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Magical Essential Oil Combinations for Sensory
Pleasure, September 14, 2009
There are few things as memorable as the aroma of home cooking.
Now imagine if a chef met a chief perfumer and together they
concocted exotic recipes. Mandy Aftel introduced Daniel Paterson
to a number of essential oils. Some of the oils used in the
recipes for facial products and gourmet treats include:
100%
Pure Essential Oil Geranium 0.5 oz Liquid
Lavender
100% Pure Essential Oil - 10 ml
Litsea
Cubeba (10 ml)
Neroli
100% Pure Essential Oil 5ml
Aura
Cacia - Myrrh Essential Oil, .5 oz liquid
Yes many of these recipes require gourmet ingredients like the
following:
Pomelos
Saffron
Cognac
Champagne
Valrhona Chocolate
Crème Fraiche (or you can make some with buttermilk and cream)
Black truffles
Urbani
White Truffle Infused Oil, 60-ml Bottles (Pack of 2)
Gelatin
Sheets - Silver Label - by ChefShop (as opposed to the
easier to find packets)
Some of the unique projects in this book include two recipes for
scented bookmarks. You may also want to grow your own herb
garden as some of the recipes call for lemon verbena and
tarragon. I tried making the face elixir which calls for Aura
Cacia Chamomile and Aura
Cacia Ylang Ylang. It was intoxicating and induced a deep
relaxation. You can use it at night. All you really need to find
is Aubrey
Organics - Rosa Mosqueta Rose Hip Seed Oil, .36 fl oz liquid
- which is what I used, chamomile and ylang ylang. There was
really no need to order apricot oil and Mayumi Squalene -
Squalene Oil which is quite expensive.
Some of the tempting recipes you might enjoy include:
Chocolate-Mint Truffles
Lavender Shortbread Cookies
Orange Flower Custard
Coffee Ice Cream with Candied Orange
Chocolate-Cinnamon Caramels
Vanilla Poached Pears with Sabayon
Yellow Corn Pudding Glazed with White Truffle Butter
Grilled Steak with Onion-Potato Compote Scented with Lavender
Coriander-Crusted Wild Salmon
Cumin Crackers with Eggplant Dip
Steamed Halibut with Lemon-Chamomile Sauce
A few of the recipes require you to first prepare a stock.
Instead I'd recommend just using 1 teaspoon of stock base for
every cup water. You can then substitute this for the homemade
stock called for in the recipe. In one of the recipes you use
cumin seeds and cumin oil. For the home cook it would just be
easier to find the cumin seeds.
This book introduced me to quite a few essential oils I've never
heard of and I've read quite a few books on essential oils.
"Litsea Cubeba" was totally new to me and it is used
to make a bath oil. To find some of the oils used in the recipes
you may want to try looking around here at amazon. There is a
source section at the back of the book but it would have been
much more useful if it has listed specific ingredients and then
the exact source. As it stands you may need to go to numerous
websites to look up ingredients.
Some of the things I noticed in the recipes may also discourage
the making of some delicious foods. For example, in the Sweet
Onion Rosemary Soup you need to make an infused oil as a
separate recipe. The recipe uses six cups of olive oil. It would
seem easier if the recipe had just required you to make an exact
amount. One recipe uses 1-2 quarts of the oil which seems
extravagant. In a recipe I really wanted to make -
Artichoke-Saffron soup, there are not enough instructions to
make me feel confident that I could make it. I couldn't figure
out what you are supposed to do with the artichokes after you
cook them. Surely you don't put the entire artichoke in the
blender as the recipe seems to imply.
For some of the recipes you will need to own an ice cream maker.
Otherwise all you need is non-reactive cookware. It is not
recommended that you use anything like aluminum or cast iron.
I would only recommend this book to the very adventurous or to
someone who loves entertaining because the recipes are mostly
for 8 servings. The recipes will also be fairly expensive to
make because you need to buy specific essential oils for almost
every recipe. There are some essential oils you may only use
once unless you intend to make the recipes again. I was lucky
because I have a small collection of essential oils so making
the facial products was fairly easy. I will on the other hand
probably never buy cumin essential oil because I fear I'd never
use it again except in the recipe in this book. This is really a
journey of sensory discovery and one of the most unique books
I've ever encountered.
~The Rebecca Review
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