Hello friends and welcome to the latest edition of Things Posh People Ate in the 90s. This week’s fancy dish comes from the pages of Vogue Entertaining from March 1990. And what could be posher than a salad made of flowers? Or more pretty? This Rose Petal and Nasturtium Leaf Salad would make a lovely addition to a spring or summer lunch.
This would also be a delightful addition to your Christmas dinner table, ideal for a girl’s night or a romantic dinner à deux! The rose petals don’t add a heap of flavour (that comes from the rosewater in the dressing) but the nasturtium leaves are nice and peppery. The pea shoots bring some freshness, the olives some briny bitterness, and some depth to what is otherwise pretty much all sweetness and light. The orange dressing is refreshing and not too sweet.
Also, if like me you do not grow your own roses or nasturtiums, please make sure they come from a reputable source and have not been sprayed with any pesticides or other things you do not want to eat! My petals and leaves came direct from my mum’s garden.
Rose Petal and Nasturtium Leaf Salad – The Recipe
Additions
You could add any (or all) of these to this salad depending on your preference or how big you want your salad to be:
Toasted flaked almonds for some crunch
Goat’s cheese for some creaminess
Wafer thin slices of fennel for crunch and a little hit of aniseed
Serving Suggestions
Vogue Entertaining serves this with a seafood salad with a creamy pesto dressing. Far be it for me to contradict them but pesto can pack a punch of flavours (which s what makes it so delicious) but may overpower the delicate nature of this salad.
I would go with
Chicken – either poached or roasted
A grilled salmon fillet or
Some grilled prawns or scallops
Fun Facts
The article containing the Rose Petal and Nasturtium Leaf Salad was called Culinary Canvas and featured the artist Mary Pinnock.
“I dig cooking with them because they are so available,” she says, reaching through the kitchen window and plucking a handful from a hanging pot.
Mary Pinnock on nasturtium leaves.
I had a quick look online for Mary and you can still buy her artwork for a very reasonable price. This one, featuring nasturtium leaves has a price guide of only $150-250 which is an absolute bargain! If it was actually for sale I might be tempted to buy it myself!
I had a strange week this week which was topped off by an amazing punch inspired by Mary Meredith’s Good Cooking For Everyone.
Her Rosé Wine Cup is by far the prettiest picture in Good Cooking For Everyone. Here is my version:
Retro Rosy Rose Punch
This was lovely – light, refreshing and delicious.
It was a gorgeous pale blush colour and looked and tasted like summer in a glass! And, it had the most amazing rose scent!
But first, here is a brief summary of my week.
#1 Surprise!
The surprise in Mary Meredith’s Apricot Meringue Surprise is macaroni. Yecchhh!
I like to think she got confused. I think she meant to make mac and cheese and apricot meringue pie but had a few too many swigs of the cooking sherry. And you know when you’re a bit tipsy and feeling no pain? “Leave it in, it’ll be alright…”
#2 World Gone Mad
Dear Beauty Parlour
No, I do not want to tweet or post on Facebook the appointment I just made with you.
No one else is remotely interested in my beauty treatments. I’m only barely interested myself. Please find some other way of advertising your services…I suggest you try advertising.
Rosy Rose Punch 2
#3 Pity The Apricot
Mary Meredith continues to use apricots in bizarre ways. If the macaroni meringue surprise wasn’t enough, look at her salad platter.
You may think, given her fondness for them (as previously discussed here) that the items on the platter between the apricots are grilled bananas. It would possibly be an improvement if they were. Those babies? Kippers
Yes, kippers. As in smoked herrings that will make your house reek for a week if you ever cook them. And if that combination wasn’t had enough on its own, you could smear your kipper and apricot delight with some apricot jam mayo.
Apricots, what did you do to Mary Meredith to make her hate you so?
Salad Platter à la Mary Meredith
#4 The Place Beyond The Bus Stop
Dear State Government
If you truly want to reduce the road toll, you might want to reconsider allowing people to put posters like this on bus stops without warning local residents. It’s nigh on impossible to keep your eyes focussed on the road ahead with this looming up on your left. (Believe me, I have tested this many, many times over the last few days and I’m pretty sure it can’t be done.)
P.S. I am by no means suggesting you remove the poster. A strategically placed traffic light would suffice. One that stays red for a while.
Local Traffic Hazard 😉
#5 I’m on a mission
A search of my cupboards revealed I don’t own a punch bowl. Look out Ebay, I’m coming for you!
Here is Mary Meredith’s version of the Rosé Wine Cup. So pretty!
Rosé Wine Cup by Mary Meredith
#6 Bubbles
We celebrated my new job with some lovely bubbles.
Good thing really, to fill my time I’d started writing crackpot letters to local businesses.
#7 Rose Petal Ice Cubes: Trickier Than You Would Think
One of the things that made the Rosé Wine Cup recipe so appealing to me was the rose petal ice cubes. However, there were no instructions on how to make them.
I tried to make these three times.
The first time I used rose petals from my garden but they were too big to fit into my teeny ice-cube trays.
I then stole commandeered some smaller roses from my neighbour…I don’t think he’ll miss them….
The problem, even with the smaller petals, is that rose petals float.
You may think these photos look lovely and serene. The reality was me poking petals back into the water shrieking “Sink, you utter bastards, damn you sink” at them.
Rose Petals for ice-cubes
The only way I found to do it was to put the rose petals into the ice-cube trays and fill half way with water. Once that was frozen and the floaty little fuckers were anchored in a block of ice, I could then fill to completely cover them.
Who knew ice-cubes could be so tricky?
I used boiling water to fill my ice-cube trays and some of the colour leached from the already pale petals. I would probably use a darker coloured petal next time to have more contrast. Or just not use boiling water! Bu then again, maybe the hot water released the oils that gave this the glorious scent….
Rose Petal Icecubes
#8 The Devil Was Missing Some Details
I was very much looking forward to sipping my punch whilst nibbling on some Devilled Chestnuts, recipe courtesy of Mary Meredith’s Good Cooking For Everyone.
I was totally disappointed with these. Even though they looked super cute both in the teeny cases and stabbed onto brightly coloured cocktail sticks the recipe didn’t work. I might experiment a bit and redo them but in the meantime here is a picture of how fun they looked! The big petalled rose is from my garden.
Devilled Chestnuts
#9 The Retro Rosy Rosé Punch
I did not follow the recipe for the Rosé Wine Cup as per the recipe exactly. I was a sickly child and Cherry Brandy reminds me of the vile cough medicine I was constantly given. Proust had Madeleines. My overwhelming scent memory from childhood is Brondecon.
We’d also recently bought a bargain case of some French Passionfruit Lemonade and given that we have bottles of it lying around, I used that instead of plain lemonade.
I used a cheap and cheerful cleanskin rosé and cassis to replace the Cherry Brandy.
Retro Rosy Rosé Punch 2
This was really lovely and something I will definitely make again, it was also light on alcohol so something you could drink all afternoon without getting too messy.
I’m going to spend the week hanging out at the bus stop, have a great one, wherever you spend yours!
