Dandy Veloute over Polenta

Dandelions; the plant people love to hate. Sadly, I've seen many of my neighbors out spraying Round up on them numerous times. If the overspray could only be contained to their yards...... the city of Seattle frowns on using herbicides, but until they ban them from sale, like they did the plastic bags, people will use it.

But why spray dangerous chemicals on the ground when you have a free source of nutritious food popping up? Dandelions were brought over from Europe for their food and medicinal value. You can eat the whole plant from root to flower. The roots make a tasty coffee substitute and an environmentally friendly one, too, as they are right out in your yard rather than in a far off country. The leaves can be used in salads or as a cooking green. The flowers can be used to make wine or fried as battered fritters or sprinkled in salads. They're often an ingredient in bitters, which I plan to try to make one day.

 A breakdown of the USDA listing of nutrition is here. They are particularly high in vitamin K and have lots of minerals. If you are avoiding iron you may want to limit your intake. The French nickname piss-en-lit  describes its somewhat diuretic effects, however, dandelion also replaces the potassium loss that happens with prescription diuretics. The word "Dandelion" is a variation from the original French name of the plant, Dent de Lion; lion's tooth, because of the serration of the edges of the leaves, although different species have quite a bit of variation.

Dandelions are in the asteraceae family, which is a ginormous family of plants that also includes sunflowers, and Cat's Ears which are fuzzy and also edible; their leaves don't get as bitter as dandelions, but they also have somewhat less nutrition, I've been told.

This recipe is somewhat foodie, but also comfort food. The Dandy Veloute is somewhat bitter, but the perfect complement to the bland polenta and somewhat sweet carrot puree. I used a broth I made from the shells of 1 lb. of shrimp, but you could use any broth. I like to find multiple uses for my foodstuffs and see just how many things I can come up .

                                                  Dandy Veloute
Printable Recipe


Ingredients: Carrot Cloud
       
                  6 large carrots, chopped into large bits
                  1 large russet potato, chopped into large bits
                  1 tbs. lemon juice
                  5 bay leaves
                  rest of can of coconut milk after dividing, see Dandy Veloute
                 3 tbsp. coconut oil
                 salt to taste

                 Broth

                 shells from 1 lb of shrimp
                1/2 cup white wine
                6-7 cups of water, you want to end up with 6 cups after simmering.
or just use 6 cups of broth of choice

               Dandy Veloute

               5 loosely chopped cups of dandelion leaves
               1/2 onion, chopped
               1/2 cup white wine
               1 cup broth
               1/14 cup coconut milk
               2 tbsp. coconut oil or olive oil

              Polenta

              2 cups dry polenta
              5 cups broth, 1 cup water
              salt and pepper to taste

      for the carrot puree cloud: in steamer pan add water and 5 bay leaves to bottom. Steam carrots and potatoes until tender. Add them and the rest of the cloud ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Put into a holding container, try not to devour it while making the other parts of the recipe.

     for the broth: simmer the shrimp shells white wine and water for about 1/2 hour. Strain out the shells.

      for the Veloute: Heat the oil in a large skillet. Sautee the onions until they soften but do not brown. Add the white wine, then 1 cup of the broth and simmer for 10 minutes. Put them in the blender along with the dandelions and coconut milk. Blend until smooth and creamy. Set aside or in a pot on the stove on low until polenta is ready.

      for the polenta: Put the dry polenta into a large saucepan. Add the broth and water and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and let simmer until softened and thick. Stir occassionally to prevent burning on the bottom.

     I sauteed a thinly sliced tomato and about a 1/4 onion in olive oil as a flavorful garnish to put on top. (optional)

     Once all parts of recipe are ready: spoon polenta into a serving bowl; put a tablespoon of butter or butter sub on top. (optional, but yummy) Spoon carrot cloud over polenta. Spoon Dandy Veloute on top. Top with garnish if using.
 
                 Enjoy!

Let me know if you try this recipe and like it. I see lots of views of my posts, but rarely get comments. I'd love to know how you liked it or what variations you might have come up with.

Strawberries and Cream Tea

Did you know that strawberries are native to North America? I've found them growing wild in Northern California and Washington state. Mostly, I've found them on the seashores. Where have you found them growing?

Wild strawberries are smaller than the big, watery, hybrid berries you'll find at the supermarket, but they make up for it with intense flavor.

Last year, I was lucky in that not many people came out to work in the community garden and we have a ginormous strawberry patch. I wanted to do something with them that didn't involve loads of sugar, so I dehydrated a bunch. They're delicious in trail mix and also in this lovely tea.

 I find that dried fruit teas take more plant matter than herbal teas. I use about 1/4 cup of berries to 1 cup of boiling water. Let the tea steep for a bit. Strain the berries out and use in another recipe, such as adding to a cake or pancakes.

You may want to reheat the tea gently if it has cooled a bit. It's tart but tasty at this point. You can drink it as is or add a bit of sweetener of your choice and cream product. I can't do dairy, so I use a nice thick homemade almond milk.

Mmmm, a cup of summer fairy magic in winter. 

Dock Seed Cake

I came up with this recipe for this month's Wild Things Roundup, the theme of which was "Seeds" 

To check out more interesting forager recipes, be sure to click on the link above!

My first ambition with this recipe was to make donuts. I'm obsessed with donuts since I found this donut pan from Wilton.

While looking up the image, I see they have a heart-shaped donut pan. Love.

Now I haven't had a donut in over 10 years, since going gluten-free. You may remember my wistful post a couple months ago about picking up donuts at VooDoo Donuts for the bf. Admittedly, these are more like donut-shaped cupcakes, but they're close enough to make me very happy.

