The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show took place over the past weekend. Once more there are gardens for all pockets and tastes — and Julia McLean was there. Read on for inspiration and recipes.
I am going for the tastes. Edible flowers are the latest trend apparently, and there was a hanging garden full of them to encourage people to grow edible stuff on their balconies. Peter Seabrook, the gardening writer and television broadcaster, said: “It worries me that the machinery now used on site to construct the show gardens is out of all proportion. Please could we for a year go back to a spade and wheelbarrow gardening – that is all we need.”
He is quite right and that is why I have a herb garden with edible flowers. It is easy to maintain, looks pretty and I can eat it! Mostly I add lots of herbs to my salads but I also pop in flower heads. Supermarkets are now apparently stocking salad packs with edible flowers. There are new cookbooks out with plenty of recipes. Most people who love Italian food will already be familiar with stuffed zucchini flowers.
Without going to all the trouble of cooking flowers, there are plenty you can eat raw in salads, and they add colour texture and flavour. Lemon balm, mint, sweet cicely, marjoram, sage, chives and wild celery, young borage leaves (very young – they get too hairy otherwise, like comfrey) — all of these can awaken the taste buds, plus the judicious addition of a few flowers or petals excites the eyes. Try adding a few nasturtiums, mint flowers, chive heads, marigold petals, sage flowers, blue borage flowers, oregano flowers, or even rosemary or lavender, but not all at once, of course.
You can also use crystallized flowers where the petals are dipped in egg white and sugar and left to dry. I first met crystallised flowers in a Robert Carrier recipe called Poires Grand Vefour. I subsequently had the joy of eating it in the Grand Vefour restaurant in Paris.
Poires Grand Vefour
Basically, you poach pears in a sugar syrup and serve with a custard sauce; top with cream and decorate with crystallised violets; and serve in a sundae dish or tall glass. Use hard pears (Williams are the best because they are long and skinny and fit a sundae glass).
Ingredients for six
6 hard pears*
1 cup of fine sugar/100grs/3-4 ozs
2 cups water/4ml/1/2 pint
Juice of one lemon
Crème Anglaise — English custardsSauce (recipe below)
1 vanilla bean split lengthways or ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 litre milk/ 1 ¾ pints/4 ½ cups
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup crushed almond macaroons/4 ½ ozs
¼ cup of violet liqueur/ Grand Marnier/dessert spoon of liqueur
candied violets
Peel and core the pears and brush with lemon juice to stop them browning.
Make a sugar syrup from the sugar and water.
Poach the pears gently in this till they are cooked through.
Let cool in the syrup.
*You can halve the pears lengthwise and core them, then stick them together with a toothpick until you have the custard half way up them.
Crème Anglaise
You can either buy this ready-made or make it as follows:
6 eggs
2/3 cup sugar/150grs/5oz
4 1/4 cups /1 litre/1 3/4 pints milk
Vanilla bean as above
Place eggs in bowl with sugar and beat till frothy**
Boil milk with opened vanilla pod.
Remove pod and pour milk gently and slowly onto eggs. They must not curdle***
Pour back into saucepan over low heat.
Stir continuously with wooden spoon until custard coats the back of spoon.
Transfer to cold dish to cool and cover with greaseproof paper to stop a crust forming.
**To help this sauce thicken, you can include a teaspoon of cornstarch/cornflour when you beat the eggs and sugar.
***If it does curdle, try rescuing it by pouring it into your mixer and zizzing it.
Assembling the Dish
In a sundae dish or highball glass, put the crushed macaroons lightly soaked in Violet liqueur or Grand Marnier in the bottom. Slide your pear on top.
Pour the custard all around and just cover the pear.
Beat your heavy creamy into firm peaks and pipe over the top
Decorate with a few candied violets. Keep cool.
If you wish to cook with herbal flowers, try lavender. You can add it to game or lamb sauces in small quantities, and add a small spoonful of the flowers to your bread mix but here is a simple crème brulee recipe you might like to try. It is very easy.
Lavender Crème Brulee
1 ¾ cups/400ml of milk/1 pint /
2 cups/600 ml of heavy cream/ a big pint
4 soupspoons of lavender flowers
9 egg yolks
2/3 cup/170 grs sugar/6oz
1/3 cup/80grs/3oz light brown sugar for the top
Heat the milk and the cream then at the first sign of bubbles add the lavender flowers. Let it infuse for 15 minutes then sieve.
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar then pour over the milk/cream mixture bit by bit stirring gently.
Divide between eight ramekins and cook for 50 minutes in a 100C oven (thermostat 3).
Let it cool to ambient temperature for 4 hours.
Before serving, sprinkly with brown sugar and put under the oven grill to brown. To avoid heating the creams, place them in a baking tin with water half way up.
Bon Appetit!
Resource
www.chelseaflowershow.com – View great videos of different gardens.
Photo Credits
All photos © Julia Mclean, 2011. All Rights Reserved.
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