All the flowers you can cook

What do we remember when we think of a flower? It must be a beautiful view of giving a rose to our beloved or a bunch of tuberose saved in a decorative flower vase. While the fragrance makes us intoxicated, we prepare to preserve them in a poetry book or an envelope that we bought for a particular day.

All these are great, but have you ever eaten a flower? Exceptionally cooked, humbly served, and just savoring as a rainy day snack or a homemade dinner? If not, then let us skip the romanticism for flowers aside today and delve into something unique– 

Water Lily

Let's start with our very own national flower. It is a known fact in rural areas that many parts of the water lily are edible. The flowers can be fried with some spiced flour mixture and eaten with or without a plate of steamed rice.

This one is a crunchy snack item. Rather than that, the rhizomes of the flowers can be cooked with much care so that not much outer fiber remains with it.

To prepare it, one has to pee off the corky rind and then cut it into smaller pieces for cooking. 'Chingri shapla' is one of the celebrated recipes prepared from this rhizome or 'danta' in Bengali. 

After frying some small or medium-sized prawns, the flower parts should be cooked in a low flame with regular local spices such as turmeric, chilly powder, and salt to taste.

It would be better if you cooked it in mustard oil for the good smell and authentic taste. Some might like it with a bit of gravy, but this preparation is better without runny gravy to get the best flavor. 

Pumpkin flowers

While reading our high-school textbooks, we all might have come across the poem 'Maa go ora bole' written by Abu Zafar Obaidullah, where the sad mother waits for her son and prepares all his favorite food.

She also mentions pumpkin flowers there. In many of Humayun Ahmed's novels, we find the food item 'Kumro Phool er Bora,' which is fried pumpkin flowers.

This one is also similar to a water lily fritter recipe but can vary from place to place. As Bengalis are all really into cakes and food jammed with oil and spice, this item is a hit in households and has been a childhood favorite of many. 

Banana blossom

This one is also called plantain flowers and 'Kolar mocha' in Bengali. Bananas might just be one of the most enormous and versatile fruits as every other part and phase of its tree and the fruit itself can be another unique food item.

You can just eat all of the parts if you only know how to cook it properly. Just as well, you have to reveal the mysteries of the banana blossoms as they are more layered than ever.

After arranging the inner blossoms, you need to quarter-boil them to get all the bitter taste out of the water and then separate them from the water. After doing so, there can be multiple recipes for the item– cake, curry, or even bhorta (mashed form).

There is no one formula for that, and if you are sure that all the bitter taste is gone, then it is all up to the chef to experiment! Some even fry it first and then make it into a curry to get the best taste!

These are some of the most practiced forms of floral food in Bangladesh, but there are enormous possibilities of having other flowers on board. Well, after a heavy floral lunch or dinner, one can also let themselves get carried away with a cuppa tea of jasmine, hibiscus, or bluebell for some stress relief and a good night's sleep.

Flowers are not only decorative, but these can also be part of our food intake– by enriching the taste and nutrients. All we need to do is expand our imagination and create culinary delights if we have enough passion for it. So, look for some flowers in the vegetable market and go to the kitchen to have a blast! 

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