|
EDIBLE FLOWERS:
"Waiter! There's A Flower In My Soup."
By Niki Hayden
Nasturtiums are the gold
standard when it comes to edible flowers. Their peppery, scalloped leaves belong
to the watercress family, imparting a zing, perhaps a jolt, to an ordinary plate
of greens. Filled with feta cheese before being tossed into a Greek salad or
floating in a summer gazpacho soup, nasturtiums provide beauty and intense
flavor.
They’ve often been used as a substitute for capers, which is a flower bud
grown on a Mediterranean isle. Mix a bright yellow and red nasturtium by hand in
butter for summer corn and you’ll get lovely streaks of bright gold and
orange. Nasturtiums are among the easiest flowers to grow by seed, at
home in a vegetable garden where they will be treated like exquisite annual
edibles. You can also plant them in containers. Either way, poke their large
globular seeds about an inch into soil after the last frost where they will
receive good drainage and regular watering.
Our rediscovered enthusiasm for edible flowers goes beyond a simple
nasturtium to embrace flowers as graceful containers--daylilies, squash blossoms
or tulips. Chefs stuff squash blossoms with goat cheese, dip the flower into
tempura batter and fry the outside crisp, the inside warm and gooey. Daylilies,
with their own sweet flavor, cradle fruit sorbets. Tulips, elegant but
tasteless, will surround a mousse or custard if perched in a wine glass.
In the realm of pastry, edible flowers are objects of festooning with sugared
violets, pansy and rose petals sprinkled atop wedding cakes. The Victorians
trifled with flowers and we’ve adopted their enthusiasm.
Some edible blossoms are touted as substitutes for something more flavorful
but rare: calendula, a vividly gold flower, substitutes for saffron but doesn’t
provide authentic flavor. Others, like pansies, are beautiful, but tasteless.
And a rose offers a sweet perfume, but the flavor is so subtle that it rarely
adds much clout to a dish. There’s a reason why beautiful flowers left the
plate and gravitated toward the centerpiece.
Many historical edibles made way for new cuisine: vanilla, chocolate, rum,
cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and pepper. These are the flavors of world
exploration, when exotic spices arrived in Europe and standard medieval flavors
were cast aside.
LAVENDER FOR SPICE
Creative gourmets have rediscovered the glories of cooking with flowers, but
with a novel twist. Some flowers also marry with more recently popularized
flavors. Lavender, which William Shakespeare described as a "hot" or
spicy herb, combines with vanilla in ice cream or shortbread cookies. It also
adds a pervasive flavor to marinades and stuffing.
In ice cream, the flowers and leaves are steeped in warm milk until you get
the degree of flavor desired. Then the milk is strained to remove the tough,
woody lavender. Add a garnish of lavender to the ice cream so guests will be
able to identify that robust taste.
Add lavender blossoms to a marinade that calls for rosemary. Like rosemary,
lavender has an astringent, pine-flavored intensity. Use it judiciously in
stuffing, adding just a few ground, dried petals along with thyme and sage.
Since the hardy lavenders are perennials, and originated in the Mediterranean,
plant them in a garden with lean soil, little or no fertilizer and on the dry
side. See our story on growing lavender in Colorado.
CHIVES AND HERB FLOWERS
Chives, both the flower and stem, are essential ingredients in an egg salad
or salmon terrine. As a member of the allium family, it’s a close cousin to
the onion, leek and garlic. But chives are subtle and crisp, almost like a
miniature green onion. The tiny florets can be pulled apart and sifted over a
potato salad, mashed potatoes, a garlic mayonnaise, tomato soup, cucumber
salads, poached salmon, or incorporated into butter and cream cheese.
Chives, parsley and tarragon form a classic trio for a fresh herb combination
in vinaigrette. They naturally align themselves to goat cheese. Restaurants mash
chives into a neutral oil—canola or sunflower—and then drain it through a
fine sieve, or chinoise, to make emerald green chive oil.
The flowers of thyme, rosemary, basil, and oregano, provide insignificant
flowers, but they add a subtle taste to a salad. Sprinkle them judiciously on
top of salads, soups and antipasto for a lovely flavor.
