At Pierrette Nardo, vegetable garden and ornamental garden are one. And for good reason. Pierrette cultivates flowers for the pleasure of the eyes but also for that of the taste buds. We don't know enough about it, but the range of edible flowers is impressive:dahlia, amaranth, lavender, nigella, daisies, mallows, marigolds... Organic flowers, preferably, are eaten for pleasure:how about some a begonia risotto, a nasturtium cream with mussels or a dahlia gratin?
But the flowers also have dietary and medicinal properties:did you know that monarda herbal tea facilitates digestion and helps to pass colds, that peony infusion calms itching and skin irritations, or that the queen of the meadows is appreciated for its anti-inflammatory properties, and that the infusion of hollyhock promotes intestinal transit?
Cooking flowers is therefore not just to "look pretty". In this book Pierrette presents 75 flowers to cook. For each flower:botanical information, cultivation advice, its uses in the kitchen, its dietary and taste properties and any contraindications.
Around these flowers, no less than 80 recipes:a range of impressive and simple recipes that awaken the taste buds:garnished tulips, all-sunflower crackers, hot and cold chicken lucida, fish fillet with elderberry sauce, lemonade with mock orange, apple gratin with sage... Or "tuttiflora":floral butter with nasturtium or borage, ice cubes of petals, tabbouleh with summer flowers, tuttiflora salad... We bet that this book will flourish in all the cuisines of France and Navarre!
(Terre Vivante Editions - March 14, 2011)
Pierrette Nardo inherited a passion for gardening from his mother and a taste for gastronomy from his father. As a teenager, she was interested in medicinal plants and has always had a "love story" with roses. In his experimental garden, there is no difference between a vegetable garden and an ornamental garden. Most of the flowers are grown there to go into the pot or to feed into health/beauty care recipes. Pierrette Nardo has already written several books, appeared on France 3 Limousin in the program "autour de midi" and writes regularly for "La Gazette des jardins" and for "Plantes et santé".
