Flower-based cuisine: a fresh, delicious, and healthy way to nourish your body.

Core Tip: As summer begins, flowers start to bloom in a riot of color, and they can also be brought to the dining table. Skillfully using flowers as ingredients brings a fresh, delicious, and healthier taste! This great art of health cultivation also shines brightly in the world of flowers. Ancient China had precedents for using flowers in cuisine, and many flowers have excellent medicinal and edible values. Here, I will introduce a few refreshing floral delicacies that are both delicious and nourishing.

Ingredients: 3 eggs, 50g flour, honey locust flowers, salt, oil.

Method:

1. Remove the stems from the honey locust flowers, wash them, and drain the water.

2. Mix in the flour, salt, and eggs.

3. Let it stand for 5 minutes.

4. Heat a pan with a small amount of oil and pour in the honey locust flower batter.

5. Fry over medium-low heat until the pancake puffs up, flip it, cook until it puffs up again, then remove from the pan.

Now is the perfect time when honey locust flowers are in full bloom, making it ideal to pick and eat them. Honey locust flowers are rich in vitamins and various minerals, and have effects such as clearing heat and detoxifying, cooling the blood and moistening the lungs, lowering blood pressure, and preventing stroke.

Honey Locust Flower Egg Pancake

Jasmine and Tremella Soup

Ingredients: 25g tremella (wood ear mushroom), 24 jasmine flowers.

Method:

1. Soak the tremella in warm water until it expands, pick and clean it, then soak it in cold water.

2. Remove the stems from the jasmine flower buds and wash them.

3. In a pot, add water, tremella, salt, and MSG, and bring to a boil.

4. Finally, sprinkle with jasmine flowers.

Jasmine flowers have the effects of promoting fluid production to moisten the lungs and replenishing Qi and nourishing Yin. They are also effective for conditions like lung-heat cough, dry cough, blood in phlegm, stomach heat, dizziness, tinnitus, irregular menstruation, coronary heart disease, and high blood pressure. This soup, with the combination of jasmine and tremella, is fresh and tender, with a fragrant aroma, and can also nourish Yin and kidneys, clear the lungs and replenish Qi, and soothe the liver and relieve depression.

Jasmine and Rose Tremella Soup

Rose Red Wine Poached Pear

Ingredients: 1 snow pear, about 20 dried rose petals, about 10 dried longan, 300-400ml red wine, salt, brown sugar, Italian balsamic vinegar, a few drops of lemon juice.

Method:

1. Wash the pear, peel it, and cut it into crescent-shaped pieces, not too thin. Rinse the rose petals with a sieve. Shell and wash the dried longan.

2. Place the rose petals and dried longan in a clay pot.

3. Add red wine and pear pieces.

4. Add a pinch of salt, cover, and let it soak for a while (I soaked it for 20-30 minutes).

5. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Uncover, and according to your taste, add an appropriate amount of brown sugar to adjust the sourness and sweetness.

6. Cover the pot, turn off the heat, and let it steep until completely cooled.

7. Remove the pear pieces and arrange them neatly in a container.

8. Uncover the pot, you can see that the color of the rose petals has become very pale, while the liquid has turned a deep red.

9. Strain the liquid into the container (the longan can be kept to eat, but discard the rose petals). Cover and let it cool, then refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

10. The next day, take out the container, and you will see that the pear pieces have expanded slightly, and the liquid has reduced a bit.

11. Remove the pear pieces, drain the juice, and arrange them on a plate. The arrangement is casual.

12. Pour the liquid into a pot, add a few drops of lemon juice, and bring to a boil over high heat.

13. After it boils, add the Italian balsamic vinegar.

14. Continue heating over high heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Cook until the liquid in the pot evaporates and large bubbles form.

15. Drizzle the liquid over the pear pieces and sprinkle with crushed rose petals to serve.

During the Ming Dynasty, Lu He once said in "Shi Wu Ben Cao": "Eating roses is fragrant and sweet, making one feel refreshed." Roses contain various trace elements, and their beautifying effects are well-known. In addition, freshly opened rose buds have the effects of regulating Qi to relieve depression, harmonizing blood to dispel stasis, and treating irregular menstruation.

Rose Red Wine Poached Pear