enlightenedcuisine

The garden is blooming—even in NYC! So much time in the restaurant is spent working with herbs and other local produce, so it is time to share the passion for the edible garden… and for flowers. So how do you cook with your flower garden?

An edible flower garden is beautiful to see, smell and actually eat. Flowers that are edible are a mystery to many, in addition to the many ways to use them in food.  What is awesome about edible flowers is that they are beautiful, taste good raw, steamed, fried, candied, blended, marinated, dried, frozen… and can accompany any dish whether it be an appetizer, salad, main course, sauce, dip, dessert, beverage or part of a vegetarian, vegan, meat, poultry, or fish option. Edible flowers can be used fresh as a garnish or as an integral part of a dish. And yes, flowers add a beautiful colorful tasty vegetable addition to your plate or meal, and most of them also offer health remedies.

Here is a starter list of flowers to grow in your garden, or buy at your farmer’s market and add to your plates (Go organic so you are not ingesting any of those pesticides, which might make you sick):  ** indicate my favorites ………..

Bachelor Buttons (Centaurea cyanus)- Very mild flavor – Color: Blue, White, Pink – the petals and caylyx are edible – Used as in teas, as well as garnishes in soups and desserts.

Begonia (Begonia X tuberosa) – Crisp Citrus flavor, which varies with variety flower – note: only hybrids are edible. (The flowers and stems contain oxalic acid and should not be consumed by individuals suffering from gout, kidney stones, or rheumatism.) Color: White, Red, Pink, Orange – Use steamed with veggies or chop and add to salads or add as a beautiful garnish to any dish

Bergamot (Moranda didyma) – Sweet spicy flavor – Color: Red, Pinks, Purples – Use petals in salads, pasta dishes, stuffings and jellies. Also use steeped in teas.

**Borage (Borago officinalis)-Also known as the star flower – Fresh Cucumber-like Flavor – Color: blue or white – Use whole flowers frozen in ice cube, crystallized as part of a dessert, in jelly, as a beautiful garnish or use in salads and sauces. (Try mixing with nasturtium)

Chive blossoms (Allium schoenoprasum)- Onion flavor – Color: Purple in general – Use whole blossoms as garnish or a dish wanting an onion balance. Try with carrots or potatoes. In salads, pastas, eggs, make a chive butter or vinegar

Clover (Trifolium pratense) flavor – Color: White, red, purple – Use peals in salads or freeze into ice cubes, infuse into wine or tea.

Garland Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum coronarium)- Mild peppery flavor – Color: – Use petals in soups, dips and vegetable dishes.

**Day Lily (Hemerocallis) – Mangetout (snowpea) with a peppery aftertaste flavor – Color: orange, red, white, yellow, pink – Use only buds and flower petals in stirfries, soups and salads. (Note: don’t overdo eating them or you will spend more time in the bathroom than most). Popular in China.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) -Young flowers have a bittersweet slightly honey type flavor – Color: Yellow- Use whole flowers with vegetables, or try petals and flowers with bean dishes or steep into a tea, The leaves if eaten before the flowering stage can also be eaten in a salad or blanched. (The leaves may become bitter after flowering.) (Note: flowers close quickly once picked)

Elderberry (Sambucus Canadensis)- Sweet Flavor- Color: White-

(Note: do not wash flowers since it removes much of the flavor)

Fuchsia (Fuschia arborescens)- Tangy sweet flavor depends on variety– Color:  – Use cooked stems and leaves as you would spinach. Blooms left whole are beautiful in a salad or crystallized with dessert.

Scented Geraniums (Pelargonium) – mild flavor for the flowers, the leaves can be citrusy to spicy– Color: Mauve, pink, purple, white – Use in salads, or as garnish or crystallize for desserts.

**Herb flowers (rosemary, oregano, dill, fennel, parsley, basil, sage, arugula, etc.) – Generally milder in flavors than the herbs itself – Color; varies, blues, purples, greens, yellows, ivory – Use flowers to garnish dishes and also use in the dishes that you use the herbs themselves

Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) – Citrus flavor – Color: reds, oranges, pinks, whites – Best Used in beverages. Try steeping flowers in liquids for drinks and desserts; float in punch bowls (Compliments rosemary…. And the combination of the two is thought to be an aphrodisiac.)

