Recipe by Catherine Carrigan
Choose flowers grown in an organic garden without pesticides!
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Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup yellow calendula petals
- 1/4 cup orange calendula petals
- 2 tablespoons blue corn flower (or bachelor button) petals
- 2 tablespoons hot pink corn flower (or bachelor button) petals
- 2 tablespoons white corn flower (or bachelor button) petals
- 5 pansies
- 20 violas
Toss the flowers in a bowl and serve over fresh salads.
Edible flowers are the new rage in haute cuisine
After falling out of favor for many years, cooking and garnishing with flowers is back in vogue once again. Flower cookery has been traced back to Roman times, and to the chinese, Middle Eastern, and Indian cultures. Edible flowers were especially popular in the Victorian era during Queen Victoria’s reign. Today, many restaurant chefs and innovative home cooks garnish their entrees with flower blossoms for a touch of elegance. The secret to success when using edible flowers is to keep the dish simple, do not add to many other flavors that will over power the delicate taste of the flower. Today this nearly lost art is enjoying a revival.
Did you know that broccoli, cauliflower, and artichokes are all flowers? Also the spice saffron is the stamen from the crocus flower? Capers are unopened flower buds to a bush native in the Mediterranean and Asian nations. But one very important thing that you need to remember is that not every flower is edible. In fact, sampling some flowers can make you very, very sick. You also should NEVER use pesticides or other chemicals on any part of any plant that produces blossoms you plan to eat. Identify the flower exactly and eat only edible flowers, and edible parts of those flowers. Always remember to use flowers sparingly in your recipes due to the digestive complications that can occur with a
large consumption rate. Most herb flowers have a taste that’s similar to the leaf, but spicier. The concept of using fresh edible flowers in cooking is not new.