FESTOONING, OR, GILDING THE LILY
Violets and pansies are sugared for decorations. Johnny-jump-ups,
a self-seeding tiny viola, perches artfully on cakes or cupcakes. The soft
mauve, purple, yellow and brown markings are strikingly displayed on chocolate
frosting. It’s an easy recipe: paint beaten egg white (or pasteurized egg
whites if you’ve a concern about salmonella) on the pansy face and back. Dip
in superfine sugar. Dry and place on the cake.
Violets also can be spread on the bottom and sides of a terrine mold and
filled with a gelatin terrine or mousse. Soften unflavored gelatin with warm
water. In an oiled loaf pan, paint a layer of the gelatin. Place violets,
pansies or mint leaves in the gelatin so that they’re affixed. Pour in the
terrine fruits or the chocolate mousse. Refrigerate until solid. Run warm water
over the pan and allow the terrine or mousse to slip out. The flowers and leaves
will be embedded on the surface of the mousse.
CAVEATS
You’ll find lists of non-poisonous flowers on horticultural websites below.
Included will be warnings to use flowers free from pesticides and to remove the
stamens and pistils. Even edible flowers can cause allergic reactions in many
people sensitive to pollen.
RECIPES
Lavender Ice Cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1/3 cup sugar
- sprig of lavender blossoms
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Heat the milk, cream, sugar and lavender but not to a boil. When the sugar
has dissolved and the lavender has steeped, taste the flavor before adding the
vanilla. It should be strong enough for a true lavender flavor. Remove the
sprig. Add the salt and vanilla. Freeze according to directions and serve.
Lavender Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender blossoms, crushed in a mortar and pestle
until fine dust
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- pinch salt
- 1 1/4 ounces crushed pistachio nuts
Cream together the butter, sugar, lavender and vanilla. Add the flour and
salt. Mix until combined, then add the nuts. Roll dough into a long log
about two inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic and chill in the refrigerator
about one hour. Unwrap when the dough is stiff and slice into about 1/4-inch
thickness; place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a pre-heated oven at
325 degrees for about 12 minutes.
Herbed Goat Cheese for Nasturiums
- 4 ounces plain goat cheese
- 1 small clove garlic, minced finely
- 1 teaspoon flat-leaf parsley, minced finely
- salt and pepper to taste
Remove pistils and stamens from the flower. Mix all together and place about
1/4 teaspoon of the mixture in the interior cup of the nasturium. Float on the
top of a sharply flavored summer soup, like a gazpacho. Or, toss in a Romaine
lettuce salad.
Filled
Squash Blossoms Battered
- Six large zucchini squash blossoms, stamens and pistils removed
- 4 ounces goat cheese
- 1/4 cup roasted red peppers, chopped finely
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 egg beaten
- water
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup canola or olive oil
Mix the goat cheese and chopped peppers together. Gently stuff the mixture
into the squash blossoms. If the flower will not close, try using a toothpick
threaded through the ends to keep it closed. Mix the flour and egg; add enough
water to make a batter about the consistency of crepes or pancakes. Heat the oil
in a skillet on the stove until it is hot enough to make a drop of the batter
sizzle when it's dropped in. Dip the filled squash blossoms into the batter.
Sauté or fry, either technique will work here. But the blossoms are fragile, so
turn them only once. When they are just golden, which takes only a minute,
remove them and drain them on paper towels.
Fruit Terrine with Violets and Mint Leaves
- 3 cups cup fruit in small pieces (not fresh pineapple or kiwi, or the
gelatin will not set), berries work well.
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
- 1 cups of freshly made lemonade, using warm water dissolve fresh lemon
juice and superfine sugar to taste.
- Violets and mint leaves, washed
- slight amount of neutral oil, like canola
Dissolve the gelatin in the warm lemonade. Oil a loaf pan and gently
swirl about 1/8 cup of gelatin in the pan. Use a pastry brush if necessary
to cover the bottom. Place violet blossoms and mint leaves in one scant
layer on the bottom. Layer the fruits. Pour in the remaining gelatin and
refrigerate until the salad has set. To unmold, run the loaf pan under warm
water and it will slip out.
Helpful websites: Colorado State University publishes a list of both toxic
and edible flowers: www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07237.html
Recommended reading: "Edible Flowers" by Cathy Wilkinson Barash,
Fulcrum Books
|
