Winter Sports In Fruits. Olympics 2014

It's Sport theme again.

Fruit platter with Olympic symbol and sculptures of a figure skater a snowboard rider, inspired by logos of winter sports. The sculptures have small detail, that made the white figures look intresting.

I made this display today for a sport theme party.

In my point of view, snowboard and figure skating are the most exciting sport shows. 

Other reason why I chose those sports for my display is that I myself tried them. I did skating and skiing a lot when I was a schoolgirl. 

Now I prefer swimming and yoga. And I am learning a dance of Shiva at my yoga class these days.

What is your favorite winter sport? Do you watch the Olympics 2014 from Sochi?

Recently there are lot of snow around the world. This is a good oportunity to start a winter sport for pleasure!

fruit platter with Olympic symbols

Snowboard rider, sport theme fruit carving

Figure skater, fruit carving sculptures

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How To Carve And Color Flowers of Vegetables. Carnation and Orchid Flowers

This small carving bouquet  in the photo is made with materials, which left after the "Australian" fruit display.

It's a simple bouquet arranged in martini glass, with carnation and orchid flowers carved of daikon radish. 

Today's post is about carving and coloring vegetable flowers.

How to color vegetable carving flowers

Liquid food colorings are perfect for carving needs. 10-15 drops are enough to 300 ml of water.

Add more coloring drops when you want to have your flowers brighter.

In 10 minutes remove your flowers on to a paper towel. Let them dry for a while (about 10 minutes).

You are done. Now you can use the colored flowers for arranging a display.

How to color flowers carved of vegetables

Simple technique of carving Orchids of vegetables

In my fruit carving job I use this quick technique to make branches of orchid flowers named Phalaenopsis. 

You will need:

a piece of daikon

a radish

Instruction:

1. Peel daikon and cut sides in angle to a point. 

2. Carve a simple flower as shown in the picture.

3. Correct  petals with a knife.

4. Color the flower in green.

5. Carve a rose of radish and pick together the green flower and the rose with a toothpick.

Simple method of carving orchid of vegetable

Color flowers of dailon in green

I like arranging these simple flowers in branches of orchids:

branches of orchid flowers arranged in an edible ikebana

How to carve carnation of vegetable.

Alternative method

I know two methods of carving carnation flower of vegetables. 

A famous one can be learned by watching the tutorial Thai Vegetable and Fruit Carving Book and VCD Multimedia, Original from Thailand

The other method of carving carnation was demonstrated by Thai chef, Mr.Chat Kunsri, at Carving Contest 2011 in Tokyo. The Chef did the flower in watermelon. See the pictures from his demo How To Carve Carnation In Watermelon

Carnation of daikon, carved by the Chef's method, and colored after.

Colored flowers in a fruit carving arrangement

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The Decorative Art of Japanese Food Carving

'The Decorative Art of Japanese Food Carving: Elegant Garnishes for All Occasions' is a book I ordered from Amazon. I recieved it in the last days of 2012 and that became a christmas present for me :) I bought this book because its cover looked so promissing.  This post  is a review of the book.

The Decorative art of Japanese Food Carving by Hiroshi Nagashima

"Japanese Food Carving" book is printed on glossy paper. It is a pleasure to hold it in your hands. 

I found lot of attractive photographs of garnishes and dishes, most of them are taken in macro mode. Definitely this book is a great sample of food photographing art.

Authors use a black background for food serving (black plates, ceramics) what makes food look excellent.

food served in black plate and garnished in japanese style

The book provides step-by-step photos on making garnishes, comments to the steps and large photos of comleted dishes. So you can learn not only 'how to make', but how to implement the garnishes in a dish.

After reading this book you understand that food garnishing is an integral part of Japanese dishes.

Daikon garnish integrated in a dish

'The Decorative Art of Japanese Food Carving' book gave me ideas on using the japanese garnishes in European cuisine (including Russian). I highly recommend to read the descriptions to the pictures (I mean not just watching photos), you will discover interesting things. At the end of the book you will find recipes of all dishes presented in its pages. 

This is a an excelent book, I am happy with the purchase.

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Cook Like a Star - Barefoot Contessa (Smoked Salmon and Egg Salad Tartines)

I found the recipe at Food Network - Barefoot Contessa  Salmon is a frequent ingredient in our menu here. Smoked salmon and egg salad tartines were really delicious. I didn't modify the recipe. I prepared the tartines following exactly the original recipe of Ina Garten. The only thing I added was a radish batterfly garnish. And yes, I reduced the ingredient's quantity.

