Purple flowers caught my eye this morning. Tiny bell shaped thyme flowers had emerged, seemingly overnight, in our tiny garden. These purple bells were ripe with an intense flavor of thyme but also balanced by the sweetness of heady pollen.
How to show off these beauties? We had some white asparagus left, a blank canvas for highlighting the thyme. From there a look around brought out our smoked foie gras, a return to the garden for emerging chive blossoms, meyer lemon ketchup (now we are thinking hot dog garnishes), diced pickled lambs tongue and coarse mustard made with crab apple jelly. Ground allspice rounded out the flavors and the power of the thyme blossom created a dish; or was I just hungry for a NYC dirty water hot dog?