Once solely used by experts who incorporate them in dishes at high-end restaurants, flowers are becoming a part of a growing number of Toronto foodies’ meals.
Two summers ago, Steffan Howard was driving through the Beach when a colourful sight made him stop the car.a garden full of orange day lilies. “I did a U-turn and parked beside the flowers to get a closer look,” says Howard. “They were tall, probably about four feet. There were well over 300 in the yard. I had never seen such a huge batch of lilies in the city before.”
Refusing Howard’s offers to purchase some bulbs, the woman – who introduced herself as Janice – invited him to help himself, although she did accept a dozen fresh-picked apples in trade. People who are close to their food have cooked with flowers for years, says culinary arts teacher and former restaurateur Andrew Mavor. “Gardeners often utilize things like blossoms that might not otherwise find their way to the plate.
A forager with the Mycological Society of Toronto, Mavor has picked wild edibles like rose and elderflower, as well as flowering plants like wild onion and garlic. “There are many more edible flowers than one would think,” says Mavor, who has used them in many different cooking techniques over the years.
“Some flowers have a very neutral taste, while others are so flavourful that you have to be careful not to overdo it,” Howard says. “A rose tastes as you would imagine: very fragrant, gently sweet, like berries or green apples. The darker the rose, the more intense the flavour.” While flowers may seem daunting at first, they’re easy to incorporate into foods. “Use them as a garnish on top of dishes,” says Ida Pusateri, owner of Pusateri’s. She suggests wielding elongated tweezers to position petals delicately and strategically and using flowers to add colour to salads, carafes and punch bowls. Petals can also be frozen into ice cubes, candied and used to decorate pastries.
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