5) Rose Petal Oil

[Juan Navarro]

Wakingup on the Armenian monastery of the Island of San Lazzaro, floating in the mist of the Venetian lagoon, is like waking into a dream itself. Water softly laps around the edges of the monastery and that is about all you can hear except for the occasional speed boat on its way to the Lido.

I spent several weeks here over two years during my days interning as an art restorer. While I worked on the flooded etchings and photographs (one of the downsides of living on an island), I stayed as a guest at the monastery. In the evenings after closing the makeshift laboratory, I would catch the vaporetto, glide into Piazza San Marco and then wander the canals of Venice to my favourite wine bars, bridges and piazzas before heading back to the monastery by midnight.

But one of my favourite parts of the day was breakfast, where the monks supplied bread, butter and a deep pink jar of their infamous rose petal jam. Eating roses for breakfast, what an intoxicating, exotic, beautiful and romantic way to start the day.

The island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni was a leper colony about a thousand years ago, and then eventually abandoned until 1717 when the Republic of Venice gave the island to a group of Armenian monks to build their monastery. It sits a 15 minute ferry ride from Piazza San Marco, just west of the Lido, neighbouring the Island of San Servolo, now the Venice International University but previously an island for escaped nuns and the insane.

San Lazzaro is small (it probably takes all of 6 minutes to walk all the way around the island), but is just big enough for the Armenian monastery that sits quietly and proudly on the lagoon, where it houses a museum, a vegetable garden, olive trees, rose bushes and, one year I spent there, even a contemporary art exhibit for the Venice Biennale.

While still hot, place the jam in clean, sterilised jam jars and allow to cool. This delicately perfumed jam is beautiful on fresh white bread or brioche, with or without a little unsalted butter. Stirred into some plain organic yogurt is divine!

I, too, have been searching for pesticide-free rose petals that I can use to make jam! I have also been searching for a good source for already-made rose petal jam. If anyone has suggestions, I would be very grateful!

me and my parents went on a cruise to europe for the first time this past june; we knew about St. Lazzaro and us being Armenian, made it a goal to visit; this was the most beautiful and historically educational stop we visited and of course, we brought home a jar of the rose jam. my dad would always eat it back home in Beirut, and i had it for the first time; a marvelous, delicious jam that is of course, a true representation of our Armenian heritage!!

Thank you for sharing Evie! untouched rose petals for eating seem to be difficult to come by anywhere these days but if you are lucky enough to know anyone who has a garden full of them, they might be quite happy to exchange a jar of rose petal jam for their petals! ?

Hi Emiko, I am of Armenian descent and have had the rose jam many times as a breakfast treat or anytime snack. When I ask other Armenians, I get a variety of answers on how to make this recipe. I have often been told that the rose petals need to be dried first and you can only use either fragrant or dark colored roses. The white ones do not seem to work well.

So is this recipe with fresh roses? I have also heard that there is an ingredient which makes the color of the jam a bright red/pink. Any thoughts on this?

There are a fair number of rose petal jam recipes online, but the story here is so lovely and romantic (in the bigger sense of the word) that it seems like it should be the only way to make rose petal jam. Thank you for sharing it with us!

Emiko! Today I made rose petal jam for the first time in my life and I used your recipe! I made it with 500g petals and a half of it with pectin. The sweetness of it is perfect. Thank you for your recipe.

Emiko, are you bored to tears of grateful responses yet? I just finished making this jam, and I almost licked the pan clean. The flavor was more subtle than I imagined it would be. Not nearly as overpowering as rose turkish delight. Thanks so much for posting this.

Hello Emiko,

I have been making rose petal jam for many years from an old type rose that blooms once a year in the spring. My recipe called for strawberry juice and the petals are not cooked. I have to say eating roses is divine! I hope to try your recipe next year when the rose blooms again. Thank you for sharing. Your walnut pasta sounds wonderful too!

Hi, sounds like a wonderful place to live! It might be a bit late now, but when the walnuts are still green (traditionally this is done on June 24), many Tuscans make nocino, a delicious spiced walnut liqueur: -nocino-a-spicy-walnut-liqueur/ Another favourite walnut recipe is simply tossing some chopped walnuts through a butter and sage sauce for potato gnocchi or ravioli.

