The Incredible Edible Day Lily

From:
[link to www.waysidegardensvoices.com]

Edible Daylilies


Daylilies, known as Hemerocallis fulva by botanists, are naturalized throughout much of America. They are especially hardy in warm dry areas. The orange colored blossoms are often seen along roadsides and in abandoned home gardens during June and July. All cultivated varieties of daylily are edible.

Flowers and flower buds of daylilies are delicious and quickly prepared for eating. The flowers are used in soups, meat dishes, and with noodles. Prepare the flowers for eating by removing the basal end (ovary) and dicing the rest. Flowers can be used for garnishing foods in somewhat the same way as mushrooms are employed. These flowers add substance, color, and pleasing flavors to foods. Fresh flowers are best for eating since some flavors are altered when they are preserved by drying and freezing.

Not only are they delicious, but they are also very attractive as you can see by the picture of Hemerocallis Jungle Beauty above.

hey, thanks, glad you reminded me, i knew that, but forgot, and i got a whole mess of day lillies out there, gonna put them in the stir fry tonight.

You also can dry them out for storage....asian markets sell the dried unopened flowers by the bag....I like them in a chicken soup...

From:
[link to www.sfgate.com]

Having your flowers and eating them too
The lovely daylily an edible delightRoberta Floden, Special to The Chronicle


There are those who eschew the daylily (Hemerocallis species) for the flower garden. After all, their blossoms last exactly as long as their name implies, both in English and in Greek (hemera means day and kallos means beauty), they can be invasive, and they are rather common. I used to be such a person, until I discovered that all parts of the plant -- the sprouting leaves that appear in the spring, the summer buds and blossoms, the leaves and even the rhizomes -- are edible. When I began to think of the daylily as a charming, perennial vegetable, I immediately found a sunny spot for it.

Considered a delicacy by wild food gatherers and knowledgeable chefs, the daylily has a long history in Chinese medicine and cuisine. It was originally brought to America by early settlers, who revered it not only for its ease of transport across the seas and its success in alien soil but also for its nourishing food as well. It can be dined on for months.

Harvesting: The first harvest takes place in early spring, when the tasty and tender young foliage appears. At this time, you can cut the 3- to 5-inch outer leaves from their grassy clump, taking care not to damage the flowering stalks. Similar in taste to creamed onions when simmered or stir-fried in oil or butter, the leaves may also have a mild uplifting effect. Indeed, the Chinese used them as a painkiller.

The second harvest is during the summer when the daylily flower buds and blossoms appear. These -- especially the pale yellow and orange varieties --

are the sweetest, most delectable parts of the plant. They can be eaten at all stages of their growth, raw or cooked. The tightly closed flower buds and the edible pods add interest to salads but also can be boiled, stir-fried or steamed with other vegetables. The blossoms, with their flowery taste and slightly mucilaginous texture, add sweetness to soups and vegetable dishes. Half opened, fully opened and even day-old daylily blossoms may be dipped in a light batter of flour and water and fried in a wok, tempura style. Dried daylily petals, called "golden needles" by the Chinese, are an ingredient in many Chinese recipes, including hot-and-sour soup.

At almost any time of growth you can harvest the thick, fleshy, tuber- like roots. You will find them quite crisp, with a nutty flavor. They can be eaten raw on the spot, or added to salads and all kinds of soups and stews. You can also boil, stir-fry or cream them, serving them as a side dish in place of potatoes. They are at their best in late fall or winter after they have stored nutrients from summer growth. This is also the best time to rejuvenate any overgrown clumps. Just dig the plant up carefully, divide the sausage-shaped roots, select a number of firm, white ones for your table, and replant -- or share -- the rest. The roots are sometimes used in China for their mild diuretic and laxative properties.

Possible allergies: Daylily leaves, flowers and tubers are listed in virtually every book as edible. However, some people have allergic reactions to unusual compounds in plants. It's important to be cautious. The first time you sample any part of a daylily, taste only a small piece and have a friend with you. Wait at least an hour before trying more, and then take small amounts, tasting before swallowing. If it tastes bitter, too spicy, weird or unpalatable, don't swallow it. Spit it out.

Cultivation: Daylilies are hardy herbaceous perennials, tough and trouble free. They grow in almost any kind of soil, in sun or half shade, and establish themselves as quickly in the garden as they do in the wild.

Because they grow from tuberous, somewhat fleshy roots rather than bulbs, they are not true lilies -- although they are related and their flowers are lilylike trumpets. Daylilies spread by these underground roots, sending them out to form broad patches. Plant them giving them the space they need to multiply, with the crown no more than 1 inch below the soil.

From:
[link to www.frontrangeliving.com]

Includes Pictures of some varities and Recipes!!


On the roster of edible flowers, daylilies are practically unknown as a food source in the United States. Although most collectors cringe at the thought of chomping coveted blooms, common daylilies have been everyday fare for centuries in other cultures. With little fanfare, naturalized daylilies have crept into fields and byways across America, 50,000 cultivars spawning a rainbow of color, form and size in some of the most lavish gardens in the country. But only recently has this exquisite blossom leaped from the centerpiece to the plate.

Characterized by long, dense fans of leaf blades shooting from the roots, daylilies (Hemerocallis) form a clump of greenery with emerging tall flower stalks called scapes. Flowers can be as common as the Stella D’Oro, whose orange flowers line municipal medians in Denver’s Greenwood Village, or as exotic as recent forms with long, twisted, ruffled petals and silver or gold-banded edges.

