Flowers have long been used in various dishes. Especially many flowers and vegetables in Chinese cuisine. Flower cooking is also very popular in Japan. Fresh fish with cherry blossoms – for true connoisseurs, and in General fish dishes with chrysanthemum are considered traditional and are served in the restaurant not only to gourmets.
Flowers decorate salads, main courses and desserts, they flaunt on sandwiches, they are used for salting together with some traditional vegetables. Jonjoli — buds Staphylea colchica — known in the Caucasus delicacy.
There are a lot of dishes with the use of flowers and exotic plants. In some restaurants, for example, the popularity of chicken broth with shrimp and pink petals, steak with Viola tricolor, desserts from petals of gladioli and roses is constantly growing.
Yes, now flower delicacies are in fashion again, but do not chase the exotic, and it is necessary to use what grows and blooms around us.
Ocimum basilicum
Slightly rough flowering shoots are used in marinades, pickles, for making tea; they are harvested for the future in dried form.
Basil is harmonious in rural flower beds on fertile loamy or sandy loam soil. It is preferable to land in an open Sunny place, protected from cold Northern winds. As red and green leaf varieties to make the structure of mixborders. When planting seedlings between plants should adhere to a distance of 25 cm.
Tagetes
Spectacular bright inflorescences are used as a spice in pickles and marinades, they are colored cheeses, sauces, added to various dishes.
They are very popular in Georgian national cuisine. Dried lingual flowers of marigolds are good for rice and stewed dishes. It is Georgians, known as gourmets and centenarians, who flavor their second dishes.
Tagetes grow well and bloom in any soil but best in fertile. They are communicative: transfer of any neighbors.
In the open ground seedlings are planted in may, after the threat of return frosts passes, leaving a distance between plants 20-40 cm.
If something does not come up in the flower garden, remember the Tagetes: they are perfectly tolerate transplantation almost in bloom. All Tagetes are harmonious in the flower beds of rural style, dwarf varieties can be planted in containers, low garden vases.
Borago officinalis
Even In ancient Rome knew that the flowers of cucumber grass, added to the wine, give it wonderful properties: it is able not only to get rid of melancholy and sadness, but also to awaken the morale.
Fresh flowers Borago officinalis added to cold drinks, syrups, candied fruits.
It grows well in Sunny places, neutral and slightly alkaline fertile soils. Sociable, moreover, its proximity is useful for strawberries. When sowing or thinning friendly shoots, leave a distance of 15-20 cm between the plants.
Blue stars, touching hanging on long pedicels, magically transform a simple plant with a loose texture, which becomes extremely attractive in bloom. Borago officinalis is harmonious in the flower garden in the country style, can perform a secondary role, accompanying the blue, purple dominants in the mixborder or contrasting with the yellow.
Centaurea cyanus
Blue edge flowers collected during full flowering (fresh and dry) — a great addition to the first and second courses, as well as sauces, gravies, tea.
Sometimes his elusive piquancy smoothed other seasonings (Bay leaf, black pepper), but rest assured — it fixes your subconscious! And next time, forgetting to add Centaurea cyanus, you will certainly feel that the tea has become less delicious.
In the flower beds it is quite modest, even though there were varieties with pink, white, lilac colors. Not paying attention to the short flowering, cornflowers lovers with enviable constancy grow them in their flower beds in Sunny places with fertile soils.
Dianthus caryophyllus
Flowers with a strong peculiar smell, which simultaneously felt notes of nutmeg-natural flavors of salads, liqueurs, syrups, vinegar, canned vegetables.
For these purposes, you can use the flowers of all the individuals growing on your dacha, adding them to the hot, jellied, seafood dishes, sherbets, homemade ice cream, decorate their cakes. Removing the bitter inner white tips of the petals, you can even cook jam.
Dianthus caryophyllus are good everywhere, no matter what places in the country you give them, but look more luxurious in open Sunny areas with neutral fertile drained soils. When planting seedlings, adhere to the distance between plants 25-35 cm.
Calendula officinalis
The course is everything: territorial and ligulate flowers, and whole blossoms. This is a great spice to salads, side dishes and stews, soup dressings, for aromatization and coloring of cottage cheese, drinks.
Very popular calendula flowers enjoyed in the middle ages, replacing the poor people expensive saffron, giving dishes identical flavor and color. And the brighter the color, the more useful calendula!
In relation to soil not fussy, perfectly tolerate transplanting. It is better to plant in groups, adhering to the distance between plants 15-25 cm. She is tolerant to any neighbors.
Capparis herbacea, syn. C. spinosa
Marinated or salted buds are a well-known delicacy that goes as a kind of snack to cold and second courses of meat and fish.
Luxury exot for high beds, flower walls, rockery on a slope with dry sandy and sandy loam soils. Between plants should adhere to the distance of 40-50 cm.
In addition, flower petals Verbascum densiflorum can be used in the preparation of tea, which they give a honey flavor and aroma.
Soon we will continue to get acquainted with universal cultures that not only decorate our flower beds, but also give piquancy to dishes and drinks. In the meantime, I want to ask: do you use flowers in cooking?