Salt-Pickled Cherry Blossoms

Spring is a season I can spend outside for as long as I possibly can. I do not fare well with winter. It may be that I’ve always left Vancouver in the last few winters for somewhere warm. Building a home in Vancouver has been an on-going project for the last half-decade. But do I love spring. It is a time when the light shines in longer hours, tiny sprouts appear on your slumbering plants and birds chirp louder than they have for the longest time.

I have been enjoying Nancy Singleton’s book — Preserving the Japanese Way. There is always a part of me that feels convicted with my multi-tasking and my need for accomplishment. Perhaps it is in working with, observing and photographing plants that I feel a certain stillness. They are so beautiful in their own way without trying. It is calming to capture.

Pickled cherry blossoms. Ideally, one should look for buds that have not flowered and trees that have not been sprayed or branches. Try asking a friend! I snipped a few branches from a tree in the ally behind my apartment. If you cannot find cherry blossoms, plum or peach will work as well.

Yae-zakura (Double-layer Cherry Blossom) is the recommended variety for preserving. They have the most pungent, flavourful leaves. I will try working with them next.

Cherry blossoms, removed from their salty home after three days.

Salt-Pickled Cherry Blossoms

Ingredients

1. 1 cup of cherry blossom buds (select ones that have yet to flower)

2. Best-quality sea salt

Instructions

• Find a good tree to harvest flowering branches from. A neighbour, a friend, your parent’s back yard. Make sure that they have not been sprayed.

• Rinse the flowers with water, dry with paper towels or set them aside to air dry. Pick the buds off, try not to use full blooms as the petals will fall apart.

• Sprinkle salt to cover the bottom layer of a clean bowl. The amount of salt will depend on the size of your vessel. Carefully layer with cherry blossoms. Top with salt and repeat until the blossoms are fully covered.

• Cover the bowl with a well-sized plate, and add a weight on top. Allow them to cure for a few days or up to a month. The salt will absorb water from the blossoms.

• Remove cherry blossoms from salt. Sprinkle blossoms with salt and store them in an airtight container. Add them as a pickle with rice, or fold them into your onigiri rice cakes. The preserves will keep for a couple of months but the colour will fade over time.

* To use for edible flower cookies — remove salt and soak cherry blossoms in a bowl of water overnight. Lay blossoms to dry on a paper towel before placing them on cookies. This will help reduce the saltiness of the pickle.

A tuna-filled onigiri, topped with salted blossoms.

Flourless Chocolate Brownie With Edible Flowers

This recipe is an update from a favourite. The fudgy-ist and the most satisfying chocolate recipe I have ever had. I have taken these brownies to many a social gathering, now passing them off in packets while social distancing. They never fail to please. I keep a stack handy in the freezer when I have a chocolate craving.

Cherry blossoms are beautiful. They are also edible. I am making Cherry Blossoms Preserves with their buds but making the most out of these fully blossomed buds. I love watching peoples eye’s light up before they take a bite. If you are curious about which flowers are edible, I have a list here. Just make sure they have not been sprayed with chemicals. I source most of mine from my parent’s yard.

Edible Flowers

Nasturcians
Rose
Forget-me-nots
Chive flowers (these smell like onions so use in savoury dishes)
Carnation petals
Pansies
Marigolds

I like my treats to be less sweet and have lowered the 150 grams of brown sugar to 120 grams and 100 grams. It seems to work without breaking the structure of the brownie.

These brownies taste rich, decadent but light without the flour. Please try it and let me know the results. Please also share them.

Flourless Chocolate Brownie With Cherry Blossoms

140g dark chocolate
155g (1/2 c) unsalted butter
120g brown sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
50g (1/2 c) cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
11/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 c walnuts, chopped (substitute any kind of nuts)
Maldon sea salt for garnish (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking pan or sheet with parchment paper.

2. In 15-30 second intervals, melt chocolate and butter in the microwave and stir until smooth. Set aside too cool. Add brown sugar, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla, and eggs. In that order. Mix but do not over-mix. Transfer batter to baking pan or sheet with a spatula. Top with walnuts.

3. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until brownie is set and firm in the center. Time will vary depending on container size. Let sit until cool before cutting into pieces. Top with cherry blossoms, buds, and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt.

These are very delicious eaten cool or slightly warmed. They also keep well in the fridge for up to a week. If they last that long.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

I have an appetite for chives. Chives in boiled dumplings, chives in potstickers; chives chopped, stir-fried and hidden into chive pockets; chives wrapped into steamed buns and strung onto sticks with enoki or chicken skewers from vendors on the streets in Asia; chives fried with egg, dried shrimp, thin slivers of pork and rice noodles grandma would make by the mountain-full. I eat chives for the taste just as much as the love of the memories I have of eating them.

There is something incredibly beautiful about chives blossoms, the tiny bursts of purple on long green stems, the pungent smell and tiny seeds that fall from their pods. I also cherish the fact that I get to harvest a handful of these beauties every year from my dad’s yard — so pretty that I put them in vases for a few days before making a recipe out of them. 

I chuckle to think of the traits I bring from Asian culture into photography —choosing to photograph subjects that are at once tasty, photogenic, accessible and meaningful. It’s almost like someone said, “I created these chive blossoms, make good use of them!” An opportunity one must not pass.

So here is a recipe for chive blossom vinegar. A vinegar that will taste slightly like chives and turn the liquid into a deceivingly shade of rosé. Great for pickling daikon or adding flavour to a salad.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

Ingredients

• A handful of chive blossoms (use blooms that bloomed and have yet gone to seed)
• Vinegar (I used rice vinegar for this one)

Instructions

1. Behead chive blossoms, wash thoroughly with water and pat dry with paper towels.

2. Transfer chive blossoms into a clean jar. Mash slightly with a spoon to release flavour. Top the blossoms with a sprig of chive stem if you like, chopped.

3. Fill to the brim with vinegar.

4. Let sit in a cool dark place for two weeks. Strain the liquid and keep in a sterilized jar for up to 6 months.

* Rice vinegar can be substituted with apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar.

* For a quick pickle, heat the vinegar until it comes to a simmer (do not boil, it will drain the colour from the blossoms), repeat with steps 3 and 4 above. Vinegar will be ready in 3 days.