Imagine a vibrant burst of red, yellow and orange nasturtium flowers in your kitchen or herb garden.
Peppery and elegant, these fabulous bright blooms add the aesthetics of style and pizzazz as prolific blooms bordering the garden patch, trailing down a hanging basket and clipped to use in culinary creations.
When I owned Canopy Rose Catering, a Tallahassee Florida business that specialized in designing and catering high end events, Nasturtiums were a popular seasonal garnish that added a little bit of wow to delicious presentations.
From Floating Nasturtiums in stemmed goblets of Iced Vichyssoise (an exquisite potato leek bisque) to Herbal Cream Cheese Stuffed Nasturtiums, guests loved the unique spicy taste of these delicate edible flowers.
How To Make Stuffed Nasturtiums
1- 8 ounce package cream cheese
2 Teaspoons fresh chopped herbs
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon green onions, minced
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 cup nuts, chopped
1 to 2 dozen nasturtium blossoms, gently washed and dried
1. Soften the cream cheese at room temperature.
2. Combine cream cheese and mayonnaise.
3. Combine and blend mayonnaise and cream cheese.
4. Serve as a dip with crisp bacon, crumbled tortilla chips and potato chips.
For the recipe to make stuffed nasturtium flowers, you will need a quill or a rolled up pastry sheet. Both are readily available in most supermarkets.
Combine the cream cheese and mayonnaise in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
Combine the greens with the cream cheese. Add the seasoning.
Using your hands, form the spinach leaves into a roughly oval shape.
Using a 12 inch pastry sheet, brush the nasturtium flowers with the cream cheese mixture.
Spoon the stuffed cream cheese and nasturtium flowers onto the pastry sheet.
Certified Elegant Dinners
exquisite formal dinners are complimented with impressive dessert works of art. The perfect confections to highlight the palate are:
Mushroom Marmalade with Pecan Crème
procure cracked black peppercorn mushrooms, trim stems and trim bark to create a silky smooth and refined mousse. Set this mixture aside.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and place the rabbit, skinned, into the boiling water. Remove the skin and stone while cooking.
Dry off any excess water and cut a zesty slice of lemon in half. Cut a heart out of the center, and this will be the lectionary flower. This can be set over a cake pan with a cake plate.
Don’t forget to cut off the wings and tail before you carve.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a pan, and this mixture is really hot. Fry the rabbit meat for approximately five minutes.
Take it out and place it over the lectionary flower. This is the part of the dish that is most eaten. Fry the other parts too, including the sweet potatoes and the onions.
This dish is very rich because it is heavy with cheese and has some wine mixed in. The rabbit is such a tender piece of meat that most people could not tell the difference between rabbit and fish.
Rabbit Filled Pastries
Ingredients
1 rabbit
1/2 lb. carrots
1/2 lb. celery
1/2 lb. and penny apples
1/2 cup carrots
1 cup turnips
1/2 cup fresh parsley
Unless you have a tolerance to parsley, which should not be a problem, you should probably avoid this dish.
Directions
Thaw the parsley and remove the core. Cut the leek into four pieces. Make sure you have a couple of these in reserve. Cook the rabbit with the parsley, boiling until the parsley softens. Take out of the water and squeeze the soft green leek. Make a bowl out of the soft green leek, and use the meat to scoop up the meaty, creamy sauce.
gravy:
Saute the carrots and onions in the butter in a heavy pan. Add the ham, chicken and crumbled rabbit, and reduce until the chicken is done. You can make this with the remaining parts of the leek.
Dessert:
Panera Bread Bake offers a dairy free cream cheese frosting that is absolutely delicious. Cupcakes also go well with this recipe. Cupcakes make a nourishing end to the meal.