The recipe source here

Ingredients 
8 servings

• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon good mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoons whole-grain mustard ( I ground it)
• 1 tablespoons minced fresh dill
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 ground black pepper
• 8 slices French bread 
• 8 slices good smoked salmon

Directions

Boil the eggs. Peel them and chop.
Transfer the chopped eggs to a bowl and add the mayonnaise, mustard, dill, salt, and pepper. Combine lightly with a fork.

Toast or grill the bread. Lay 1 slice of salmon on each piece of bread, spread on the egg salad, then garnish with a sprig of dill. I used a radish garnish.  Serve at room temperature.

 Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten recipe

The day before I made a vegetable carving arrangement for my class and carving tools presentation. It consists of pumpkin, cucmber, carrot and daikon.

The recipe is linked to Cook like a Star blog hop event organized by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids).

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Watermelon Bowl With Swan Sculptures

Watermelon bowl with swan sculptures on it carved out of daikon radish, made for the budget wedding buffet.

Romantic watermelon bowl  arranged with flowers from vegetable and daikon swans
Set on the cake stand

Wedding ceremony

Remember to send your fruit or vegetable project to Creat n Carve ~ Fruit and Vegetable Event what I host in September 2011. 

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Christmas and New Year Fruit and Veggy Centerpieces

Christmas food ideas

More Christmas projects with fruits and vegetables:

Melon Bird for Thanksgiving and Christmas

Fruit Princess Story. Pumpkin Carriage and Castle from Vegetable

Last Minute Xmas Fruit Bouquets

Christmas Fruit Arrangements With Candles

Flashing new year tree, snownan and its girlfriend, Christmas star and little basket with candy all of them are made of fruit and vegetables. All of these Christmas edible crafts were created to perfom a mission Making You Smile. 

Hey, Santa Claus is back in town 

New Year tree from a radish with jelly candy as lights

Mandarin/orange and radish are used for the Christmas Star garnish

Instruction on carving the star-fruit shaped flower

Basket from an orange filled with jelly candy

Fruit Snowman and its girlfriend made of apples.

Download Fruit Snowman video instruction

The present post about X-mas edible crafts is participating in the Artsy-Craftsy-December-2010 Challenge

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Vegetable Plate And a Pair Of Carved Birds. Using Cucumber Garnishes

Vegetable parrot birds and vegetable plate presentation for a wedding party (Gagarin Restaurant). For this vegetable display I used samurai cucumber garnish, thai lotus garnish from cucumber, lilly form carrot and simple flowers cut out from a beetroot.

Material:
Japanese radish,
carrot,
cucumber (Mukimono cut method)
broccoli,
tomato,
pepper

Weddings in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sakhalin Island, Russia

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Plate Food Garnish - Part 1

Look for easy garnishing:

Sandwich Art. Cucumber, Tomato and Salami Garnishes

Mukimono The Japanese Food Carving

Japanese Food Garnish - Mukimono Method

Today I'll show how to decorate a plate with small garnishes. I made these plates for my fruit carving presentation in the Russian-American Trading Business Center in Sakhalin.

Check up my carving tutorials. Free downloads.

Plate #1: cucumber, tomato, lemon garnish

Plate #2: cucumber garnish and radish garnish.

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Tools For Making Edible Arrangements

More tools usage:

Baller

Thai Knife

Video about easy garnishes and tools usage

Cutters

Candles, roses, golden daisy and callas are all made of vegetables like a carrot, daikon (lobo), cucumber, radish and cabbage.

The most of these things are carved with the peeler-decorator as shown below:

I am working now on the tutorial "10 Awesome Things Made With The Peeler-Decorator". Don't miss it! Follow me on Blogger or subscribe via email to stay updated with the latest news.

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Cherry-Tree In Blossoms - Fruit Carving Arrangement

Read more about fruit carving art:
Watermelon With Butterfly Pattern
On The Supposition Of Spring
Wedding Party Fruit Decoration

I am in the mood for some of romance these first days of spring. I share my love with you my friends.

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Wonder Tree With A Bird

More articles:

Fruit Arrangement Support

Cucumber Picture

Wonder-Tree

This is the famous cuccagna Wonder Tree, my visitors already know about it. Today this is a tree with a bird carved from a lobo (daikon) and having wings made of cucumber. The tree is decorated with candy and  radish carvings.

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Parrot Jacques

More articles:
Melon Basket With Leaf Pattern
Kids Carving Class
Vegetable Arrangement At Bamboo Restaurant

I was engaged to make some fruit plates for a chocolate fountain presentation. Parrot Jacques is one of three fruit plates I have made for the party.




