Wild Edible Recipes - Chickweed & Garlic Mustard

by Tom DiGangi Jr.

As Laura enjoys that second cup of coffee, marveling at the price point for colonial homes in Merida, Mexico while watching House Hunters International, I am stuck figuring out how to cook all those damn weeds with health benefits she keeps leaving on the chopping block.

I doubt cooking is magic or art as some would suggest. Rather, it is craft, based on science and education. You learn how to manipulate stuff that already tastes good into new stuff that hopefully tastes better by applying heat or salt or combining it with other stuff that also tastes good. The chances of success in producing a meal increase dramatically if the cook actually knows a little bit about the stuff to be cooked. At least on Chopped, there are instructions on the packages of the unknown products so the contestant chefs don’t accidentally kill someone by preparing the unknown foods the wrong way – think rhubarb, which has toxic leaves, but edible stalks. Laura’s wild harvests are accompanied by no such guidance.

This leads to a question: What do I know about cooking broad leaf plantain, garlic mustard, lesser celandine or chickweed? The answer: Absolutely, nothing. But, I am willing to experiment. This is science, right? So, I taste, trusting Laura’s has no plans for my early demise.

Garlic mustard, it turns out, tastes not surprisingly like bitter, mustardy garlic, but in leaf form. Chickweed has no distinct flavor, but has a spinach-like texture to its leaf. Here is how I used them to make dinner for two, inspired by the egg and pancetta goodness of carbonara.

Chickweed & Garlic Mustard “Carbonara”

Ingredients

½ oz dried porcini mushrooms (reconstituted by soaking in ½ C hot water)

4 oz crimini or button mushrooms, cut into thick slices

1 small yellow onion (sliced)

1 ½ C garlic mustard leaves

1 ½ C chickweed tips (not the tougher lower stalks)

1 slice pancetta (about ¼ inch thick), cut into sticks

3 T white wine

3 T extra virgin olive oil

½ lb of fusillli pasta

2 egg yolks

½ C grated parmigiano cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil.

Reconstitute the dried porcini in ½ cup of hot water by soaking for at least 15 minutes, drain and reserve the soaking water for later use in the recipe. Roughly chop the reconstituted porcini.

Using 2 tablespoons of the oil, render the pancetta in a large sauté pan, along with the onions. As they begin to brown, add the crimini mushrooms, and continue browning until the pancetta has begun to crisp.  Add the chopped porcini, the reserved soaking water, white wine, chickweed and garlic mustard, and cook together for a few more minutes.

Drop the fusilli into the pot of boiling, well-salted water and cook until al dente.  Remove the pasta from the water and add to the sauce in the sauté pan, with a few tablespoons of the pasta cooking water. Stir and turn off the heat.

Finish by dressing the pasta with the parmigiano cheese, the remaining oil, the egg yolks, and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Stir to combine. The residual heat of the pasta will cook the yolks while maintaining a creamy texture.  Serve immediately, with the same white wine used to make the sauce.

Chickweed & Garlic Mustard Pesto

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Garlic mustard leaves, washed and removed from stem

1 Cup Chickweed leaves, flowers and stems, washed and chopped

1/4 Cup Pistachio nuts

1/4 Cup Extra virgin olive oil

2 T. Grated parmigiano cheese

1 T. Lemon juice

1 t. salt

Procedure

Combine all dry ingredients plus lemon juice in a food processor, and grind. Drizzle in olive oil slowly, pausing to scrape down the sides, until the ingredients form a thick paste. Store in refrigerator. Mix with pasta, warm potatoes, or grain dishes for a healthy meal. Add to soup as a bright flavor booster. Top off cheese and crackers with a small amount. Try it out and have fun!

Eat Your Weeds In Early Spring

"Weed" - such a mean word, rife with anger and judgement, with a healthy dose of disgust. "I have to weed! Look at all these damn weeds! My lawn looks like crap because of all the WEEEEEEEEEDS!!!" But what makes a plant a weed, as opposed to a flower, vegetable, or natural remedy? Only you, my friend, only you. Wouldn't you enjoy gardening a bit more if you could look at the view out of your kitchen window and think "Ah, look at that lovely expanse of medicinal and edible wild plants that I didn't have to do any work to sow or produce! Good thing that I am under no obligation to do anything about removing them due to their many health benefits. I think I'll have another cup of coffee and watch 'Househunters International' for the 450th time." Well, you're in luck. I'm going to spend the next few months exploring the many uses of these volunteer plants so you can consider them a crop, and save yourself the time and trouble of eliminating them with chemicals. Let's get started learning about zone 6 spring time edibles. Our next post will have a few fun recipes created by the husband and designated garden chef, Tom DiGangi!

