INGREDIENTS
For cooking
4 red beetroots
4 yellow beetroots
4 white beetroots
4 elongated beetroots
1 cauliflower floret
4 Swiss chard leaves and stems
4 small onions
4 young leeks
4 mini fennel
4 mini orange carrots
4 mini blue carrots
4 romanesco florets
4 blue cauliflower florets
4 broccoli stems
4 mini round black radishes
100 gr salted butter
Sea salt
For decoration
4 sprigs bronze fennel
4 sprigs Romano chervil
4 red sorrel
4 pointed sorrel
4 purple radishes
4 red radishes
4 red marigold flowers
4 yellow marigold flowers
4 orange marigold flowers
4 asparagus flowers
4 white borage flowers
4 blue borage flowers
4 nasturtium flowers
4 nasturtium leaves
4 fennel flowers
4 bergamot flowers
4 mint apricot flowers
1 calendula flower
100 ml olive oil
50 ml Chardonnay vinegar
Sea salt
PREPARATION AND SERVING
This dish affords a real insight into the flavours offered by our vegetable garden. My aim is that the dish should be as complex in sensations as those we receive in the open air. It is therefore important to eat each ingredient separately. That is, the finer and lighter the ingredients, the higher up they should be, and the more complex and heavy they are, the lower down on the plate they should be. Depending on the texture of the ingredients – crisp, chewy or soft – different preparation techniques are used. They can be steamed, gently sautéed, liquidised or prepared in a cream sauce, so that each of the ingredients finds its place in the constellation of flavours on the dish. Some of the products are just a mouthful, that is, they are very small, such as the romanesque, red and yellow beetroot, Swiss chard, small onions, broccoli, celery, Jerusalem artichoke, red cauliflower, yellow and blue carrots, turnips, red radishes, black radishes and mini leeks. All of these should be steamed before serving. The ingredients that can be served raw, after washing, include the chervil, bronze fennel, the leaves and flowers of the African lemon and Indian cherry, the white and blue borage, the mint apricot flower, the pineapple sage, and the Claytonia perfoliata or miner’s lettuce. I use the onions and celeriac sautéed to incorporate all the ingredients. This abundance of raw ingredients is wonderful, and preparing this dish is always an exciting challenge because it will never come out the same twice. The ingredients should be tasted in order, from top to bottom, and individually, without combining them. What creates the taste sensation if the complex sequence of flavours.
