Tag: flower

Recipe Flower cutlets with breadsticks and almonds – Italian Cuisine

Ingredients

250 g fresh cream
120 g fresh pecorino cheese
75 g breadcrumbs
50 g breadsticks
30 g shelled almonds
8 pcs pumpkin flowers
3 pcs eggs
2 pcs anchovies in oil
thyme lemon
mint
tomato concentrate
peanut oil
salt

Duration: 45 min

Level: Middle

Dose: 4 people

For the recipe of breadsticks and almond flower cutlets, heat the cream in a saucepan
and let it boil for 3-4 minutes; turn off the heat and mix the coarsely grated pecorino with a pinch of salt until it has melted evenly. Blend 1 tablespoon of tomato paste with 50 g of water and the anchovies. Coarsely chop the bread sticks and almonds and mix them with the breadcrumbs and the leaves of 3 sprigs of lemon thyme. Peel the pumpkin flowers, removing the bottom with the pistil. Beat the eggs. Dip the flowers in the beaten eggs, then pass them in the mix of breadcrumbs, breadsticks and almonds and fry them in abundant hot peanut oil for a couple of minutes. Drain on kitchen paper. Distribute the cream with pecorino cheese on the plates, place the breaded flowers on top and complete with dots of tomato sauce and mint leaves.

Banana flower, new vegan and superfood trend – Italian Cuisine

The banana flower, an exotic ingredient very much in vogue in Asian cuisine, is the new vegan superfood, also appreciated in the West and often used as a substitute for fish

In restaurants, both Western and Eastern, i flowers to eat they are used less and less as a decorative element and increasingly as a main ingredient in dishes. An example is the banana flower, food already very popular in Asian cuisine and currently very appreciated by local and European chefs, as new vegan food trend. This splendid and tasty flower has in fact a fleshy consistency similar to that of fish and, like jackfruit, lends itself well to original salads and second vegan dishes.

Because the banana flower is the new vegan superfood

In recent years we have witnessed a succession of vegetable ingredients that, thanks to their characteristics, nutritional properties or versatility in the kitchen, have become popular "superfood" alternatives to meat and fish. To top the podium of international vegan superfoods, after shitake mushrooms, avocado and jackfruit, are now banana flowers, an ingredient used for centuries in the cuisine of Southeast Asia. These flowers are indeed experiencing a moment of great rediscovery in Asia and they are making their appearance also in European kitchens, in particular in those of the United Kingdom. Banana flowers, also called mocha or hearts or banana buds, grow at the ends of the banana heads, have a deep purple color, a teardrop shape reminiscent of artichokes and a slightly bitter taste reminiscent of bitter courgettes or, indeed, artichokes. The external flower is crunchy, ideal to eat raw in exotic spicy salads, while the inner part, softer and more crumbly, remembers the consistency of the fish and is therefore perfect for appetizers or second vegan dishes. From a nutritional point of view the banana flower is not particularly proteinic, a factor to keep in mind if one wants to integrate it into a vegan or vegetarian diet, but it represents a rich source of fibers food and vitamins A, C and E.

Banana blossom mania: uses in the kitchen and recipes

This versatile, relatively inexpensive and delicious vegetable food is therefore used in a wide variety of dishes, from gourmet recipes to fast and tasty preparations, perfect for street food. In the raw version the banana flower is particularly known in Thailand, where it is used for a exotic pinzimonio accompanied by a creamy and citrusy sauce made from coconut milk, or inside rich salads which the yum hua plee, a spicy salad with raw banana flowers cut into thin slices. The heart can instead be boiled, grilled, stewed or fried, and therefore used in the most disparate recipes, from first courses with noodle or rice to rich soups, to exotic second courses as a meat or fish substitute.

