Food and flowers

Chrysanthemums are a florist favourite, but one type makes a great dish too.

The flavour is predictably ‘chrysanthemumy’.

hen I first spotted seed for shungiku I was intrigued but far from converted. ‘Edible’ and ‘chrysanthemum’ are not two words I would normally put together. I wasn’t sure if I wanted something like that in my stir-fry. However, a year of trying all kinds of other Japanese greens has made us keen to be more experimental. Cooking with komatsuma (Japanese mustard greens) in several classic stir-fry dishes with shitake mushrooms, noodles, ginger and a hint of chilli never failed to take the edge off winter. Could shungiku do the same?

The flavour of shungiku ( Chrysanthemum coronarium) is predictably ‘chrysanthemumy’. That is, slightly bitter, with a grassy, tangy, herbal flavour and a slightly succulent texture.

It’s a little like coriander, not everyone’s cup of tea. The flavour is mild in young leaves, becomes more pronounced with age, and goes bitter when the plant flowers.

What began as a pretty, annual hillside plant in the Mediterranean is now one of the most popular leafy vegetables in Japan. How it migrated east is a mystery, but it is now deeply embedded in Japanese cuisine.