Sunday, May 01, 2011

M'aidez, M'aidez!

I am smacked on so many levels by this May Day salad.
It's the epitome of spring. It's pretty. It's surprisingly filling. And, pardon me, but it's rather original.
Ingredients (but no recipe): Fresh rose petals. Fresh parsley leaves. Fresh sorrel leaves, slightly chopped to match the size of the roses. Peas, cooked only al dente. Mandolined fennel bulb. Minced chives, and some of their pretty little blossoms.
The dressing was just backyard lemon juice with local olive oil, transformed slightly (and perhaps unnecessarily) by a few drops of pomegranate syrup. Salt and white pepper.
We have a stupid rose bush in the back yard, installed by the rube who "remodeled" his parents' old mid-century house and sold it to us. He had little taste, though the bathrooms look OK. The rose is a hybrid, meaning it has no fragrance. (I disagree with this official description of hybrid roses only a little; I think it smells like a rose, but not like rose perfume.)
I had a small bite of a rose petal yesterday, and bingo.
Cranky was only a TINY bit hard to sell on this. (Why? Too girly?) But I thought the petals tasted like food, and that's what I used them for.
It was a solid hit!
My birthday is tomorrow.

20 comments:

cookiecrumb said...

I NEED A FASCINATOR

Greg said...

That sounds the essence of spring. Rose petals...edgy-decadent. Happy May Day.

Nancy Ewart said...

Let me wish you a happy birthday early. I usually miss the day so this is a first for me. I should have guessed that you are a Taurus.

Ms Brown Mouse said...

You DO need a fascinator darling, you'd look divine!
Rose petals, I've only ever tried them as a sweet thing, I am intrigued.

cookiecrumb said...

Greg: No, not hardly decadent! Edgy, yes.

Nancy: right, you are a zodiac-ist. Heh. I'm just a stubborn old bull.

Mouse: It was really nice, but nothing overwhelming, to eat unrosy rose petals. Recommended. Not rosy.

Nancy Ewart said...

I had a salad once which was made of all kinds of flower petals. It was from an organic garden because it's important not to have any lethal pesticide residue on the petals. I can't remember the dressing but it was something quite light but tangy. I thought that the salad was delicious but not something I would make since I don't have a flower garden. Also
Flower petals decorate all sorts of high end Indian Dishes along with thin sheets of gold.
Now, if you had added some gold or silver, I would have been impressed.

SimplyStated said...

Ah the sweet smell of spring...we just had a typical "Springtime in the Rockies" late season snow storm blow through Colorado last night along with freeze warnings tonite then back to fire warnings later in the week. We get it all this year.

All that lovely salad needs is a mimosa followed by fresh baked blueberry and oatmeal muffins.

The salad is a great prelude to your Happy Day tomorrow. Enjoy it fully!

SimplyStated said...

CookieCrumb,,,I think you just got handed a beautiful birthday gift...They got Osama Bin Laden.

Kris said...

That looks lovely! Perfect match to this spring weather which has finally graced us (though it means I, erm the SO, needs to mow our lawn).
Happiest of Birthdays!

Ms Brown Mouse said...

Today I ate rosepetals, in a biscuit - it was like eating crunchy, buttery perfume, only in a good way :)

Zoomie said...

I plucked a few petals from a neighbor's climbing rose when I walked the dog last night, just to try 'em. Pale pink. Quite surprisingly tangy, not at all what I expected from pale pink.

cookiecrumb said...

Nancy: I think you really could eat a whole plate of flowers, if they tasted fine. It's just like lettuce!

Mouse: I thought of a quick and inexpensive fascinator -- a rose!

Little Pots: It really was sort of a tonic, an elixir. Can we get this spring thing on? (My SO mows the lawn with a weed whacker. The whole, little lawn. Like a bad haircut.)

Mouse and Zoomie: Well, look at that! You both ate roses in my honor. (Those biscuits are beautiful.)

cookiecrumb said...

OMG, WTF?

meg said...

Yum. And it's amazing, isn't it? Flowers really do taste like food...velvet food. Once I surprised myself by eating a daylily--not quite sweet, not quite vegetal, not quite crisp. I guess flowers are just food in flux.

cookiecrumb said...

Meg: Yeah! That was my most amazing discovery; they do taste like food. Velvety food, well put, gonna keep experimenting. (This so beyond the decorative flowers of 1980's Chez Panisse eating.)

cookiecrumb said...

Simply: OMG.

Zoomie said...

And, by the way, Birthday Girl, you don't need a fascinator, you _are_ a fascinator! XO

cookiecrumb said...

Zoomie: Fascinating at 61, no. *thanksblush*

Denise | Chez Danisse said...

Beautiful. Happy (belated) Birthday!

cookiecrumb said...

Denise: It was a kind of success. Now it makes me glad the roses are hybrid instead of perfumey.
Hey, thanks! Eee!