Garlic Mustard - alliaria petiolata 

spring garlic mustard before sending up flower stalks

We have lots of this growing in the moist shady areas around the edges of our yard. This biennial will be 2-3 feet tall if left to flower and produce seed. At this stage in spring, it's a low growing clump of triangular to heart-shaped leaves with toothed edges that smell like garlic when crushed. Like most wild greens and herbs, the leaves are mildest and most edible when young, before the plant bolts and produces flowers. We use this like a strong flavored cooked green, although it's also tender enough to be eaten raw and fresh in salads. Make sure you check out Tom's garlic mustard recipes in our next post!

Wild Garlic - allium viveale

a lovely wild garlic portrait by Tom DiGangi

Also called field garlic and wild onion, this bulbous perennial looks like small clumps of tall thin grass. When crushed, it gives off a strong garlic/onion odor. In May and June, it will flower and produce little
bulbs, which are also edible. We use the wild garlic grassy leaves just like you would use chives - to sprinkle on top of any finished meat, vegetable, or soup dish to add an extra burst of flavor and freshness.

Dandelion - taraxacum officinale
Do I even need to describe this one? Dandelion, the most hated of lawn invaders, produces yellow flowers, white puffy seed heads, and has a tap root that goes from here to China. All plant parts serve as food and are rich in vitamins A and C. Flowers can be battered and deep fried, leaves can be cooked or eaten raw, and the root can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute. Since I married one of those Italian types, we've been eating dandelion in various formats for quite awhile, so I won't repeat the recipes here. Instead, check out the following old blog posts for some inventive dandelion applications created by Tom:

• why you should eat dandelions
• soup recipe
• pasta recipe

Chickweed - stellaria media

chickweed running up a raised bed

Also called starwort, starweed and satin flower. Chickweed has a variety of external and internal medicinal uses that I will get into later, since we're only talking about wild edibles in this post. This prostrate annual pops up every early spring and furiously takes over my sleeping vegetable garden. After years of cursing up and down about this thing, I finally determined what it was and learned about it's positive properties. I believe this year I finally made peace with this little creep(er), although I still wind up pulling up and composting more than I save. Chickweed is chock full of vitamins, and has a fresh grassy taste good for eating fresh in salads. The leaves, stems and flowers are all edible. I created a pesto using it along with garlic mustard, since its milder flavor tempers the stronger tones of the garlic mustard. I'm also going to dry some, and steep fresh parts in alcohol to make a tincture. Multiple generations can grow per year, so if you want to limit the amount of chickweed you are harvesting, get it out of the ground before the flowers produce seed.

chickweed running amok in my strawberry bed

FOILED!

This SHOULD have been a post about springtime wild edibles in New Jersey. I had full intentions of traversing my weed filled lawn and surrounding wooded areas to harvest wild garlic, garlic mustard, chickweed, and dandelion. My finds would be thoroughly washed and prepped, and then dramatically handed to Tom so he could use his innate food nerd skills to whip them into something delicious. The result would be an informative blog post written by me, including Tom's experimental recipes. Instead, I spent a beautiful weather week cooped up in the house, bouncing between a demanding infant and a sick nine year old, hence the name of this post. If the above topics intrigue you, consider checking out some old blog posts of mine about why you should eat dandelions, and how you can eat them in soup and pasta. And you can find detailed info about these plants, as well as many others, from wild food expert Wildman Steve Brill.

Instead of providing you new and interesting information about eating your lawn, this post will mostly be a note to myself about all the work I need to do in the garden in the next few weeks. Down with runny noses and hacking coughs! Onward!

