Braised Sunflowers

by April Paffrath

 
Siena Farms grows beautiful sunflowers. They are impeccable (like their produce) and intensely golden, just like you would imagine they should be. Somehow they look even brighter in huge groupings, like gigantic bouquets sitting in big buckets instead of vases.

Recently, I went to an event at Erbaluce Boston and chef Charles Draghi presented a buffet of meats, veggies and more with a bagna cauda. Included in the veggie line-up were some sunflower heads. For real. I was shocked. It's so rare that I eat something that I've *never* had before, much less something I didn't know was in the realm of possible dinner options. It was almost emotionally thrilling.

The sunflower heads looked like artichoke hearts, and tasted not too far off, either. They have that familiar tangy hit that's a tad bitter followed by the sweet sweep at the end. The sunflower, though, is less harsh and more sweet. The texture and color are very similar to artichoke, but not exactly the same. You need to try them to find out the difference.

Ever since that event, I have wanted to make sunflowers in my own kitchen. Luckily, How2Heroes posted a great video of Charles Draghi making sunflower heads (watch it below), this time filled with a ricotta herb mixture. On my next visit to Siena Farms in Sudbury—I like to go there, even though I get the CSA box, to pick up extras and see what's not making it into the box—I chatted with Trevor about the giant yellow flowers.

You want to make sure that flowers you choose to include on your plate are free from pesticides and other treatments that might not be safe for consumption. (You even have to take care with any organic treatments because "organic" does not equal "edible" in all cases.) Flowers often get different treatments if they aren't considered a food crop, so you need to ask. I asked Trevor just to be sure, even though I know Siena Farms is organic and was likely supplying food-grade sunflowers to restaurants (they are). You just need to be safe when you're dealing with chemicals and dinner. He loaded me up with a bagful of sunflowers, several of them past their bouquet prime, but perfect for dinner because they were tender and fully ripe.

I watched the video and decided to follow it pretty closely, but with a couple of tweaks….as always.

When you look at a pile of golden sunflower heads, it's hard to know where to start. I picked off the petals and trimmed around the outside edge, removing the green sepals of the calyx (the green petal-like leaves that are underneath the petals), and exposing the pith of the flower head. Next, I turned the flowerhead on edge and trimmed off the yellow face of the flower. I learned through a few practice passes that it's easy to cut too deep or too shallow. You want to remove the yellow face and be left with the pithy meat. Don't take off too much, just remove the yellow. Finally, trim off the stem that you've used as a handle, as well as the green underside of the flower. That can be a little tricky because of its concave sections, but it only took one flower to figure out the best way to go. As I prepped each one until it looked like a giant white, flat artichoke heart, I popped it into acidulated water (water + a bit of lemon juice) to stop oxidation. I went slowly on my first flower head and I noticed some browning by the time I finished, so they all got a lemon juice and water bath while I got the rest of the dish set up.

On the first flower, I trimmed the back before the face, but in doing so, I lost my handle. Oops.

I braised them in olive oil, white wine (Mâcon is what I was drinking, so that was the choice), lemon juice, garlic and herbs. When they were tender after about 40 minutes, I carefully put them in an oven-safe pan and filled them with the ricotta-herb combo. It was a difficult choice to diverge from Draghi's recipe, because it looked so good, but I split the filling in two to try different herbs. One batch was close to the parsley-thyme-basil that he envisioned and the other half was more like an herbes de Provence mix. So, each ricotta batch was a bit different: nutmeg for low flavor notes, and lemon zest for the high notes, and then different herbs for the middle range.

I sprinkled the top of the filling with bread crumbs and let it cook in the oven. It took close to a half hour to get the ricotta hot and the bread crumbs crisp and golden. Draghi suggests a vinaigrette with capers, which we tried on one part, using a caper tapenade (Formaggio was out of my favorite salted capers, so the tapenade was a compromise). I liked it, but I was in the mood for sunnier, rounder flavors. I toasted some pine nuts to sprinkle on top. Instead of vinaigrette, I drizzled a bit of the braising liquid and followed that with a very light drizzle of rosemary honey. Oh my. It was the perfect blend of sweet, toasty, bitter and awesome. To experiment, I drizzled a bit of my homemade basil oil around the plate to set off the basil notes in the braising liquid—just a touch.

Yum.

You can see how the texture is very like artichoke. The flower face feathers a bit as it braises.

Pepper with some of the plucked petals and serve with a salad and a gorgeous dressing. Then, just wish that you had thought to make this earlier in the summer when you'd have an entire season of sunflowers ahead of you, instead of mere weeks.

Check out the How2Hero video to walk you through. Then rush out and get some organic, edible flowers and try it.

Comments

[christine (chefchick on twitter)]

April, this looks so good! And funny coincidence; I was at Siena Farms on Saturday and got the same advice re: braising sunflower "hearts" from Julie. I got a handful to try it with; then I completely forgot to take the "past prime" ones out of the big bouquet I bought! Ah well, I hope the person I gave them to didn't mind ;-) Yours look scrumptious, and you did them just the way I was planning to. Next time...:-) Thanks for sharing -

christine

[Cynthia Graber]

Sounds amazing. I've seen their gorgeous sunflowers at the stand at Copley, and I never would have thought of cooking them! First, I have to find a way to get them home on my bike...