I just made this recipe yesterday substituting some of the sugar with honey and I added 3 black peppercorns . . . my home smelled otherworldly . . . the jam was so beautiful and delicious, and we had just a bit of it with goat cheese on toast. Such an elegant recipe. So happy to have found your website, too, it is full of beauty and deliciousness!

I have never made jam but yours sounds very simple! I wish I would have seen this recipe a couple of weeks ago when my rose bushes were blooming. I make all of my families bread homemade, I know this jam would be amazing on a slice of fresh baked bread! I will keep this in mind for next year!

Just wanted to let you know my summers will never be the same again. I have made your jam twice now, and with great results. I love how decadent it is and the story about the recipe makes it that much special too.

I even blogged about it recently because this gift has got to be shared. Thank you for sharing with us.

Best,

Shruthi

Thanks so much for your reply, Emiko!

I will be on the quest for garden grown roses as you recommend; opposed to commercially grown roses. Perhaps I can score some from neighbors. ? Thanks also for your input about the lemon juice vs. citric acid. I will be sure to visit again and let you know how it all turns out. Thank you for your wonderful post, recipe, and tips!

I do believe that concord grapes would really take over the flavour (and colour) here. The sugar really serves to preserve the rose petals as well as provide texture (in the form of a syrup) to the jam. Possibly some not too sweet apple variety would be a good option?

There are a few different granola camps. This one falls squarely in the great, everyday, healthy granola category. Midnight black and deeply chocolate-flavored with dark black cocoa and cocoa nibs, this granola is packed with heart-healthy oats and seeds. Naturally sweetened, clumpy, and crunchy, the recipe calls for just a small splash of olive oil, and leverages a secret ingredient to bring it all together.

I made this for some co-workers, as I left my job last week, and added in some chopped dark chocolate- it was heavenly! Such a special gift, especially jarred with lovely homemade labels. They were very well received.

Fabuloso! I made this recipe along with your rhubarb rose water syrup for a breakfast at work and what a hit! For some extra love, after the granola was done, I added some cacao nibs.

Heaven = Rose Petal Granola mixed in with some really creamy goat or sheep milk yogurt and a drizzle of the Rhubarb Rose syrup.

After becoming obsessed with the flavor of rose macarons this looks like a much easier way to get the subtle, delicate rose fragrance into my cooking. I bet the granola would be a great topping for vanilla ice cream!

I will echo the comments I read and say how excited I was to receive my Quitokeeto package in the mail. I am so excited to use the dried roses I ordered. I happened upon this recipe today which also uses rose petals:

-Scented-Berry-Tart-With-an-Almond-Shortbread-Crust.html

I am wondering if I can use the dried petals in lieu of fresh? Are dried rose petals like other dried spices that are stronger when dried? Thanks!

This looks and sounds beautifully delicious. The rosy colored petals give a freshness to the granola that I imagine I will fall in love with! Luckily I grow my own high quality roses, and now they will be put to good use!

rose petals certainly have the ability to make food seem more magical.

i am planning to make granola today to replenish my supply and i wish i had some rose petals on hand. however, i will certainly add some pepper and keep the rose petals in mind next time i replenish.

This is so clever! I imagine the granola turns out so fragrant and earthy with the rose pedals. I love the idea of using rose pedals in granola and cannot wait to try it out. Congrats again on your new shop!

I love using rose petals in my cooking. I have done rose petal ice cream, rose petal buttercake and rose petal jam .. granola would be a delight if speckled with rose petals. Must try it soon! Thnx for the inspiration ?

This post is step 2 of the process of preparing ingredients for falooda. Step 1 was to make a rose syrup, and wind up with gulkand as a bonus by product. The remainder of the steps, including the process to make a naturally colored pink falooda sev and the process of assembling the drink, will appear in a post dedicated to the falooda itself. Though you may just want to eat this ice cream for itself, never mind the falooda!

The moment I spotted rose petal ice cubes at Sweet Paul Mag, I knew I had to have them for my own. But why stop at cubes that contain a single perfect petal? My Cardinal de Richelieu climbing rose produces miniature cube-perfect flowers, so I tinkered. In the end I made ice cubes that can each hold an entire rose suspended in their shimmery cold depths:

Lucky UK gardeners have lots of sources if they want to buy a Cardinal de Richelieu rose. For instance, the climber is 14.50 from David Austin. (N.B.: Do you know of an online source for US gardeners? If so, please share it in the comments section below.)

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