Blooming tasty
A SUMMER garden is a rich pantry for a cook who knows which flowers to pick. Peppery orange nasturtiums to give salads fiery taste and colour; aromatic lavender to bake in shortbread; crystallised rose petals to decorate cupcakes; and frozen borage blooms – one per ice cube – floating in a glass of Pimm’s.
“Rose and orange blossoms have been distilled for centuries in the Middle East to flavour sweets and coffee,” says Monica Nelson, author of the new book Edible Flowers (£20, Monacelli). “The Aztecs used marigolds to flavour cacao. Daylily is an important element in Chinese cooking… The practice of eating flowers has ebbed and flowed with the tides of culinary custom, but is today a growing force among restaurants.”
Seasonal ingredients
Edible blooms are particularly favoured by restaurants that use seasonal ingredients, such
