Cooking with flowers

 One of my favourite websites The Spruce  Eats gives some good tips for Cooking with edible flowers

27 other lovely recipes to use flowers 

1 Fried courgette flowers

2 Dandelion Bread and Butter pudding

3 Zucchini blossom fritters

4 Violet Macaroons

5. Violet and Asparagus risotto

6. Poppy seed spagetti

7. Vegetables spring rolls

8. Smoked Salmon Salad

9. Lavender cupcakes with primrose

10. Honey Lavender ice cream

In my garden I grow:

Flowers

Borage

Calendula

Gladioli

Nasturtiums

Pinks Poppies

Primroses

Rose

Sweet peas

Tulips

Violets

Herbs

Basil

Chives

Dill

Garlic chives

Lavender

rosemary

Wild garlic

Rocket

Trees

Lilac

Some interesting recipes

Vegan 'smoked Salmon' and Saurekraut

 Today we will make 'smoked salmon' and Saurekraut

Minimal ingredients for the smoked salmon

Saurekraut

uses of saurkraut juice

Fried courgette flowers with lavender honey

 Deep-fried courgette flowers are a treat at the best of times, but cooked this way they’re a real luxury

Yotam Ottolenghi’s fried courgette flowers with lavender honey: Go on, treat yourself.

Yotam Ottolenghi

@ottolenghi

Fri 1 Jun 2012 22.59 BST

3

Fried courgette flowers with lavender honey (V)

I am more than happy just dipping courgette flowers in egg, shallow frying them and serving with lemon, but on special occasions I make this luxurious variation. Serves four.

125g soft goat's cheese
30g parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), finely grated
2 tbsp chopped chives
1 tsp chopped thyme
Salt and black pepper
8 female courgette flowers with the baby courgette attached
100g plain flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten
120g panko breadcrumbs
350ml sunflower oil, for frying
About 1 tbsp lavender honey

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Make the filling by stirring together the cheeses, chives, thyme, a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Put a tablespoon in the base of each flower and gently twist the tips of the petals to secure the filling inside.

Prepare three shallow bowls: one with the flour and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, one with the beaten eggs and one with the breadcrumbs and a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Toss each stuffed flower and attached courgette first in the flour, shaking off any excess, then in the egg. Finally coat with breadcrumbs and set aside.

Pour around 350ml oil into a medium, nonstick frying pan (enough to come 1cm up the sides of the pan) and place on a high heat. After two minutes, turn down the heat to medium and, when bubbles start to surface, put the courgettes in the hot oil, a few at a time, adjusting the temperature so they take about a minute on each side to go a nice golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt. Place the hot flowers on a serving plate, drizzle over a little honey and serve at once.

Yacon

 Today in the allotment I noticed that the row of yacon was affected by the frost. The leaves turned from a vibrant green to a shrivelled black. Not long then before we can harvest the yacon!

Here are a few recipe ideas

Raspberry vinegar

 With so much apple cider vinegar and an abundance of raspberries, I made he base for the balsamic vinegar on 3/10 and left it with the raspberries for one month. Today I strained out the berries and was left with a beautifully red vinegar. I added 3/4 sugar to 1 part of vinegar and ended up with 3 lovely bottles of raspberry balsamic vinegar. MMM what a treat for the winter.

Some benefits of raspberry vinegar (without the sugar)

A wonderful festive meal made in no time.

Last week Julie asked when we could make a festive meal. I was not planning to do this quite yet, but seeing the first red pepper and spinach in the allotment made me think of the vegetable loaf we made a few years ago and was put in my first cook book.

The carrots and the potatoes too came in handy as they were roasted whilst the puff pastry loaf was getting ready in the oven.

We made some vegannaise (using aquafaba) which was used in the loaf.

Later the chickpeas and broccoli from the allotment were turned into creamy broccoli and chickpea soup.

This time we had a full house with 8 adults and baby Tomo after the meal we walked to the allotment and harvested some raspberries and beetroot to take home.