Let's Talk about Anita Shreve... Or, How to Make Candied Violets

I meant to write about Anita Shreve today.

She passed away last week at 71. She was one of my favorite writers. She published 21 books in her lifetime, starting at age 29. My favorites were a set of four: Fortune's Rocks, Sea Glass, The Pilot's Wife, and Body Surfing. She created an entire world in those books. It was a privilege to spend some time there in my reading life. You'd do well to visit it for yourself, if you haven't already.

But what I'm really writing about is the violets I candied today.

Spring is making some very faint, threaded-pulse attempts at happening here in Cincinnati. We went for a walk today and I found a patch of violets.

Did you know you can eat them? You can (this is not an April Fool's joke, I swear. I never joke about food.). I learned this in my AP Biology class years and years ago in high school. My boyfriend is an accomplished forager, and I wanted to show that I knew something you can forage, too!

How to Candy a Violet

You pick a handful, keeping the stems on, and put them in water to keep them fresh. When you're ready to candy them, you rinse them really well and drain them, and pat them dry with paper towels (being careful not to bruise the blooms).

Little bits of spring 

Then, you beat an egg white till it's nice and fluffy/foamy.

Beat that egg white like it owes you money 

Using a soft little paintbrush, you brush the blooms with egg white, front and back.

(This brush was never used for paint, I swear)

Then you sprinkle them with enough sugar to make them just a little sparkly.

Little sparkling sugar jewels

You lay them on a paper towel to dry. I put them on top of the stove with the fan on, and they dried in about an hour and a half.

The waiting is the hardest part 

When they are dry, you take the stems off, leaving just the candied blooms.

Then you can eat them alone, or, what I did, use them as decoration on something you baked. Today for Easter I made a nectarine galette (I wanted to make a peaches and cream cake, but the peaches aren't any good yet. Oh and, a "galette" is just a fancy French word for "pie, with no top crust." Yes, it does have a point, believe me!). Voila:

Pretty nectarine galette with candied violets,
in an ugly old pie pan 

I guess I should have mentioned in my introductory blog here that I am almost as passionate about food as I am about books and Bill Murray. I'm a self-taught cook (thanks to Jacques Pepin's shows and A Chef's Life on PBS). And I really get into the art of it. Cooking calms me down (not much does). I grew up in a house where "food" was something that came from a can, a frostbitten box, or maybe a greasy fast-food bag...a far cry from the organic, fresh, everything I keep in the house now, the French and vegetarian recipes made from scratch...

So happy Easter, dear readers. I hope whatever you're eating and reading today, it's in a place filled with love. I am, and it's a good, hard-earned place to be!