As inspired by the nasturtiums on view at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum through Monday.
Nasturtiums were Isabella Stuart Gardner’s favorite flower, or so they say, and by “they” I mean the pros at her eponymous museum in Boston, where they time the blooming of the flowers to hang until her birthday. (The flowers hang through Monday; the birthday is Tuesday.) They are grown in long strands that are trained up the sides and over the ceiling of the Gardner Museum greenhouses. Here is a WBUR story with great photos of the process.
They are grown in pots that appear impossibly small for the extensiveness of the vines, and the bases of those vines look impossible thin. Ten people parade them into the museum and up the stairs to drape them over the balconies of the museum courtyard, hanging them three stories to the arches that surround the garden. They are delicate. They are mighty. They are vibrant. They are remarkable. If you have a chance to see them, really, do it. There are year-round flowers-as-art installations in the courtyard of the Gardner, but for the nasturtiums they pull out all the stops – each and every one.
Nasturtiums are edible, and popular, as you might have noticed, in fancy salads. La dee dah. There are lots of flowers that are edible, many easy to come by in our climate.
Gonna start with this disclaimer, or whatever: Never eat a flower unless you know it is safe. I guess that is a pretty good rule of thumb, generally. We all grow up with the one not to eat a mushroom you cannot be sure of. Don’t eat rocks. You probably do not want to go picking every berry off every bush you walk by. Ditto blossoms. The Internet fairies want to keep you safe; just check with them – a recognizable, good source, not AI – if you are not sure.
In the same vein of keeping you safe, please do not eat flowers that come from big box nurseries or florists. Home Depot flowers = bad. Odds are, they were grown using chemicals that will make you feel icky at best. Also not a great idea to eat flowers you find by highways, railroads, etc., cuz yuck.
Scared you yet? I’m gonna roll it all back. Here are my favorite safe edibles for you to enjoy!
Nasturtiums. As mentioned, these are A-okay. They brighten up a salad and make a lovely garnish on dessert plates. They have a slightly peppery taste, very mild. Their leaves are edible too, and far more peppery, with a little sour edge. They are great in pesto, as a cute canape wrap or tossed into a mixed green salad.
Arugula flowers. Members of the cruciferous family (genus brassiccae) are plants that flower in the shape of a cross, hence the name. I am a really big fan of arugula, generally, and I love its tiny white flowers. Again, peppery and very flavorful as well as pretty. When your arugula bolts, revel in the possibilities!
Garlic buds. As you would expect, the buds of these alliums have a garlicky kick, but not like the pungent bulbs. Buds are the bulby-pointy bits at the ends of garlic scapes, which are the long, curly stems put up by the plant. Growers cut them to prevent the plant from putting energy into making flowers bloom, which forces the energy down into filling out the cloves of the bulb. I love garlic scapes so much I have one tattooed on my arm, but for the longest time I cut the buds off because I somehow got it into my head that they were not edible. I was very wrong. Lesson learned. My favorite way to cook scapes is to toss them in olive oil with salt and grill them. Like asparagus. In fact, they go well together.
Chive flowers. Another allium and pretty terrific. These taste like chives (shocking!) and are wonderfully purple and spikey. You can leave them whole or break them apart to scatter, whimsically, over a salad or plate.
Obviously this could go on forever, with a shoutout to rose petals, marigolds, pansies, basil flowers and thyme flowers. Pea flowers will turn your drinks fun colors, and seem to be appearing all over bar menus this spring.
I’ll wrap us up with the most cookable of the edible flower kingdom, the zucchini flower. These big floppy petals are just yearning to be stuffed and dipped in batter, then fried. If you do not have the patience for that, they are delicious simply sautéed in a pan.
If you do have the patience, this is a great opportunity to turn you on to a simple, and common, breading system. The idea is to use a dry coat of flour, seasoned a bit with stuff such as oregano, garlic powder, salt and/or paprika. Dredge (which means toss around to cover) the food item (in this case a squash flower, stuffed or not) in the flour, then cover it with a wet coat of well-beaten egg, and finish with a dry coat of flour or breadcrumbs before frying. This makes a really good coating for fried things in general, including chicken. Hot tip, use a different hand to do the part before the egg and the part after the egg. The eggy hand will get all goopy, and it is good to have a dry hand, too.
I really liked how Michael Symon of The Food Network explains the whole flower stuffing and frying thing, so I will turn you over to this video and wish you a happy spring full of delicious, flowery things.
Send cooking questions to JJ Gonson, a personal chef at Cuisine en Locale, at jjgonson@csindie.com.
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