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Continuing along the lines of eating what's in my back yard, I found this recipe (actually recipes) for making Candied Violets -- http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Candied-Violets. I chose to use the dip in sugar water approach. Easy.
I have TONS of wild violets in the yard -- some consider them weeds, but I like the flowers! And the leaves are green, so what more would I ask? I don't use chemicals in the yard, so everything back there is up for consideration as food :)
(IMPORTANT NOTE -- these are wild violets, NOT the African violets that you buy at the florist. I believe African violets are poisonous. Here's a post here to help you identify. I think wild violets are pretty edible -- leaves, flowers, etc.)
Flowers collected, rinsed in a collander, and then drying on paper towels --
The recipe called for 'caster sugar,' which evidently is finer than granulated, but not so fine as powdered sugar. I hate to buy special ingredients, so I decided to grind granulated sugar up in my mortar and pestle.
Recipe called for almond extract which I had in the cabinet. It also suggested rosewater would work well, but I did not have that.
I like the licorice taste of anise, so I ground up a few seeds as well as an extra ingredient --
An essential element of any cooking adventure -- this is for the cook, not this recipe :)
Sugar, water, almond extract, and ground anise heating on low on the stove, until the sugar dissoves --
I did not have any tweezers (as the recipe called for) which I would have wanted to use in the kitchen, so I used kitchen tongs to dip the flowers into the sugar solution. Surprisingly, I did not have any wax paper in the cabinet, so I subbed parchment paper. Here are the flowers placed on parchment after being dipped and sprinkled with the 'caster' sugar --
I hate to waste food, so I decided to dump some pecans in the sugar solution. I put it in the fridge to eat later --
Fun little project, and I suspect that if you have young kids, they'd love to help with this!
I have TONS of wild violets in the yard -- some consider them weeds, but I like the flowers! And the leaves are green, so what more would I ask? I don't use chemicals in the yard, so everything back there is up for consideration as food :)
(IMPORTANT NOTE -- these are wild violets, NOT the African violets that you buy at the florist. I believe African violets are poisonous. Here's a post here to help you identify. I think wild violets are pretty edible -- leaves, flowers, etc.)
Flowers collected, rinsed in a collander, and then drying on paper towels --
The recipe called for 'caster sugar,' which evidently is finer than granulated, but not so fine as powdered sugar. I hate to buy special ingredients, so I decided to grind granulated sugar up in my mortar and pestle.
Recipe called for almond extract which I had in the cabinet. It also suggested rosewater would work well, but I did not have that.
I like the licorice taste of anise, so I ground up a few seeds as well as an extra ingredient --
An essential element of any cooking adventure -- this is for the cook, not this recipe :)
Sugar, water, almond extract, and ground anise heating on low on the stove, until the sugar dissoves --
I did not have any tweezers (as the recipe called for) which I would have wanted to use in the kitchen, so I used kitchen tongs to dip the flowers into the sugar solution. Surprisingly, I did not have any wax paper in the cabinet, so I subbed parchment paper. Here are the flowers placed on parchment after being dipped and sprinkled with the 'caster' sugar --
I hate to waste food, so I decided to dump some pecans in the sugar solution. I put it in the fridge to eat later --
So...what did the violets taste like?
They were pretty good -- I mean, it's hard to go wrong with sugar, right? I guess they are sort of Victorian candy. They had a bit of a green taste since they were flowers straight from the yard. But good -- I'd do again if I needed flowers for decoration.Fun little project, and I suspect that if you have young kids, they'd love to help with this!