Premise
You will learn from this article:
1. Carving an easy carrot flower.
2. Create carrot flower arrangements.
Details about how to process: making carrot flower base, carving carrot flower petals, remove a flower from the carrot and create a stem to connect a carrot flower.
YOU WILL NEED
- A chef knife
- A curved blade paring knife
- A chopping board
- Two carrots
- Some celery stalks with leaves
Practice
Carrots offer you lots of health benefits, such as vitamin A and antioxidants (See References to have more information). In addition, they are available all year round. It is a very good vegetable for garnish. Also, the colour is looking lovely on the plate. You just need to place it on some fresh leaves, it will be a delicate food for decoration. Therefore, we are going to learn two ways to carve carrot flowers. Let’s start it.
1. Easy carrot flower
1-1 Making carrot flower base
Hold a carrot and let the endpoint face outside. Use a paring knife to trim the end of a carrot like a pyramid.
When you are trimming the end of the carrot, try to create five sides of the pyramid, and also keep about a 1.5 to 2 cm diameter circle at the point of the pyramid.
1-2 Carving carrot flower petals
Use the middle edge of a curved blade paring knife to carve the top arc of the petal from one corner of the pyramid. When you carve one petal, don’t cut it through the end of the carrot. Keep 1.5 to 2 cm depth connecting to the endpoint of the pyramid.
Continue to create the second petal with the middle edge of the curved blade of the paring knife.
When you have done the third to the fifth petals, you might find the inside of the end of petals is still connecting to the main carrot. As such, try to use the edge finish of a curved blade paring knife to remove that part, and clear out all connection from the main carrot.
1-3 Remove a flower from the carrot
One hand should hold the main carrot, and another hand to hold and twist the end of the carrot flower. If when you are trying to twist and pull out the carrot flower it might not be easy to separate it. Please go back the previous step and clear out all connection from the main carrot.
If some top petals are not as good an arc as you want, use the paring knife to trim them. Make each petal equal.
Finally, if you are able to carve different sized carrot flowers and set them on top of some leaves. It will look delightful on your plate. See tips to tell you more about serving them.
2. Carrot flower arrangements
2-1 Making carrot flower base
We are going to create an advanced carrot flower in this section. In fact, the way of carving a carrot flower is the same as the above section. But the different part will be the pyramid point, you will need to keep it with a 2.5 to 3 cm diameter circle at the bottom of the carrot. So take a carrot and trim a little bit of surface off to make a five-sided pyramid.
2-2 Carving carrot flower petals
Use the middle edge of a curved blade paring knife to carve the top arc of the petal from one top corner of the pyramid. At this point, when you carve one petal, don’t cut through the end. Keep 1.5 to 2 cm length connected to the point of the pyramid.
You might feel the five petals are hard to carve equally on the carrot cylinder. In fact, before you carve every single petal deeply. You are able to use the point blade-shaped paring knife to mark some arc shapes gently on the surface of the carrot first. After that, the process should be easier.
Once you have done five petals, try to use the edge finish of a curved blade
paring knife to remove the parts if they are still connected to the main carrot.
2-3 Remove a flower from the carrot
Use one hand to hold the main carrot, and your other hand to hold and twist the end of the flower. Remove the flower out from the main carrot.
2-4 Create a stem to connect to a carrot flower
2-4-1 Carving a hole at bottom of a carrot flower
Use point blade of a paring knife to carve a 0.8 to 1 cm circle hole from the bottom of the carrot flower.
2-4-2 Create a celery stem
Get a celery stalk and remove its top leaves and segment. Make a Julienne cut and keep it as long as you can.
Trim the top of the celery stick that you just cut to be a cylinder at its top section with a paring knife. The top diameter of the cylinder should match the diameter hole that you have created in the carrot flower(from 2-4-1 created, in picture-13).
2-4-3 Connect the carrot flower and celery stem together
Insert the celery stick into the hole at bottom of the carrot flower. The section inserted in the carrot bottom should be at least 2 cm long. As such, it will make the celery stick hold the carrot flower well. See tips to tell you more about serving them.
Payoff
From this article, we have learned two methods to create carrot flowers. If you are going to place it on a plate, keep the diameter of the point as small as you can. The second way of flower arrangement is carving a hole at the bottom of the carrot flower to let be able to fit a celery stalk.
In the second way of carrot flower arrangements, you are able to create lots of carrot flowers with celery stems. As such, place them into a vase or jar with some edible leaves. If you like to add some salad dressing at the bottom of the jar, it will look like a really wonderful artwork. They are not only edible but also look exquisite on a dining table.
Tips
Once you have made the carrot flowers, it's better to soak them in salty water for a couple of minutes before serving. The carrot color will look more fresh.