**Lavender (Lavendula species)– Floral perfumed flavor- Colors: purples, whites, blues – Use in either sweet or savoury dishes. Steep flowers in liquids for drinks, use in desserts like chocolate, ice creams and sorbets, try with honey or jellies, use in breads, lamb or poultry dishes. (Note: Lavender oil should not be consumed.)

Marigold (Tagetes erecta) -Slightly bitter flavor- Colors: reds, yellows, oranges, variegated – Use by adding petals to yogurt, pasta sauces, flavored butters, try with potatoes and chives.

Pot Marigold (Calendus officinalis) – Mild pepper flavor – Colors: Orange, yellow, cream, apricot – Use dried in large quantities to flavor soups and stew in the winter. Use petals in conserves, syrups, wines, oils, vinegar, butter, and bake into puddings. Also use petals in omelets, or try whole flowers to flavor soup and rice dishes. Can be used dried or fresh. (Generally used more for color than flavor, as it is nicknamed the poorman’s saffron.)

**Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) – Peppery type flavor – Colors: Usually orange or red– Use whole or chopped in salads, pasta, vegetable dishes. Beautiful garnish to anything that likes a little pepper taste, including hearty mushrooms and even a steak. Can be pickled and used like capers. (Note: both flowers and leaves are beautiful and tasty.)

Primrose (Primula vulgaris)- Honey like flavor – Color: Yellow – Use in salads, or fruity meringues. Crystallize blossoms for desserts. Freeze to make floral ice cubes or serve with sorbets. Also try petals in jams & vinaigrettes.

**Rose (Rosa)- Sweet flavor- Flavor depends on variety and the scent. The more heavily scented roses will have a better flavor – Color: almost every. But the older varieties with more fragrance tend to be in the red and pink family.- Use the petals crystallized in and on desserts, or try floating petals in drinks, hot and cold. Try making in jam, honey, or syrups. One of the oldest species of roses is the Rosa Mundi, and has an excellent flavor. (Louise Odier and Gertrude Jekell so have excellent flavor.) The Cecile Brunner variety great crystallized.

**Squash / Zucchini blossoms – Courgettes (Courcurbita pepo) – Flavor is a milder version of the squash they derive from – Color: Generally yellow/ orange – Use by stuffing them with herbs, vegetables and cheeses. Great, raw, cooked or fried, and can be eaten hot or cold. Use cooked with tomato sauce, or stuff them raw with vegetables, rice, dried fruit, herbs, meat or fish. Also try adding to omelets. Use opened flowers and remove the green parts.
Sunflower (Helianthus annus)– Similar in flavor to an artichoke – Color: yellows to reds – Use blanched buds then steam or sauté them. Use uncooked petals in salads, or try in pastas, stirfries and purees. The seeds can be hulled an eaten raw.

**Sweet Violet (Viola odorata)– Sweet floral flavor – Color: generally purples and whites Use flowers in salads, steep them in syrup or crystallize them for dessert garnishes. Can be cooked to make a candy paste. Infuse them in a vingarette for salads or to use as a marinade on fish, poultry or vegetables. Infuse in tea.

**Viola (Viola) – Subtle sweetly scented pretty flower – Color: white, cream, yellow, blue, purple, black and several bicolors. Try: Johnny jump ups, Mollie Sanderson, Rebecca, Mrs. Lancaster, and more…. – Use in salads, as a garnish, crystallize for desserts, freeze in ice cubes, use with ice creams and sorbets.

The moment I get out of that restaurant basement kitchen, all I want to do is glory in the beauty of the sun, rain, clouds, moon… To see and consume the natural fruits and vegetables of the garden brings me a smile and energy.

Flowers recipes to follow in my next postings.

