Fleur de capucine

My first experience with capucine, or Nasturtium in English, was in La Rochelle at a foster family's. It was end of summer 2003 and there were loads of this plant's flowers and seeds on the flower bed. Micheline (the hostess) showed me that the roughly grounded seeds of this plant can be added to salad giving it a rather peppery taste. The flowers, even better, have a sweet and peppery taste, something which not many people explored (whichever types of flowers) in their salad...

Chinese Jasmine omelette

When I was a child, we used to have this creeping plant with heart-shaped leaves in our garden and my grandma used to make a simple egg soup with its fragrant flowers. The Cantonese call this flower Yeh Loi Heong, meaning fragrance of the night and it is a very easy plant to grow. Unfortunately, this plant is hardly seen this day and a chance upon it in the farmers' market is always a great pleasure.

To make an omelette:
4 eggs, beaten
1 clove of garlic
salt and a touch of pepper to taste


Normally, I would use bacon or lard to flavour omelettes but this delicate flower will not work with the strong aroma of the bacon fat.


Rinse the flowers well under running water, removing the stems and old, stale flowers. Set aside. Drizzle oil over a heated frying pan, put in the garlic and stir until fragrant. Add the flowers, stir fry for a minute or two and add the beaten eggs. If you like, you may add a swirl of fresh cream just before the eggs set. Serve hot.

Beignets de crevettes au parfum de la Provence

This recipe has been adapted from a provençal biscuit!

 The recipe (for 1 kg of prawns, medium sized)

2 eggs

1 cup of flour

1 can of cold beer

a pinch of salt

2 tablespoons of dried lavender flowers (the type used for infusions)

1 teaspoon of paprika powder

Peel and clean the prawns but keep the tail. Marinate with 2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier and a pinch of salt. Reserve.

Mix all the ingredients to make a frying batter. Heat oil in a deep casserole for frying (or any frying contraptions you might have in your kitchen). Dip the prawns individually in the batter and slide them into the hot oil to fry, holding the tail. Drain and serve hot. You won't believe the wonderful marriage of lavender scent and fried prawn beignets!