Poppy - Weekend Herb Blogging #208

Happy Birthday Weekend Herb Blogging! The weekly blog event created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and meanwhile managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once celebrates its 4th year! Unbelievable! At this point I also would like to say thank you for the opportunity of hosting! I was wondering what entry should I send, and as it is a birthday, I decided for a dessert: a blue poppy seed ice cream with lemon-white poppy chocolate cakes and a lemony caramel syrup.


Poppy seed is used in many different foods either whole or ground. Opium poppy is a very old plant and its botanical name means "sleep bringer". Poppy seeds are less than a millimeter in length,and minute: it takes 3,300 poppy seeds to make up a gram, and a pound contains between 1 and 2 million seeds.


The white poppy seeds form part of the Indian spices. They are added for thickness, texture and also give added flavour to the recipe. Commonly used in the preparation of Kurma, ground poppy seed, along with coconut and other spices, are combined as the masala to be added at the end of the cooking step.


In the countries belonging to the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, poppy seed pastries like traditional bejgli rolls. Poppy seeds can also be used like sesame seeds to make a bar of candy. The bars are made from boiled seeds mixed with sugar or with honey. This is especially common in the Balkans, Greece.


The seeds can be pressed to form poppyseed oil, which can be used in cooking, moisturizing skin, varnishes and soaps, or as a carrier for oil-based paints. In the 19th century poppy seed oil found use in products such as paints, soaps, and illumination, and was sometimes added to olive and almond oils. Its most important use these days is as a salad or dipping oil. In Indian traditional medicine (Ayurveda), soaked poppy seeds are ground into a fine paste with milk and applied on the skin as a moisturizer. (source:wikipedia)



Ingredients:
100 g poppy seed, ground
zest of 2 lemons
350 ml full fat milk
150 ml heavy cream
130 g sugar
4 egg yolks


Heat milk, heavy cream, 3/4 of the sugar, ground poppy seed and lemon zest until it starts cooking. Whisk egg yolks with the rest of the sugar and slowly add hot milk mix to the eggs while whisking. Take it back to the cooking plate and cook until it thickens (it should be 85°C). Let the mixture cool and leave the rest of the work for the ice cream maker.