With Love,

Mary

Copywrited. 2011

For Further Reading

• Belsinger, Susan. 1991. Flowers in the Kitchen; Interweave Press; Loveland, Colorado.
• Barash, Cathy Wilkinson. 1997. Edible Flowers: Desserts and Drinks. Fulcrum Publishing; Golden, Colorado.
• Barash, Cathy Wilkinson. 1993. Edible Flowers From Garden to Palate. Fulcrum Publishing; Golden, Colorado.
• Brown, Kathy. 2008. Edible Flowers; 25 Recipes and an A-Z pictorial directory of culinary flora; Aquamarine; London, England.
• Herst, Sharon Tyler. The Food Lover’s Companion, 2nd edition. Barrons Educational Service, Inc.
• Kowalchik, Claire and William H. Hylton, editors. 1987. Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs. Rodale Press, Inc.; Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
• Peterson, Lee Allen. 1977. Edible Wild Plants. Houghton Mifflin Company; New York.
• Shaudys, Phyllis V. 1990. Herbal Treasures. Garden Way Publishing; Pownal, Vermont.

The garden is blooming—even in NYC! So much time in the restaurant is spent working with herbs and other local produce, so it is time to share the passion for the edible garden… and for flowers. So how do you cook with your flower garden?

An edible flower garden is beautiful to see, smell and actually eat. Flowers that are edible are a mystery to many, in addition to the many ways to use them in food.  What is awesome about edible flowers is that they are beautiful, taste good raw, steamed, fried, candied, blended, marinated, dried, frozen… and can accompany any dish whether it be an appetizer, salad, main course, sauce, dip, dessert, beverage or part of a vegetarian, vegan, meat, poultry, or fish option. Edible flowers can be used fresh as a garnish or as an integral part of a dish. And yes, flowers add a beautiful colorful tasty vegetable addition to your plate or meal, and most of them also offer health remedies.

Here is a starter list of flowers to grow in your garden, or buy at your farmer’s market and add to your plates (Go organic so you are not ingesting any of those pesticides, which might make you sick):  ** indicate my favorites ………..

Bachelor Buttons (Centaurea cyanus)- Very mild flavor – Color: Blue, White, Pink – the petals and caylyx are edible – Used as in teas, as well as garnishes in soups and desserts.

Begonia (Begonia X tuberosa) – Crisp Citrus flavor, which varies with variety flower – note: only hybrids are edible. (The flowers and stems contain oxalic acid and should not be consumed by individuals suffering from gout, kidney stones, or rheumatism.) Color: White, Red, Pink, Orange – Use steamed with veggies or chop and add to salads or add as a beautiful garnish to any dish

Bergamot (Moranda didyma) – Sweet spicy flavor – Color: Red, Pinks, Purples – Use petals in salads, pasta dishes, stuffings and jellies. Also use steeped in teas.

**Borage (Borago officinalis)-Also known as the star flower – Fresh Cucumber-like Flavor – Color: blue or white – Use whole flowers frozen in ice cube, crystallized as part of a dessert, in jelly, as a beautiful garnish or use in salads and sauces. (Try mixing with nasturtium)

Chive blossoms (Allium schoenoprasum)- Onion flavor – Color: Purple in general – Use whole blossoms as garnish or a dish wanting an onion balance. Try with carrots or potatoes. In salads, pastas, eggs, make a chive butter or vinegar

Clover (Trifolium pratense) flavor – Color: White, red, purple – Use peals in salads or freeze into ice cubes, infuse into wine or tea.

Garland Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum coronarium)- Mild peppery flavor – Color: – Use petals in soups, dips and vegetable dishes.

**Day Lily (Hemerocallis) – Mangetout (snowpea) with a peppery aftertaste flavor – Color: orange, red, white, yellow, pink – Use only buds and flower petals in stirfries, soups and salads. (Note: don’t overdo eating them or you will spend more time in the bathroom than most). Popular in China.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) -Young flowers have a bittersweet slightly honey type flavor – Color: Yellow- Use whole flowers with vegetables, or try petals and flowers with bean dishes or steep into a tea, The leaves if eaten before the flowering stage can also be eaten in a salad or blanched. (The leaves may become bitter after flowering.) (Note: flowers close quickly once picked)

Elderberry (Sambucus Canadensis)- Sweet Flavor- Color: White-

(Note: do not wash flowers since it removes much of the flavor)

Fuchsia (Fuschia arborescens)- Tangy sweet flavor depends on variety– Color:  – Use cooked stems and leaves as you would spinach. Blooms left whole are beautiful in a salad or crystallized with dessert.

