Last week Curtis Duffy of Avenues challenged John des Rosiers of Inovasi to come up with a recipe using geraniums. Des Rosiers tweeted his response: “Geraniums in december? @curtisduffy you’re an ass! No worries. Found a blooming plant at the dry cleaners across from inovasi! It’s on!!”
It’s actually more common for the plant’s leaves to be used, usually to flavor sweets such as cakes, jellies, ice cream, and lemonade. Des Rosiers took the complete opposite tack, making pesto with the flowers and using it as part of a composed savory dish.
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As he tossed sauces onto the paper and added two portions of squash, cod, and artichokes at opposite ends, he mused, “I like this. Sometimes things for the restaurant start like this. This is a great dish for two.”
Phillip Foss of Meatyballs Mobile, a food truck that serves meatball sandwiches, using freeze-dried saffron. Foss participated early in the launch of this feature, so des Rosiers didn’t get to pick him. But “the funny thing is that I would have picked Phillip next,” he says. He thinks Foss got off too easy, though: “I would not have picked freeze-dried saffron. I would have done . . . some weird bird’s ball from Indonesia or something.”
2 c water
2 3-oz pieces Alaskan black cod