Some people prefer the flavor of the dried flowers to the fresh, but fresh appeals more to Western gardeners who would need a large number of plants to get any substantial harvest. Even one fresh flower makes a stunning presentation.

Fresh flowers and buds have a sweet flavor with no bitter aftertaste like many edible flowers. Pleasant but non-nondescript, the flavor of daylilies has been compared to a range of mild-flavored vegetables from lettuce to zucchini. Daylilies complement a wide variety of hot and cold savory foods, including soups and stews, but fresh buds and petals are usually reserved as a special topping or garnish for dishes of contrasting color, where their beauty stands out.

Fresh buds, petals and whole flowers can be eaten cooked or raw. Buds are tossed into stir-fries or sautéed alone and placed on top of a particular food. Fresh petals are strewn over green and other salads. Whole blossoms are used to adorn cakes, or stuffed with special ingredients and placed on serving platters or individual plates.

Few flowers rival the daylily for broad appeal. Gourmets, naturalists, professional botanists, novices and master gardeners, all seem to have found a niche in the species and cultivars of the Hemerocallis.



Recipes

A note on recipes: all flowers should be pesticide-free with stamens removed. Stamens hold the pollen of a flower and may encourage allergies.

cool! with the price of vege., well, i hit the jackpot, my yard is full of day lillies. going out now to pick the days crop to dry!

Sim are the "Asiatic Lilies" sold by Jackson and Perkins also edible, or is that an entirely different species?

REMEMBER:

Lilies are Toxic to Pets - so be careful for the Furry Ones!!!

!

MMMMMMM dipped in Tempura batter and fried in Grape seed oil yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting question - and hard to find an answer!!

Though, I think that this may cover it:

From:

[link to www.wuvie.net]

"An interesting tidbit, 'daylily' is not spelled incorrectly. There are but two L's in the word. A daylily is not an Easter lilly, nor an Asiatic, Tiger, Oriental or otherwise. Botanically speaking, the Hemerocallis."

Sounds great!!

Found a Recipe:
[link to recipes.lovetoknow.com]

Japanese Tempura Batter Recipe
By following the recipe carefully, you will be able to create a batter that will be delicious. Two important tips should be kept in mind:

Make sure the water is very cold; add one or two ice cubes.
A few lumps in the batter are fine. A sticky or doughy batter will make heavy and soggy tempura.
Once the batter is ready, dip your sliced vegetables into it, coat each one, and fry them until crisp in a pan of hot oil. Placing cold batter into hot oil is what makes for fluffy and tasty tempura.

When serving tempura, you want it to be hot. Usually the fried pieces are served on white, lacy doilies or white parchment. Presentation is important, especially at Japanese restaurants.

Ingredients
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1/2 cup icy cold water
1 tablespoon of sake, Japanese rice wine

Instructions
Make the batter right before you plan to fry the shrimp.
Beat the egg and add the cold water, beating until the mixture is light.
Add the sake.
Mix the flour and the corn flour together.
Sift the flours into the egg mixture.
Stir it all together but do not over mix.
Dip shrimp or vegetables into the batter. Shake off any excess.
With a long pair of wooden chopsticks, add several pieces at a time to the hot oil.
Fry 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown. Turn the pieces once as they fry.
Drain on paper towels.

The best batter is crispy and light. Alternatives to the Tempura Batter Recipe
Some feel that the easiest way to make tempura is to use a packaged mix, which can be purchased at Asian food stores. Some chain grocery stores with Asian food sections will also have a few selections of batter mix. Krusteaz, a company that started by making pie crusts, now has a tempura batter mix as well.

Vegetables to Fry
The most popular vegetables to coat with the batter and fry include:

Shitake mushrooms
Sweet potatoes
White onions
Carrots
Lotus root
Bamboo shoots
Eggplants
Chrysanthemum leaves
Green peppers
Something Unique
If you want something out of the ordinary, dip slices of banana into the batter and fry in oil. Be sure to drain the fried pieces on paper towels so the grease is absorbed.

You can experiment with other ingredients to fry in the batter. Make sure that the ingredient does not add any of its own liquid into the oil during frying. This will dilute the oil, making it unfavorable for frying the best tempura.

On Krusteaz's website, they suggest substituting flat beer for the water in the recipe to make beer batter tempura. The vegetables are then dipped into this batter and fried.

you forgot the rhizome(sp), they taste like water chestnuts. GREAT in a salad.

(True) Lilies (Genus Lilium) are quite different from Day Lilies (Genus Hemerocallis). Though there is still some debate over toxicity of Day Lilies, it is most likely residual from the fact that up until not to long ago Day Lilies were considered to be in the same genus as True Lilies. There are some vets that maintain small pets can be poisoned by large quantities of day lilies, but toxicity in humans is unheard of as far as I can find (at least in legitimate sources).

In fact, almost every part of the plant is edible...and quite delicious.

[link to tacticalintelligence.net]



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How to Eat a Daylily


Eating in the Different Seasons

The great thing about daylilies is that there is always something to eat from this plant all year round. In the late Fall and Winter (as well as all year round) you can eat the tubers (root nodules), in the Spring the young shoots are edible and delicious as a stir fry, and in the Summer you can eat the flower buds and the flowers.

I would recommend waiting until Summer to eat these as it will have all of the attributes available to make for an accurate identification. Since it’s a perennial plant (lives longer than two years) you can then come back to the stand during the following springtime to get the young shoots.

If you do decide to gather them in the Spring
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