Scented Geraniums (Pelargonium) – mild flavor for the flowers, the leaves can be citrusy to spicy– Color: Mauve, pink, purple, white – Use in salads, or as garnish or crystallize for desserts.

**Herb flowers (rosemary, oregano, dill, fennel, parsley, basil, sage, arugula, etc.) – Generally milder in flavors than the herbs itself – Color; varies, blues, purples, greens, yellows, ivory – Use flowers to garnish dishes and also use in the dishes that you use the herbs themselves

Hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) – Citrus flavor – Color: reds, oranges, pinks, whites – Best Used in beverages. Try steeping flowers in liquids for drinks and desserts; float in punch bowls (Compliments rosemary…. And the combination of the two is thought to be an aphrodisiac.)

**Lavender (Lavendula species)– Floral perfumed flavor- Colors: purples, whites, blues – Use in either sweet or savoury dishes. Steep flowers in liquids for drinks, use in desserts like chocolate, ice creams and sorbets, try with honey or jellies, use in breads, lamb or poultry dishes. (Note: Lavender oil should not be consumed.)

Marigold (Tagetes erecta) -Slightly bitter flavor- Colors: reds, yellows, oranges, variegated – Use by adding petals to yogurt, pasta sauces, flavored butters, try with potatoes and chives.

Pot Marigold (Calendus officinalis) – Mild pepper flavor – Colors: Orange, yellow, cream, apricot – Use dried in large quantities to flavor soups and stew in the winter. Use petals in conserves, syrups, wines, oils, vinegar, butter, and bake into puddings. Also use petals in omelets, or try whole flowers to flavor soup and rice dishes. Can be used dried or fresh. (Generally used more for color than flavor, as it is nicknamed the poorman’s saffron.)

**Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) – Peppery type flavor – Colors: Usually orange or red– Use whole or chopped in salads, pasta, vegetable dishes. Beautiful garnish to anything that likes a little pepper taste, including hearty mushrooms and even a steak. Can be pickled and used like capers. (Note: both flowers and leaves are beautiful and tasty.)

Primrose (Primula vulgaris)- Honey like flavor – Color: Yellow – Use in salads, or fruity meringues. Crystallize blossoms for desserts. Freeze to make floral ice cubes or serve with sorbets. Also try petals in jams & vinaigrettes.

**Rose (Rosa)- Sweet flavor- Flavor depends on variety and the scent. The more heavily scented roses will have a better flavor – Color: almost every. But the older varieties with more fragrance tend to be in the red and pink family.- Use the petals crystallized in and on desserts, or try floating petals in drinks, hot and cold. Try making in jam, honey, or syrups. One of the oldest species of roses is the Rosa Mundi, and has an excellent flavor. (Louise Odier and Gertrude Jekell so have excellent flavor.) The Cecile Brunner variety great crystallized.

**Squash / Zucchini blossoms – Courgettes (Courcurbita pepo) – Flavor is a milder version of the squash they derive from – Color: Generally yellow/ orange – Use by stuffing them with herbs, vegetables and cheeses. Great, raw, cooked or fried, and can be eaten hot or cold. Use cooked with tomato sauce, or stuff them raw with vegetables, rice, dried fruit, herbs, meat or fish. Also try adding to omelets. Use opened flowers and remove the green parts.
Sunflower (Helianthus annus)– Similar in flavor to an artichoke – Color: yellows to reds – Use blanched buds then steam or sauté them. Use uncooked petals in salads, or try in pastas, stirfries and purees. The seeds can be hulled an eaten raw.

**Sweet Violet (Viola odorata)– Sweet floral flavor – Color: generally purples and whites Use flowers in salads, steep them in syrup or crystallize them for dessert garnishes. Can be cooked to make a candy paste. Infuse them in a vingarette for salads or to use as a marinade on fish, poultry or vegetables. Infuse in tea.

