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Floral Cuisine

by Mary Alward

Do you enjoy entertaining outdoors on a warm summer evening? If so, delight your guests by adding blooms from your garden to the menu.

In recent years, Canadians have been planting more and more edible flowers in their gardens. This recent trend motivated me to do some research on Floral Cuisine.

Do you enjoy entertaining outdoors on a summer evening when the fragrance of blossoms from the flower garden drifts across the evening breeze? When dinner music is provided by nature, courtesy of crickets, frogs and cicadas and the trickle of water from the garden pump in the lily pond sings a lullaby that erases the stress of the day?

Good friends, good conversation, and laughter make for an enjoyable time. Now, you can make the evening unforgettable. Delight your guests by using your garden’s bountiful blossoms to flavor and garnish dinner dishes.

Many flowers are edible. The Chinese have used steamed and dried daylilies and tiger lilies to flavor their food for centuries. In Ancient Rome, marigolds, violets and roses were incorporated into the cuisine.

It is vital that you know which flowers are toxic and which are edible. Poisonous flowers include rhododendron, wisteria, crocus, azalea, oleander, lily-of-the-valley, iris, buttercups, narcissus, foxglove, clematis, calla lily, periwinkle, bleeding heart, lupine, petunia, monkshood, delphinium and sweetpeas. You must also ensure that flowers used in food dishes have not been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. Therefore, you must purchase flowers for food preparation from a nursery or garden center.

Taste the flowers that you add to dishes to be sure that they appeal to your tastebuds. When using lilies, remove stamens, anther and pistil. Wild violets and johnny-jump-ups are especially tasty. Use these along with fresh strawberries to decorate a cake that is out of this world. You can also "candy" violets by using a camelhair brush to apply slightly beaten egg white and berry sugar. Dry these on wax paper and store in airtight containers. They are especially tasty on chocolate mousse or chocolate cake.

To make a delightful punch bowl, freeze pansies in a decorative ice cube tray. Use jelly moulds or small bowls to freeze water in layers. Add a variety of colored pansies to each layer. Add the ice to the punch bowl just before serving.

Calendula adds natural color to soup when heated. Also known as "pot marigold" it was once used to color cheese.

Herbs such as purple chives, basil flowers, fennel, dill and oregano blossoms add fantastic flavor to salads, mashed potatoes, soups, pasta sauces and flavored vinegars.

Borage blossoms have a slight cucumber flavor. They make a great addition to salads and also provide platter garnish. Before using borage, remove the hairy spials.

Steep fresh sprigs of lavender to add flavor to soup, stew, vinegar and tea. Lavender is associated with relaxation and is a welcome addition to any meal.

To add fruity and art flavor as well as brilliant color to salads, teas and preserves, use rose petals. The best petals are those from fragrant pink or red hybrid teas. Be sure to remove the bitter white base. For special desserts or wedding cakes use candied or chocolate coated rosebuds.

These floral additions to the dishes you prepare will delight your guests. To add beauty to your outdoor table, use floating citron candles with a few pansies added to the water. Fragrant floral bouquets make a spectacular showing.

If you follow the tips in this article, your outdoor dinner will be the topic of conversation for the entire summer and your guests will enjoy some great floral recipes that will tickle their tastebuds.

© Mary Alward (Originally published at Suite101)