Hello Summer!
A Meal with Edible Flowers in Every Course
Come stroll though my garden and the gardens of my dear friends Gail and Sally, and my sweet neighbor Grace. We’ll pick edible flowers including lavender, rose, geranium, society garlic blossoms, viola, nasturtium, and pineapple sage to incorporate into a most beautiful four course meal. The soup, salad, entree, and dessert, as well as the table décor, showcase our edible flowers.
Chilled Rose-Scented Goat Yogurt Soup with Rose Bud Petals
Cucumber, Golden Raisins, Walnuts, Chives, Dill, Mint
Baby Lettuce and Mache Salad with Meyer Lemon Wheels, Slivered Pistachios, Violas
Meyer Lemon Cream Dressing, Shallot, Thyme
Copper River Sockeye Salmon with Lemon Oil, Society Garlic Blossoms
Spinach Risotto with Nasturtium Petals
Blackberry Lavender Mascarpone Sorbet with Sugared Rose Petals and Mint
Beverages
Flowering Thyme-Scented Water
Rosé – Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigar
Red – Le Cigar Volant
The flower decorations are all washed and edible as well.
Help yourself to a nibble between courses:
Bowl of Roses with Lemon Verbena
Individual Bouquets with Geranium and Rose
Tea Glass filled with Pineapple Sage and Lavender
Tiny rose bud petals from this Kimberlina Floribunda Rose are carefully separated then rinsed in cool water and used to garnish the soup.
The refreshing chilled Persian yogurt soup was adapted from Chef Hoss Zaré. I added 1 t. of fragrant rose water to give it a more powerful perfumey garden scent. I used fresh rose buds instead of dried, and the more heart-healthy non-fat goat yogurt. This fabulous summer soup recipe can be found here.
All the flowers are rinsed in cool fresh water then gently dried on paper towels.
Gail’s Meyer Lemon tree luckily produces a bounty of lemons year round. Mixed baby lettuces and mache are tossed in Meyer Lemon Cream Dressing with her fresh thyme added. The salad is served over thinly sliced Meyer Lemon wheels (even the rinds are edible) drizzled with the dressing plus a generous sprinkling of slivered pistachios and a few gorgeous violas donating their mild pea flavor to the salad.
Fresh Copper River Sockeye Salmon of this quality needs little adornment. A drizzle of lemon oil, salt and pepper are really all that are necessary to fully enjoy this fish. Society garlic blossoms add a pretty savory garnish. Read more about the special Copper River Sockeye here.
Green spinach risotto, with its extraordinary color, has been one of our favorites for years. We add some vibrant orange zesty-peppery nasturtium petals to make this green side dish really pop! Recipe here.
And as the evening winds down…
The dinner concluded with darling little punch cups filled with a fruity but not-too-sweet mascarpone sorbet.
Rose petals and mint leaves were lightly coated with reconstituted egg white and sprinkled with super-fine sugar then left to dry over night. They garnished the sorbet.
Bonny Doon Le Cigar Volant, a complex Rhône-style blend, helped us welcome the setting sun…
This delightful meal would not have been possible without the help of my friends and fellow gardeners. Thank you to Gail, Sally, and Grace for the little snips of beauty from your gardens. And thank you to all the passionate gardeners in San Pedro, our charming corner of Los Angeles, for showering the neighborhood with your breathtaking (and sometimes edible) flowers…
Thank You
No pesticides!
As always, choose flowers that are certain to be edible, and eat in moderation.
Foodbuzz 24X24
Extending a special thank you to the folks at Foodbuzz for choosing Hello Summer! A Meal with Edible Flowers in Every Course as a participant in June’s 24×24 event. Foodbuzz 24×24 showcases posts from 24 Foodbuzz Featured Publisher bloggers, the monthly Foodbuzz 24 highlights unique meals occurring around the globe during a 24-hour period. “From San Francisco, to Sydney, to San Pedro!”
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Another beuatifully arranged table with some extroardinary food being served to your guests. I always get excited when I see you to a 24 Dinner!
I remember having yogurt soup at a Persian friend in New York and loved the addition of rose petals to the soup, which is not done in the Lebanese kitchen; love the salad, it reminds me that we used to eat lemon slices when younger, dipped in salt. That salmon and risotto is right up my alley too. In short, this is one memorable meal, poetic and creative and just ravishing to the senses.
If anyone could pull this off, it’s you. Beautiful!
This is breathtaking Lori, a feast for all the senses. Congratulations!
I love flowers. Especially ones you can eat. The entire menu sounds delicious, but that salad is really eye catching.
I recently visited San Diego’s rose garden where the roses are surprising not too fragrant. During my visit, I passed a young, blooming magnolia tree. I smelled one of the flowers. Pure heaven. Citrus and floral. Not sure if magnolia flowers are edible, but I wanted to take a bite right there in the park!
Thanks for sharing.
Brandon