**Viola (Viola) – Subtle sweetly scented pretty flower – Color: white, cream, yellow, blue, purple, black and several bicolors. Try: Johnny jump ups, Mollie Sanderson, Rebecca, Mrs. Lancaster, and more…. – Use in salads, as a garnish, crystallize for desserts, freeze in ice cubes, use with ice creams and sorbets.

The moment I get out of that restaurant basement kitchen, all I want to do is glory in the beauty of the sun, rain, clouds, moon… To see and consume the natural fruits and vegetables of the garden brings me a smile and energy.

Flowers recipes to follow in my next postings.

With Love,

Mary

Copywrited. 2011

For Further Reading

• Belsinger, Susan. 1991. Flowers in the Kitchen; Interweave Press; Loveland, Colorado.
• Barash, Cathy Wilkinson. 1997. Edible Flowers: Desserts and Drinks. Fulcrum Publishing; Golden, Colorado.
• Barash, Cathy Wilkinson. 1993. Edible Flowers From Garden to Palate. Fulcrum Publishing; Golden, Colorado.
• Brown, Kathy. 2008. Edible Flowers; 25 Recipes and an A-Z pictorial directory of culinary flora; Aquamarine; London, England.
• Herst, Sharon Tyler. The Food Lover’s Companion, 2nd edition. Barrons Educational Service, Inc.
• Kowalchik, Claire and William H. Hylton, editors. 1987. Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs. Rodale Press, Inc.; Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
• Peterson, Lee Allen. 1977. Edible Wild Plants. Houghton Mifflin Company; New York.
• Shaudys, Phyllis V. 1990. Herbal Treasures. Garden Way Publishing; Pownal, Vermont.

What To Eat? There are so many delicious options out there with food. Being consumed by a passion for cuisine, I want nothing less than completely delicious food. Can food that is actually really tasty be good for you? Can delicious food rid your body of disease and maybe even make you look and feel better? Well, that was and continues to be my quest and the answer is a resounding  “YES”.

The other day I saw Matthew Kenney’s recent talk at a TED conference. ( Video Link: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxOKC-Matthew-Kenney-Are-You ) Being reminded that the biggest killer in America actually comes from our dinner table, I was instantly drawn back to the place that got me here in the first place. Too many people are simply dying and suffering from diseases that need not be happening to them. The health care and illness crisises in America are mostly related to diet. If we simply changed the way we eat, we could resolve much of the heart disease, cancer, diabetes and mental illnesses that plague us….  Additionally, we would probably have a better sex life, look better and really enjoy eating too! Food is a pleasure. And food can be a wonderful delicious good pleasure.

About a year and a half ago, I decided to forfeit my flex vegan and raw ways and completely embrace the food and methods I was being taught. I enrolled at The French Culinary Institute to learn techniques…. but while there, I also learned about butter, salt and cream… and actually a lot of it really did taste very good. What happened?

What happened wasn’t pretty. Well, lets just forget about the 20 pounds I gained, lets forget about my complexion, lets forget about how I aged more in a year than I did in the past five, lets forget about my lack of energy, lets forget about the congestion and allergic reactions that again started to blossom…. The worse part was, I got sick… frequently. Having not been sick in years… that was debilitating.

Every few weeks I would have a cold or some type of something that was keeping me from enjoying life and living to the fullest.  Depression started to plague me again and not knowing what to do, I turned to a doctor and pharmaceuticals. I know better, and getting sick from those drugs was one of the worse experiences of my life.  I then decided that once I left culinary school, I would return to my former ways. It hasn’t been as easy as I originally thought it would be.

Chefs by the most part really don’t get raw and vegan cuisine. I actually think some are insulted by it.  Yet there is something odd there.  Food is about making you feel good, and nourishing your body. It is a requirement that is on the same level as air, water and love.

Imagine a meal that could make you feel better, look better and taste amazing.  And so, with this 20-minute talk by Matthew Kenney I was back on track. Here is a chef who gets it.  I was reminded of why I got into the culinary field; to learn as much as I could about food and what it did to the body and our environment and then find out how to make it taste amazing. My palate and my body are craving more. More will be discovered and shared.

