Daylily flowers are best enjoyed in their raw state. They taste a lot like romaine lettuce, and the petals are beautiful in a salad. The buds are nice, too--as they are, in a salad or on a veggie platter, served with dip. The buds are also great in stir-frys, and they make a nice pickle.
Tempura is another fun idea for the opened blossoms. They lose some of their flavor during cooking, but the batter clings to them nicely, and they fry up light and crispy. Enjoy as a savory snack, with a spicy peanut sauce, or dip them in a soy-sauce/rice wine vinegar mixture. You can also go sweet, and top them with maple syrup, honey or powdered sugar.
Daylily Tempura
Ingredients
- 8-12 daylily blossoms, removed from stems.
- 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups ice water
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 quarts of oil for frying, such as peanut oil (or enough to have 1 inch of oil in your pan)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a Dutch-oven or cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Use a thermometer to determine when the oil reaches 360 degrees.
- Line a large plate or baking sheet with paper towels.
- While the oil heats, measure 1/2 cup of flour onto a plate.
- Mix the egg yolks with the ice water in a medium bowl.
- Mix the salt into the remaining 1 cup of flour.
- Add the flour and salt to the egg/water mixture, and just barely combine them. Do not spend more than 30 seconds mixing them. There will be lumps, and that is fine.
- Once the oil is ready, dredge each flower in the flour on the plate, then dip them into the batter. If the batter appears to be too thin, add some flour, but don't mix it in. The dipping action will be enough to blend it.
- Drop the coated blossoms quickly and carefully into the hot oil.
- Don't fry more than 4 flowers at a time to avoid cooling down the oil. You can drizzle a little of the batter on top of the flowers as they are frying, if you like extra crispies.
- Remove the tempura from the oil once the bubbles are bigger, and the sizzling is less intense.
- Drain on the paper towels before transferring to a plate.
- Enjoy right away, with your favorite dipping sauce.
