May Bouquet

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This is my month for experimentation. So, I went floral for a change. (Starter, Rcp# 89).

Recipe by Mag (Author’s Info)

Ingredients for ‘May Bouquet’

Flowery Sauce:

  • Step One:
    • 1 tablespoon dried rose leaves, or 10 small rosebuds (e.g., from a tea store)
    • 1 tablespoon dried raspberry leaves
    • 1 ½ tablespoons red pepper corns
    • 1 teaspoon dried elderberry blossoms
    • ½ teaspoon dried and cut lemon grass
    • 500 ml hot water
    • You will also need: 2 large paper tea bags, each for preparing a pot of tea, and a sauce pan that holds 2 liters.
  • Step Two:
    • 2 teaspoons of corn starch, tapioca powder, or a gluten-free flour (ours is made from millet, corn, and rice).
    • 4 tablespoons cold water
    • 4 tablespoons apple pulp (strained, thick applesauce without additives).
    • 1-2 tablespoons mango purée or sauce (like the thick mango sauce used for Indian or Ayurveda dishes).
    • Freshly ground nutmeg
    • 1 tablespoon agave syrup
    • 2 tablespoons coconut yogurt
    • 1 tablespoon oat yogurt

Please note: The flowery sauce needs about 2 ½ hours, including 2 hours soaking, so please start with the sauce 1 ½ hours before preparing the rest.

Triple Grain Scoops:

  • 60g buckwheat (equals about 1/3 of a standard 250 ml cup).
  • 60g black rice (equals about 1/3 of a standard 250 ml cup; as an alternative, you can use an unpolished dark rice that has a cooking time of about 30 minutes).
  • 250ml homemade broth (see recipes for “Any Broth” or “Vegetable Broth”)
  • 250 ml water
  • 1 flat teaspoon mild salt (make it a ¾ teaspoon if you do not like salty)
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley (fresh, frozen, or dried)
  • ½ tablespoon finely chopped basil (fresh, frozen, or dried)
  • 120-130g of Hoppidge (that is about a standard 250 ml cup full, which equals 1/6 of a recipe).
  • You might also need forms (like cookie forms) to cut out elements for your bouquet. We used 2 different sizes of heart shapes and made petals from each cut-out by halving.

Petals, Leaves, and Stems:

  • 2 small zucchini, about 150g each
  • 250g green asparagus
  • 250g strawberries, preferably medium to large ones
  • Canola oil (for frying).
  • You will also need a medium sized pan for frying.

Optional:

  • 200 g of a salty protein source (grilled cheese works well here, like Halloumi, or just plain feta – plant-based or from goat and sheep milk)

Preparations for ‘May Bouquet’

