennel, rosemary, chervil, oregano, summer savory, tarragon, mint and marjoram, which can be used fresh or dried. Contreras' version of the seasoning includes lavender — fitting in light of the cafe's French origins and summery street patio.

BOOKS

Cooking with Lavender by Suzanne T. Smith (Rio Grande Press, paperback, 52 pages), website: www.nmsantos.com; Email: info@nmsantos.com

Lavender: How to Grow and Use the Fragrant Herb by Ellen Spector Platt (Stackpole Books, paperback, 145 pages)

LAVENDER TOURS

Purple Adobe Lavender Farm, Abiquiu, 505-685-0082; tours begin July 12. Website: www.purpleadobelavenderfarm.com; email: info@purpleadobelavenderfarm.com

Los Poblanos Inn & Cultural Center, 4803 Rio Grande N.W., Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, 505-344-9297. Website: www.lospoblanos.com; E-mail: info@lospoblanos.com

FIND LAVENDER AND LAVENDER PRODUCTS

Annual Herb and Lavender Fair, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. July 24-25, El Rancho de Las Golondrinas, 334 Los Pinos Road, 471-2261, www.golondrinas.org

Annual Lavender in the Village Festival (this year's festival has already concluded), Village of Los Ranchos Park (Hartnett Park), Los Ranchos Growers' Market, Los Poblanos Inn and Lavender Fields, Casa Rondena Winery, www.lavenderinthevillage.com

Purple Adobe Lavender Farm booth, 7 a.m.-noon on Saturdays at the Santa Fe Farmers Market in the Railyard

Enchanted Lavender Farm, Albuquerque, www.enchantedlavender.com

Lavender Spring Ranch, Arabela, N.M., 575-653-4992, www.lavenderspringranch.com

New Mexican Lavender, Las Cruces, 575-541-0805, www.newmexicanlavender.com

Recipes

FRENCH MACAROONS WITH LAVENDER

Recipe courtesy of the Tree House Pastry Shop and Café. This recipe makes about 24 half-inch sandwich cookies.

Cookies:

5 tablespoon organic granulated sugar

90 grams egg whites (about 3.5 whites or 3.5 ounces)

3 ounces raw almonds

5.25 ounces powdered sugar

1 quarter vanilla bean, scraped

1 teaspoon lavender extract

Filling: vanilla butter cream or frosting

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Grind together the almonds and powdered sugar until you have a fine powder. Do not over grind or you will get almond butter. Sift and set aside.

Whip egg whites with sugar to soft peaks. If you choose to add food coloring (Tree House uses just a spot of lavender coloring), add at this point along with the vanilla bean and lavender extract. Gently fold the almond flour into the whites. The batter will be slightly runny, like molasses. Pipe quarter sized circles onto parchment lined cookie sheets two inches apart and allow to dry until meringues form a dry skin. Bake in preheated oven for about six minutes or until meringues are set and have not browned. Cool completely, fill and sandwich together. These cookies will store in an airtight container for four days.

RATATOUILLE

Recipe courtesy of Café Paris, feeds a small army on Bastille Day, July 14. Scale recipe down for 8-10 people by cutting recipe ingredients in half.

Ingredients:

5 pounds yellow squash

5 pounds green squash

5 pounds eggplant

12 red bell peppers

12 green bell peppers

4 medium yellow onions

4 yellow bell peppers (to add color)

Herbes de Provence

Wash and then cut vegetables into 1-inch cubes. Sauté the squash separately first in extra virgin olive oil until just becoming soft. Put in strainer to drain excess olive oil. Sauté bell peppers until a little soft. Put a little salt on the cubed eggplant (to take water out). Sauté eggplant and onions last. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of Herbes de Provence (the variety that includes lavender), of course. Serve hot.

SUZANNE'S ORANGE ROUGHY WITH LAVENDER-ORANGE WINE SAUCE

Recipe courtesy of Suzanne T. Smith's The Lavender Cookbook

1 large or 2 small Orange Roughy fillets (or other mild, white fish)

1 cup fresh orange juice

2 teaspoon dried culinary lavender

1 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoon orange liqueur

2 carrots peeled and julienned

3 scallions julienned

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

Pepper both sides of fish. Mix orange juice and lavender and set aside. Sauté carrots and scallions in butter for 5 minutes just until crisp. Add wine to orange juice mixture and bring to a boil in pan. Add fish and turn heat down to simmer. Cook until done to your liking. Remove to a plate, cover and keep warm. Add orange liqueur to pan liquid. Bring to a boil until liquid reduces by half. Return fish to pan and heat through. In a separate pan, sauté sesame seeds in a little butter then add fresh asparagus, if you like. Put fish on plates with optional asparagus or other vegetable, spoon sauce over it and serve with rice.


GOURMET PET CRUNCHIES

Recipe courtesy of Suzanne T. Smith

1 1/2 pounds chicken wings, backs and liver

15 ounces can oil-packed salmon, mackerel or tuna, chopped

1 1/2 cups rye flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 1/2 cups brown rice flour

2 teasp garlic powder

4 tablespoon kelp powder

4 tablespoon dried lavender buds

1 1/2 cups powdered milk

3/4 cup brewer's yeast

5 tablespoon olive oil or grape seed oil

1 cup goat or sheep's milk.

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet. In a large saucepan, place chicken wings, backs, and livers together in enough water to cover; bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes. Drain and set liquid aside. Coarsely grind wings, backs, and livers together, including bones. Add oil to reserved chicken cooking liquid. Add enough vegetable, beef or chicken broth to reserved liquid to make about 3 cups of stock.

Stir together flours, garlic, kelp, lavender, milk and brewer's yeast. Mix in ground chicken, chopped fish, and liquid to form a dough; add a little more flour if dough is too sticky to roll.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes with dog-bone cookie cutter or into squares appropriately sized for your pet. Bake on cookie sheet at 350 degrees until golden. Store in refrigerator or in airtight containers. Makes two full cookie sheets.