That said, upon trying the first batch, I felt the dock seeds had a hearty texture that didn't really seem 

donut-y, so, I poured the rest of the batter into a jelly roll pan and made a low cake. I still was a little iffy on the texture for a cake, but the bf said they were good and grabbed three to take to work. Go figure, I'm usually the earthy one. 

So, here's the recipe:

4 eggs

1/2 cup unsweetened grape juice, or other liquid of choice

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup grated carrot or other veggie, pumpkin for example

1/3 cup melted coconut oil

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup almond flour, although this was a bit moister than I like, I may try up to 1/2 cup rice flour next time

1/2 cup ground dock seeds

1 tsp. baking soda

pinch of salt

Mix wet ingredients in a bowl. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add one to the other.mix thoroughly pour into well-greased pan of choice. Bake at 350* for approximately 30 minutes, times vary with your oven and altitude. Cake will be firm when done. I always find I need to cook gluten-free recipes a little longer than I think I do. When you think it's done, leave it 5 more minutes.

Nopales Salad

Once again I'm inspired to send a recipe in to the Wild Things Roundup, a monthly foraging recipe challenge. The challenge this month is "Nopales". Have you ever eaten nopales? Many cactuses are edible, but nopales are tasty, both for their paddles, and depending on the species, for their fruit, the prickly pear. Sadly, my plants don't make tasty fruits, but the paddles are delish. I find they taste best, when they are not much larger than an outstretched hand; kind of like a tangy green pepper. It's a good idea to wear gloves when handling them, as the little spines will stick in your hands otherwise. I'm fairly stubborn about touching everything with my skin, so I was regretting that a bit in the evening; but by morning they had worn themselves off. Wear gloves. Cut or twist the paddles from the plant, trying to damage the plant as little as possible so that it can recover and grow new paddles.

My recipe is not terribly original, it's like many tex-mex recipes, but it is tasty, so I hope someone out there enjoys it as much as I do. 

This is a mostly cooked salad. It could be done from a grill. I chose to blacken the veggies in a flat cast iron pan. I think it was designed for cooking fish, but I imagine it to be similar to a Mexican comal, and I use it to blacken veggies whenever I am cooking Mexican, which I love, love, love.

Ok, the ingredients:

1/2 large onion, cut into rounds

5 nopales

2 ears corn

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, these are adding alot to the flavor, so if you can find vine ripe, it'll be so much more flavorful

2 small mild peppers 

1 small jalapenos, depending on your love of hotness

2 cups cooked kidney or black beans

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

salt to taste

1/4 tsp. ground dried or minced fresh, sage

1/4 tsp. garlic

Adjust the seasonings depending on your own tastes.

I blacken the veggies pretty much in whole form, except for the onions. Transfer them to a plate to cool and then de-seed and/or chop them. 

You need to trim off all the spines on the cactus paddles before cooking. Gloves are still handy for this.

The paddles soften fairly quickly so keep an eye on them. You just want them to get tender. 

I do generally blacken tomatoes in this pan, but as you can see, the cherry tomatoes split pretty quickly, and while they didn't take on a yucky flavor, they were hard as hell to clean out of the pan afterward, so maybe steam them? I'm going to have to do it differently next time, maybe saute would be better.

Grill the onion, peppers (all), corn , and tomatoes, and then chop. I did grill the corn in the pan, it took awhile, probably an actual grill would go faster, or boil or steam them if time is a factor. Cut the kernels off the cobs. Save the cobs to add to soup stock, yum.

Mix the chopped and cut veggies in a large bowl. Add the spices, beans, cilantro and salt and adjust to taste. 

Enjoy!

ps. I can't resist adding this photo from the same batch of a lovely bolete from the back yard, ain't it purty?

Forage Spring Rolls

I haven't posted much the last month; it's been nice out, so I've been out. Now it's cold and rainy again, so a little more posting is getting done. I think I put my seedlings out a bit early, but that's a whole other tangent.....

Today I'm posting my recipe for Forage Spring Rolls for the Wild Things roundup for April, which was "flowers".

Spring rolls are wonderful because you can make them with whatever is on hand or in season. Some other possible additions from foraging are: wild ramps/garlic, assorted edible flowers of all kinds, sauteed mushrooms, blanched dock leaves, fish and game, edible weeds of all types, really anything edible can be sliced, chopped or shredded and put inside a spring roll. Although they can be eaten at any time of the year, these were truly a bite of Spring!

This was what I had in mine:

For the flowers, I used maple flowers and dandelions. If you catch the maple flowers just after they open they are quite sweet! I pulled the yellow petals out of the dandelion flowers as the green base can be bitter. 

for 1 spring roll:

2 spring roll wrapper- found in Asian grocery stores. 

blanched nettles, about 1 cup

1/4 cup simmered shrimp

1 sprig mint leaves, pulled off stem

edible flowers

several dandelion leaves, washed

1 green onion, sliced thinly

1 grated carrot

for the dipping sauce:

3 tbsp. maple syrup

2 tbsp. gluten-free (for me) soy sauce

1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil

To soften the spring roll papers, use a pan at least as big as the papers. Simmer enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. Dip the papers in the water for a few seconds and they soften right up. I usually do one at a time so they're easier to manage. I arrange the first one on a plate; spread all my ingredients in a vertical line in the middle of it, and roll it up the best I can, then soften the second paper and wrap it around the first to give it a little more hold together. Spring rolls always dump a bit of the ingredients as you eat them; I just throw those bits into the sauce at the end. Finger food is supposed to be messy. It's best to squeeze most of the water out of the nettles before adding them to the wrapper, so it won't be drippy. I could just drink this sauce without and food, it's so yum!

Another easy way to use foraged flowers is to add them to a couple eggs to make an omelet, which I've done with both the maple flowers and the dandelions, simple and delish.