Question
Sue Baker
Which flowers are edible and which pairs well with fruit desserts?
Answer
You wanna make sure that the flowers that you're going to use are truly edible. Absolutely. I'll tell you a story. My son was married in, um, one of the islands and there was a gar, it was a hike to a garden and people were going to pick the flowers that were going to be used on some of the food platters and so on. And they came back. They didn't get very good directions. And somebody who worked at the resort set, those are all poison. So you don't wanna mess around, you want to chew, you wanna make sure that the flowers that you're using are in fact edible. Now look at these really beautiful flowers here. One of my neighbors has a hydroponic, like it really is almost like a farm stand situation in her home. And I went this morning and picked these beautiful little flowers that look like pansies to me. I also picked some mint because mint goes so nicely with everything. I think I'm gonna put it, um, put some on my parfait. So there I listed a, there's a link to a list of flowers, the edible ones and the ones to watch out for. But even flowers that are deemed edible, we wanna make sure that they haven't been sprayed with pesticides. That's for sure. You just wanna do that. And I know that different edible flowers actually have different flavor profiles. I used to grow Jay lilies, if anybody knows that they have kind of a big-ish flower and the different colors had different flavors. So, you know, take a taste and see what you like. Um, and, and almost all of them pair with fruit desserts depending on what you're doing. Use them as a garnish first. And in fact, let's talk about garnishes for a minute. I think it's not a good idea to add a garnish that has nothing to do with your dessert. For example, if I'm serving a carrot cake, I'm probably not going to, I don't know, carrot cake has carrots. It might have walnuts, it might have pineapple, it might have raisins. I'm not gonna put some chocolate sauce on there or a slice of orange. Keep your garnishes to help people know what's in your dessert. And I think, you know, we eat with our eyes. So garnishes are very important, but you don't have to overdo it. So, you know, at Rancho Lata, which is a spa in de Mexico where I teach, uh, there is a beautiful organic garden right outside of the cooking school. And I was taught that it is very effective. I'm gonna do it on this plate instead of using a whole flower. I watch the chefs there, take the flour apart and just use a small little piece and it's really much prettier, much prettier. So I hope that you have a source, Sue. I mean, I don't have a garden so I can't grow it, but you just check this link for everyone and um, see what you think about edible flowers.
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