  1. Flowery Sauce:
    1. Place rose leaves and crumbled raspberry leaves in one large tea bag, and lemon grass plus dried elderberry blossoms in the other. Put the bags into the sauce pan, making sure they are closed and safely positioned on the side so nothing falls out. Add the red pepper corns as well.
    2. Use an electric kettle to heat up the water, and pour it over the contents in the pot to make a tea. Heat up the pot and bring everything to a brief boil (3 minutes, low bubbling), then turn down the heat and let simmer low for 10 minutes.
    3. Turn off the heat completely and cover the liquid, the tea, in the sauce pan with a colander to prevent insects from raiding it (smells lovely!). Then, let the tea soak for 2 hours (at least) or until it has cooled down to lukewarm.
    4. After you have prepared the zucchini and the asparagus (see below), plus the 2 hour soaking time is over, take out the tea bags and run the liquid through a sieve.
    5. Reheat the pure tea in the sauce pan slowly on the stove.
    6. Meanwhile, put the starch or flour into a separate bowl with 4 tablespoons water. Stir the mixture until all flour has dissolved. After the tea has been brought to a boil, turn down the heat, and stir the flour-water mixture into the tea. Turn off the heat completely after the sauce starts to thicken noticeably. You know: The standard thickening process for a sauce.
    7. Now add apple pulp, mango purée, freshly ground nutmeg, and agave syrup. Let cool down for 2 or 3 more minutes before you add coconut and oat yogurt. Stir carefully until all yogurt has dissolved.
  1. Triple Grain Scoops:
    1. Wash the buckwheat and run it through a sieve. Also, wash the rice if it needs that (see instructions on package).
    2. After you have drained the water, unite buckwheat and rice in a medium sized sauce pan (capacity: 2 ½ – 3 liters). Add the broth, water, and salt from the ingredient list for the grain scoops, and bring everything to a boil.
    3. Turn down, and let simmer on low until almost all liquid has evaporated (just a thin liquid film left on top). Then, turn off the heat and let buckwheat and rice soak up the rest of the liquid. Careful, you need to keep an eye on this one and turn it frequently, or it will burn.
    4. Here is where you start with the preparations for the petals and leaves while the grains cool in the pot (see below).
    5. After the buckwheat and the rice have cooled down to hand warm (that means, you can handle them safely without burning yourself), unite them with the Hoppidge from the fridge, plus the chopped basil and parsley. Knead together to form a dough.
  1. Petals, Leaves and Stems:
    1. Wash the asparagus and cut off the hard ends. (Keep the cut off ends for making asparagus soup later!). Wash the zucchini and cut off both ends. Then wash the strawberries and remove the green.
    2. Cut off the peel of the zucchini into long stripes, which must be thick enough (3-5 mm) to be fried in a pan. Slice the zucchini cores (thickness about 5-7 mm). Set aside both peel and sliced cores of the zucchinis separately.
    3. Heat up a medium sized frying pan with 2 tablespoons of canola oil. Carefully fry the green peel of the zucchinis. Start with dark green outside of the peel, then flip to brown the lighter side a little. Set aside on a plate after the zucchini parts are done and cover to keep warm.
    4. Now, fry the sliced zucchini cores. Also, set aside and keep covered.
    5. Lastly, fry the asparagus carefully after you have added another 2 tablespoons of canola oil to the pan. Set aside and keep warm (covered) as well.
  1. Protein Source (optional):
    1. Cut the protein source into slices and fry them if you want them fried, or leave them plain (like feta). If they got fried, keep them warm (covered).
  1. For each serving or plate:
    1. Assemble the dish by turning the green asparagus, as well as the zucchini peel strips, into stems and green of a flower bouquet.
    2. Lavishly arrange strawberry and zucchini slices as flower petals at the top end of the asparagus spears.
    3. Also, add the grain scoops to form buds or large flowers in the back and on the side.
    4. Finally, let the sauce flow into your artwork from the side, so it can fill up the spaces “behind” the flower bunch. Apply just as much sauce to each corner of the picture(s), that the arrangement will not start to float. Also, you will need to divide the full amount into little rations of sauce ahead, according to the number of servings you are preparing. Don’t worry, the sauce is plenty, and it is very intensive in taste.
    5. Add the salty protein source (like Halloumi slices) as another decorative element, or just put it in small pieces around the picture like a frame.

The whole dish makes about 3-5 servings for a starter. That is, what it’s originally meant as: A welcome dish for guests. As another option, you can put it all on a large platter, with the sauce carefully applied as a background for the picture. This will get you attention at a party as bring along food. But, of course, you can turn it into a romantic dinner dish for two with a nice dessert as well … 😉

Side Notes:

  • About the fancy ingredients for the flowery sauce: Don’t worry, you will need them again in summer. We will make some really tasty summer drinks with them. Also, the dried raspberry leaves are a secret ingredient for making a broth that has a special depth. Just add them to the herbs in the [AnyBroth] recipe at the beginning.
  • I had a marvelous assistant on this one! Both for the cooking and the photo session. Thank you, my love.
  • You have probably realized by now that I am not much for fancy photos – normally. Which has not changed. For one, usually, the photo taking lets the food get cold, or you have to eat before making the dishes so you will not raid the half finished work, because you are completely famished. Both is something that I find very inconvenient. I know, it is kind of selfish, because I am leaving you to wonder, if you got it right. But then, you know by now, as well, that to me, there is no perfect result. It’s always about “the journey”. I love to explore, and I am making sure the things work from the recipe by multiple testing. If I am not sure, I ask friends to help me with the testing. Because, yes, all the recipes on this blog are my creations. Unless my friends come up with something very cool of their own they would like to share. Like Dawn, for example. She has been there right from the start (see Author’s Info). And been my inspiration in many ways. So, this could be a bouquet for you, dear friend. 🙂

Please note: For all my recipes (text) on this blog (By MagS, Parsley-Lane Blog) I grant a CC license under the terms of BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further explanations, please see the Legal Notice or visit creativecommons.org.