Ingredients:
Grape,
Mandarin,
Strawberry

Parrot Jacques and its environment:
Daikon,
Carrot,
Cucumber

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Culinary Art Every Day

More articles:
The Best Way To Enjoy GarnishBlog
Thai Carving Class In Japanese Club

I have often been asked by people in my class about using carving centerpieces in a routine life. I am told 'OK, I learned how to make such beautiful things, but how can I use them to garnish food on my plate? On your website I can see a lot of garnishes but without food ideas'.

I absolutely agree with the statement. Food is primary and garnishes are just an accent dedicated to present food nicely.
In this blog I have sections about easy garnishes, drink garnishes and fruit carving arrangements. Read this blog if you want to get idea about daily food decorating and then 'Easy Garnish' is your section. Read this blog if you want to go further and get ideas how to make fruit and vegetable carving arrangements for buffet table and other display exhibitions. Read this blog if you are looking for ideas about family entertaiment and time with kids and then YouTube Video Section could be also in help.

I would be glad to recive your feedback. Feel free to ask and comment.

And back to the topic. I would like to represent you my video "Culinary Art Every Day" with garnishing techniques and nice food pictures.

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Daikon Salad With Syabu-Syabu Dressing

More articles:
How To Make An Edible Butterfly From A Radish
How To Carve Carnation Out Of Vegetable
Salad Garnishing

Delicious, healthy and my fav salad from "Nihon Mitai" sushi bar's menu. Here is a recipe of this famous salad garnished in my way.

For salad you need:
Daikon
Syabu-Syabu sauce
Parsley

For the camomile garnishes you need:
Daikon
Carrot
Carving tools.

How to do:
Cut (or grate) daikon in thin long noodles. Wash noodles in cold water to remove juice. Arrange daikon noodles on the plate, add Syabu-Syabu sauce and some parsley.

For the camomiles cut a thin slice from a daikon. Using a thai knife carve a camomile flower. To make a flower center cut a ball out of carrot with a bowl-shaped knife. Arrange the camomile garnish on the plate by the daikon salad.

Enjoy healthy food with garnishes in my way :)

See how to make edible garnishes from vegetables

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How To Make An Edible Butterfly From A Radish

More articles:
Thai Carving Class in Japanese Club
Jigsaw Puzzle Game With Fruit Carving Arrangements
Salad Garnish

To make a butterfly you need a radish (Daikon or Green Radish) and a thai knife.

Step 1. Cut a slice from a green radish, but do not cut it off completely.


Step 2. Cut off a second thin slice next to it. They should be attached at the base. Cut them away without separating them. These are butterfly wings.




Step 3. Join wings together and cut a small piece off of the base. It should be enough to flatten that edge, but the wings need to remain attached to each other. If you cut off too much, they will separate.



Step 4. Make the antennae.

a. Trace the edge on the right side of the circle (when the base is at the bottom).



b. Remove a sliver next to the line you just cut.



c. The antennae are ready.



Step 5. Cut a wing shape as shown.



Step 6. Carve out a pattern onto the wings.



Step 7. Open the wings up. This is the end product. Enjoy!

This article "How To Make An Edible Butterfly From A Radish" was featured by WikiHow. For more step by step garnish instruction see the original page.

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How To Carve Carnation Out Of Vegetable

A lesson in the beautiful culinary art of fruit and vegetable carving from www.carvinginstitute.com. Using the method from the video I carved carnations from Daikon, potato and carrot. Definitely I need more practice.

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A Case Of 2 kg of Oranges And One Watermelon

More articles:
Fruit Topiary Bouquets With Citrus
Orange Sculptures
Babyshower Fruit Toys Out Of Oranges

On March 2009 I won a Woman Contest and got Diploma with help of my fruit carving arrangements.

Orange Sun

Material:
Oranges 2 kg
Radish 300 g
Savoi cabbage for small elements 1 pc
Cabbage for a basement 1 pc
A vase

Tools:
Thai knife
Kitchen knife



Baby Carriage

Materials:
Watermelon weights 7 kg
Chinese cabbage 2 pcs
A couple of carrots
A couple of beetroots
One green radish
Some orange slices and greens for a carriage garnish

Tools:
Thai knife
U-shaped knife
V-shaped knife





White Wedding
Materials:
Daikon 2 big roots
Beetroot 1 kg
Half cabbage for a basement
Green salad

Tools:
Thai knife
Kitchen knife

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