Jasmine Flavoring; Or, the Joys of the Indian Market

One of the things I love about the SF Bay Area is the large Indian community. I mean, I LOVE Indian food and up there there are restaurants a-plenty. This also means there are a lot of Indian grocery stores...and flowery foods!

On my last trip up north I stopped by a local Indian market near my parents' house. Inside I spied rose ice cream, rose spread (like jam), rose syrup, wild violet syrup from Pakistan (egads, I almost bought this one but I still have most of a bottle of Monin's violet syrup in the fridge!), Turkish Delight (rose and lemon), some spectacular ground rose petal and sugar concoction AND this little bottle of jasmine flavoring.

I exercised a considerable amount of self control when presented with so many pretty and flowery things but I allowed myself this one, as I do not have any jasmine-related items at home. I haven't tried this yet...perhaps a simply little pavlova with rose-flavored meringue topped with jasmine whipped cream would be a good test.

Roses Galore!

On my recent honey- moon, I was happy to come across lots of flower foods. In Greece, on the island of Rhodes, they make a lot of rose products. I brought several home. First, there's Rose Flavored Greek Delight. They are square jelly candies covered in powered sugar. They are incredible. The rose flavor is excellent, the texture is nice and the powered sugar add the perfect finishing touch. Next, there's "Rose Caramels." While I expected them to be rose flavored caramels, they're actually little rose flavored hard candies. Once again, they have a really nice rose flavor. I also got a rose product whose name I don't know. (The writing was all in Greek.) It's basically a really dense rose fudge that comes in a little tub. The flavor is really rosey. I also bought some rose jam which I didn't care for. It was very sweet and it didn't have a strong rose flavor. I prefer the rose jams from France. They also had lots of rose and rose-honey liqueurs which I didn't get since I already have some from France. It Italy, I found some more of the aforementioned rose cookies. I also got some "crema di rosa canina." I was rather disappointed. It tasted more like fruit than roses. Oh well.

Back at home, I was very excited to come across Langford Foods' Petals Shortbread. They come in three flavors: Lemon, Cranberry and Orange. Sadly, I was disappointed. The flowers are really just decorative and do not impart any flower flavor to the shortbread. The shortbread itself was very bland and natural tasting, not rich and buttery as shortbread should be. They also make a bark of grains, granola and petals.


Lastly, while searching the internet for flower foods, I came across Charssi spoon fudge in White Chocolate Rose and Chocolate Lavender. The white chocolate rose was somewhat disappointing. Although it had a nice flavor, I couldn't really taste any rose. The chocolate lavender however was amazing. It has a rich milk chocolate base with a wonderful lavender flavor. You can order them at http://www.charssi.com/.

I found a website for a store in France called that has the most incredible selection of flower foods. They have lots of sweets, such as white chocolate with rose or violet, nougat with rose or violet, flower jelly candies, jams, syrups, liqueurs and many other wonderful things. They also have flower recipes, but they're in French. I have not ordered anything yet (the shipping costs more than the products.) The site is: http://www.confiserieflorian.co.uk/

Parisian Flower Food Update: Violet Jam

Some of the food I brought home from Paris I did not try, having faith (hope) they would taste as good as they looked.

Here's my experience so far...



The violet jam is very good, though not strong in violet flavor. We had it for brunch this morning on homemade french (ha!) toast.

Oatmeal French Toast with Violet Jam and Raspberries

2 large eggs
1/2 c. (soy) milk
1 T. - 1/4 c. 1 minute quick oats
cinnamon to taste
a sprinkle of ground cloves
pinch of sea salt

4 slices whole grain bread
butter/vegetable oil

violet jam
fresh raspberries

Whisk together first 6 ingredients. Add butter or oil to a frying pan and heat on medium. Dip bread, one slice at a time into batter. When butter is melted, add battered bread to pan (depending on your stove, this may be a good time to lower the heat, if it's too hot). Cook until golden, and turn.

Serve with violet jam and raspberries. So easy and so, SO good.

Serves 2-4

{This recipe is still a work in progress, but very good as is; adjust to taste.}