With love,

Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home on a weekend night from a high volume restaurant brunch, I am exhausted…. My legs are spaghetti after running up and down those stairs for a 450+ cover brunch. All I can do now is sit and try to stay awake whilst sipping a Kombucha vodka cocktail and fulfilling my nicotine craving (which I need and want to stop this new repeated addiction)… Finally sitting on my back terrace in Brooklyn, I am grateful to breathe and feel the warm spring air and be out of the basement prep kitchen and florescent lights. Grateful to hear my owl … Hooing in …..

 

In spite of my legs being in the state that can no longer help me rise from this chair, I love being there…. In that basement prep kitchen and those 10 hours on my feet without a break to sit or eat time did fly. And the mosquitoes that are now consuming my arms, reminding me of the harsh reality of life, were not there either. My blood is consumed in so many different ways.

Between the burns and now the bites.. My arms are quite a sight.

The sous-chefs are intense yet kind and work harder than most people I’ve ever known. The line cooks work their asses off and are amazing. No one working that line, or running that restaurant will accept mediocory … there is no good enough…. It’s either right or its not. I love that. Although brunches are not the time to get the most meticulously perfect meal, due to the volume and time crunch, the food is still excellent and the chefs stand by and up to their recent award win as Best New Restaurant in the Country.

As I sit, feeling like I’ve been run through the food mill and am simply a pile of mashed potatoes, I wonder if I will be able to live up to these standards.  I today I was not fast enough. How do I get faster? Did I jump too soon into a super intense environment? Regardless, I’m not giving up.

Most people working the line, or in Prep- work in the kitchen, are not my age, but substantially younger.  It can be hard and you need to be able to run up and down those stairs and stay on your feet for longer than I’m accustomed to. I’m young at heart, but wonder can my legs keep up..? Well, they will.

Yet home now, with the luxury of finally sitting, I realize my feet really hurt and cannot even contemplate ever again wearing the heels in my closet. So right now I’m loving my juicy couture sneakers. I really would love a pedicure….

Mary

The day arrived. After nine months of culinary school, we were going to be moving on. All those faces and bizarre and new cooking techniques felt so familiar now. I did not want it to end. The people in the kitchen that I had learned and grew with had become an intergral part of my life.

For the good part of the last year, although life was challenging, there was a definite direction, I was at the French Culinary Institute and I was going to learn. Coming from a next-to-nothing culinary background, except some in health food, the techniques and methods I learned were new to me and kept me on my toes. Was it crazy that I had chosen this route?

Having a diverse professional background which included working on Wall Street doing research and selling stocks for more than a decade, then managing art, to come to then study, work and be completely consumed by food, health and the environment, I felt like I had not just been around the block, but maybe around a couple of them. This is where I wanted and needed to be, but the question loomed… Now what?

It was melancholic that graduation day. Knowing that I would not be working in the kitchen again with my family of classmates. At the time I could not imagine working in a kitchen without them being there. I loved working in the kitchen with them. I loved being at FCI. Even on those days, when I screwed up and mistook the salt for the sugar when making my lemon tart, and got some dishes simply thrown in the trash because I was late on presenting, it was spectacular.

It was the birth of something new again. Over the past year, I had finally been granted the divorce that I had been requesting for the past 5 years. I had lost almost everything financially, including my house. I was raising my 2 children alone. And now, crazy me was going to be starting at the bottom again. But somehow it felt right. Still the question loomed…. Now what?

The thing is… I know what … I’m just not sure exactly on the how yet. So with this chronicle I will share the what and the how of working in the culinary field in NYC. But not just in any fashion…. Or in any method…. I will explore and share culinary adventures and lifestyle choices that do more than simply make you feel better, I look for the ones that improve the way you experience life.

I am fascinated with and will write about new techniques in the kitchen and with the garden. Everything nose to tail, farm to table, bizarre and exotic, healthy and not, vegetarian, vegan, raw and everything in-between. And of course, what it is like to work and be in a restaurant in NYC.

Join me … with love,

Mary
http://www.enlightened-cuisine.com