Thursday, November 3, 2011

Spring Onion Flowers

After a long time. I am back with one more vegetable carving. Though I have already dealt with this before, this time it is a bit different. 

My previous post I showed you how to make Lilies out of spring onions which is here:

Required:

Spring onions with leaves
Bamboo skewers (or Dried veins of Coconut leaves)
Sharp knife

While buying the spring onions make sure that they are fresh. No wilted, broken or crumpled leaves. The bulbs should also be  medium sized (not too small or too thin), round, healthy and perfect with no damages etc.

Clean the onions and leaves thoroughly with water taking care not to damage any part of them. Drain them on a soft thin cloth till they are completely dry.

Now separate the bulbs from the leaves, just cutting at the base portion of the greens. But see that the greens remain as a bunch and do not get separated. The bulbs should be at least 5cm (2").

Now slice of the root portion of the bulbs taking care that the layers of bulb do not get separated. Remove the outer layers(dry ones) on the bulb.Holding the root side away from you and leaving at least 1cm or so at the top, make vertical slits from top to bottom. 
The slits should be deep enough to reach the center and a little apart from each other. Slowly rotating the bulb, continue to make the slits. 
Now slightly pry open the layers and immerse in ice cold water for 15 minutes or till the onion blooms. Remove and drain these flowers.


For leaves, take a bunch of greens. If required, snip off the tops at different levels to adjust the height of the shoots to suit your requirement. Now pierce a bamboo skewer through the base of the greens and into one of the leaves (preferably the center shoot) slowly taking care not to rip the shoots. 
At the top attach the flower and arrange in a vase or a glass or as you would like it.

I din't have much shoots left with me when I attempted this. So you see only a few greens. But this arrangement will look good with more greens.  This will make a good arrangement on a dining table or a side table. Depending on the space available make a bigger or a smaller arrangement.

Keep watching for more to come.....