For original vegan preparations you can for example take inspiration from delicious indian curry, perhaps to combine with potatoes or legumes, or, avoiding the ingredients of animal origin, from the Philippine stew kare kare, a recipe based on vegetables such as green beans and Chinese cabbage and seasoned with a delicious sauce made with ground peanuts and various aromas. Thanks to the fibrous consistency of the inside of the banana flower, it is also possible to chop this ingredient and use it in pancakes, as they do in South India and Sri Lanka, or for originals spicy vegan kofta.
In Europe, banana flowers are very popular also in fried version, often marinated in kombu and samphire seaweed so as to have a taste similar to that of fish. Very popular, for example, in England on fish and chips vegan of the Sutton and Sons chip shop in London.

Photo: Banana flowers superfood_Wikimedia_Takeaway.jpg
Photo: Banana flower salad superfood_Flickr_uhwestoahu.jpg
Photo: chote chitr recipe with flowers of banana_Flickr_goodiesfirst.jpg

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The ultimate cry in the kitchen? A flower on the plate – Italian Cuisine

With spring the desire for nature, color, light-heartedness and well-being blossoms. In the wake of this trend, floriculture and agriculture seem to have recently found a meeting point in conceiving flowers as a kind of new vegetable.
THE edible flowers they appear as a food novelty that satisfies new tastes, embellishes a dish and makes the taste buds dance.
This is how the flowers appear on the tables of starred chefs and not just in the middle of the table.
Salads decorated with edible flowers (more simply called edible) are also offered on supermarket shelves at introductory price. It cannot be taken for granted that the plants that produce these flowers must be organically grown, completely free of pesticides or chemical additives.

What are the flowers that can be eaten? And which is better to stay away from?
Some are suitable to enhance salads, others it is better to put them in soups, others are very sweet, some frizzantini, others are poisonous and therefore? … it is better to know how to recognize them !!!

For this reason it is important that the species used are certified by the producer or that one is fully aware of the flowers collected, we must know them perfectly and know how to classify them with certainty.
Antea is a community project that aims to support the expansion of the market for edible flowers through scientific knowledge and cataloging; on their website you will find the list of 40 flowers declared edible.

It must be said that decorating foods with colorful flowers and then eating them is not a modern-day invention, think that the ancient Romans went mad about roses and filled every banquet with these flowers to then peel off the petals, eat them or put them in wine; they believed that the consumption of flowers stimulated the imagination.

Among the edible species therefore we find the ROSE with a sweet and delicate taste, very fragrant species are often used such as Centifoglia, Bourbon, Damascena. You can make candies, jellies, the syrup jam perhaps to prepare unusual aperitifs.
The flowers of LAVENDER they are blue-violet and are on top of an ear-shaped inflorescence; the aroma is very intense and the flowers, if carefully dried, retain the same taste they had when they were fresh.
Even the VIOLE they are edible, also used above all for sweet preparations; the flowers can be white, pink, lilac or dark purple.
The are highly appreciated NASTURTIUM with its spicy taste reminiscent of the rapanello and the BEGONIA which can have a sweet or bitter taste depending on when it is harvested.

Where can edible flowers be found?
In some supermarkets, in the refrigerated counter of the fruit and vegetable department, there are salads with some edible flowers inside.
Online, the flowers are sold in transparent polyethylene trays, the storage temperature must remain around 2-5 degrees, for this we must turn to experienced producers who are able to market the flowers correctly.
(for edible flowers cut in the tub www.ifioridihortives.it)
in nurseries, petal-like trays of small plants with edible flowers are found more and more frequently.
Own production, the latest trend is to start from the seeds and produce the flowers in your own home for your own recipes, here are born lines of seeds dedicated to flowers for wellness, health and for the kitchen.
Smart garden, there are design appliances in which the seeds are contained in pods like those of the famous coffee and through a hydroponic cultivation, they succeed in accelerating the growth times even intensifying the organoleptic properties.

text and photos by
Raffaella Damonte *
March 2019

* The writer has become so passionate that a few months ago he opened a Floral cooking blog where flowers are the protagonists of the recipes.
The blog aims to true gourmands who want to discover the flavors that our land gives us every day, FIORDICUCINA.COM is made of perfumes, petals and seeds, a place to discover that flowers are not just a nice finishing touch but they can become, with their taste, protagonists of the dish.