Pickled Peppers Stuffed with Black Locust Blossoms
I finally understand why people rave about black locust blossoms being one of their favorite wild foods. Last year, I learned to identify the tree of Robinia pseudoacacia. Unfortunately, by the time I was certain of my ID, the blossoms had faded and lost all of their magic.
This year, I was prepared. I had been watching the black locusts for weeks, anxiously awaiting the time when heavy white clusters of pea-like flowers would drip down from the trees. The time finally came to harvest them yesterday, and I spent a magical day with a friend reach up into tree after tree, plucking clusters of aromatic flowers as bees happily buzzed all around us. Like broken records, we exclaimed over and over again, "They're soooo beautiful!" To learn more about identifying black locust flowers, check out this post by the Foraged Foodie.
Back at home, a cooler full of fragrant blossoms at our disposal, we decided to indulge in a meal centered on our prize. It took the form of risotto, with black locust blossoms both stirred into and topping the rice. The cooked flowers were neither spectacular nor bad, but the fresh raw flowers that topped the risotto were out of this world. They remained crunchy, with a bite of sugar reminiscent of peas just stolen from a garden, and a heady aroma of honeysuckle-meets-grape-candy carried up on the heat from the dish. Looking for more black locust recipes? Read this post by the 3 Foragers.
Because I most enjoyed them raw, I decided to take advantage of their crunch in sweetness to prepare a little snack made from my favorite olive bar treat - sweet/hot pickled peppadew peppers. Stuffing the peppers with black locust blossom cheese took less than five minutes, and the resulting bite was both elegant and tasty.
Pickled Peppadew Peppers Stuffed with Black Locust Blossoms
pickled peppadew peppers, between 12-24
4 oz. goat cheese chevre
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. finely minced shallots
1/2 c. chopped black locust blossoms
salt and pepper to taste
1. Combine the goat cheese, olive oil, shallots, and black locust blossoms in a small bowl with a spoon. Stir in a touch of pepper and a sprinkling of salt.
2. Pat dry the peppadew peppers.
3. If your peppers are large enough, use a spoon to stuff the black locust blossom cheese into their middles. If you have dainty peppers like I did, just use your (clean!) fingers.
4. Top each stuffed pepper with a whole black locust blossom, just so they look extra adorable.
