Summer vegetable stew

Chop the greens off the carrots; do not peel. Cut into pieces of similar mass and surface area.

Halve the mini onion bulbs and put them on a sheet pan with the carrots. Slice the onion stalks thin and set aside for the end.

Toss the carrots and onions with a little oil, salt and pepper and partially roast under the broiler until coloured but still hard inside.

Burn the skin of the pepper over a direct gas flame, run it under cold water and peel off the burned skin, seed and chop.

Chop the tomatoes into smallish pieces and put them in the stew pot with the okra.

Add water, white wine or both; be conservative with the wine.

Add whole fennel, cumin and celery seeds and preliminary salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer to keep it from boiling over.

Cut the bok choy leaves off the stalks. Add the stalks and the partially roasted carrots and onions to the pot; keep the leaves for the end.

Brown the mini eggplant pieces under the broiler.

Snap the stems off the flat green beans, cut them up and add to the pot. Do not add water yet; the vegetables release theirs.

Add the broiled eggplant, the roasted pepper pieces and the sliced onion stalks.

Chop fresh garlic and add it at the very last second.

Taste; add more salt and a big pinch of sugar.

Add the bok choy leaves last, just to wilt, and some fresh lavender.

Serve over plain white rice, ladling on vegetables, putting halved mini onions on top, scattering lavender flowers and ladling on the sauce.