The Garlic Flower

If you are looking for a new way to enhance your best dishes ,why not do it with flowers … garlic flowers! Also called scapes, they’re the early spring shoots of garlic plants, which are trimmed to encourage the bulb’s growth. They used to be tossed aside, until someone discovered their mellow, delicious flavor.

Harvested as buds on the summer solstice, the garlic flowers are chopped and put in oil to ferment with a lactic starter. Fermentation lasts two weeks and is followed by a two-month aging period to fully develop flavours.

Its flavor is unique, more delicate and more digestible than the garlic bulb. Garlic flowers add flavor without masking the taste of other foods. Better yet, they don’t give you garlic breath!

Flower Arrangements for BOMA Quebec Cocktail in Montreal

As you probably know by now, we love Traiteur Primavera!

Working with them once again for the BOMA Québec cocktail was a pleasure and also quite delectable! With hors d’oeuvres like ’’Magret de Canard fumé à l’érable’’ and ’’Foie gras sur pain à l’érable’’ this team of professionals never cease to amaze us with their talent, energy and creativity.

It is always an honor to work side by side with them and to brighten up their food with our flowers!

Montreal Traiteur Primavera's Delicious Appetizers

Zucchini flowers

The female flower ( yes, flowers have genders! ) is a golden blossom on the end of each emergent zucchini. The male flower grows directly on the stem of the zucchini plant in the leaf axils (where leaf petiole meets stem), on a long stalk, and is slightly smaller than the female. Both flowers are edible, and are often used to dress a meal or garnish the cooked fruit.

Firm and fresh blossoms that are only slightly open are cooked to be eaten, but don’t forget to remove pistils from female flowers, and stamens from male flowers. The stem on the flowers can be retained as a way of giving the cook something to hold onto during cooking, rather than injuring the delicate petals, or they can be removed prior to cooking, or prior to serving.
My italian boyfriend’s Nonna ( grand-ma ) has a variety of recipes in which the flowers may be deep fried as fritters or tempura (after dipping in a light tempura batter), stuffed, sautéed, baked, or used in soups. Her favorite is the deep fried!

In Mexico, the flower is often used for a soup, sopa de flor de calabaza, and it is quite popular in a variation of the traditional quesadillas, becoming quesadillas de flor de calabaza. Zucchini is also used in a variety of other dishes (rajas), and as a side dish ornament.
Bon appetit!

Edible Flowers

With their natural beauty and unique flavours, edible flowers are an elegant and exquisite addition to any celebration. Using them in your daily meals adds nutritious appeal to even the simplest menu.

A research states that the culinary use of flowers dates back thousands of years with the first recorded mention being in 140 B.C. They were popular in the Victorian era during Queen Victoria’s reign. Today, this nearly lost art is enjoying a revival in many restaurants.

Edible flowers are great in salads, frozen in ice cubes, embedded in butter, and as garnish to almost any dish. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination, as I always say! It is however very important to make sure the flowers you consume aren’t dangerous for your health, here is a website where you will find all the info you need before starting your flower feast.

La fleur de sel: l’or blanc de la cuisine

Stéphanie et moi n’avons pas seulement la passion pour les fleurs en commun, nous abusons clairement aussi du sel! La fleur de sel, c’est l’or blanc de la cuisine, le caviar de la mer, la 7ième merveille de la gastronomie. Ce produit fin, de saveurs et de couleurs variées et surprenantes, rehausse irrésistiblement bien vos plats, même vos desserts, c’est un pêché mignon pour nous. Avez-vous déjà essayé un caramel à la fleur de sel?

La fleur de sel est la mince couche de cristaux blancs qui se forme à la surface des marais salants, en général par l’action évaporatrice du vent. Elle est recueillie à la main, ce qui peut expliquer son coût plutôt élevé; la fleur de sel est cinquante fois plus chère que le sel de table!

Quel délice, j’ai faim!

A Sushi Dinner in Montreal with my Boyfriend

My boyfriend and I were craving sushi last Wednesday, being downtown we decided to go to Sho-Dan on René-Lévesque.

I guess flowers never leave my side because in every dish we were served, I had this lovely fuschia and white Dendrobium orchid flower which kept on appearing! We had a great time chatting, eating, enjoying each other’s company and admiring our new little orchid friend until I turned around and … in my boyfriend’s mouth it went! I guess that’s what it was there for, but … men can be so brutal at times! Lol

Poor little dendrobium orchid flower!