In zone 6, it's time to:

• Direct sow carrots, beets, turnips and cilantro
• Plant broccoli, kohlrabi, and cauliflower plants
• Freshen up mulch in landscaped beds

In my veg/herb/medicinals garden, I need to:

• Plant quinoa, calendula, carrots and cilantro seeds
• Plant onion bulbs among potatoes
• Layout new tomato/pepper beds and put out Wall-o-waters
• Harvest and dry chickweed
• Up pot seedlings
• Lay out paths with cardboard and hay
• Buy more lavender and perfume roses
• Start basil seeds

In my landscape, I need to:

• Transplant helleborus volunteers to the woods
• Weed beds that need wood mulch
• Build new front of house bed (?)
• Consider weeding/mulching medicinal bed

My Seed Planting "Schedule"

In most areas of my life, there's usually a large difference between what I Should do and what I Actually do. For example, I Should just pay the stupid money and get the DVR box. Instead, what I Actually do is memorize the time and channel of my favorite shows and plant myself in front of the TV, like I'm from the 60's or something. I even have to watch commercials! The horror! And then when life gets in the way and I miss my favorite show, I loudly and adamantly complain about it, as if no solution exists.

My refusal to have DVR power doesn't really stem from my inherent cheapness. OK, it mostly stems from my inherent cheapness. But as I see it, it's also a Buddhist lesson in non-attachment. So I miss a program or two (or an entire series, or a complete pop culture revolution). It's just a freaking TV show, right? It's not really the end of the world. And if I catch it the following week, I can pretty much figure out what I missed. It's somewhat more important that I Actually take care of my kids, spend time with my husband, and enjoy life in the moment it's happening.

The whole Should/Actually process works the same for me in the word of gardening. I Should plant seeds in the garden according to this schedule (and so should you, zone 6'ers):

• Mid-March: peas
• Early April: radish, spinach, lettuces, onion, potatoes, cilantro
• Mid-April: beets, kale, greens, carrots, parsnips, turnips, chamomile
• Early May: basil
• Mid-May: beans

I Actually am planting seeds in the garden according to this schedule:

• Mid-March: peas
• Sometime In April: everything else, on a day or series of days when the weather is nice/baby is sleeping/Sophia is being babysat/we don't have visitors/we aren't visiting anyone/important body parts are injury free.

So maybe I'm not the most detailed gardener around. And I'm sure I'd get better output if I would actually get a plan and stick to it with no exceptions (for those of you who love a plan, you can get your own customized seed starting/planting schedule here) . However, I feel I can take seed planting liberties for a few reasons. First, I generally do my spring gardening in well-draining raised beds with soil that's been amended. This soil heats up faster and is ready to work earlier than normal. Because the drainage is good, I don't worry about the seeds sitting around rotting if the soil is still a little too cold. I also don't worry about planting seeds too late. If I get a smaller harvest than I should, eh, no big deal. I can always let the crop bolt, produce flowers, go to seed, and then let the seeds naturally dry and fall where they want to. When the soil cools down again in September, the seeds wake up and produce the crop that I should have had in the spring. This happened to me last year with a delicious lettuce called mache. Not only did it produce plants in the fall, but somehow the seedlings overwintered and we are NOW eating fresh delicious salads from the lettuce bed (and pathways and other beds and everywhere else the seed went, as evidenced in this picture). My point is, don't get hung up on schedules. Just get out there and get dirty!

Specifically, my current outdoor seed planting accomplishments to date are:

• Peas, Super Sugar Snap & Burpeanna Early: 3/22
• Raised bed #1: Brassicas (Cabbage Family) 4/6
• Turnip, Golden Ball
• Kale, Dwarf Blue Curly & Lacinato
• Radish, Watermelon, Salad Rose, Easter Egg II, French Breakfast
• Raised bed #2: Chenopodiaceae (Beet family) 4/6
• Beets, Chiogga, Touchstone Gold, Cylindra
• Spinach, Avon Hybrid, Salad Select
• Swiss Chard, Burpee's Rhubarb
• Raised bed #4: Solanaceae (Potato and tomato family) 4/7
• Potatoes, Red Norland & Kennebec
• Underneath the grapevines: 4/6
• Cilantro
• Chamomile, German
• Fennel, Bea

(grapevine beds on the left, four 10'x4' beds on the right, pizza box pathway down the middle. still looking for hay to cover the cardboard!)

Veggie garden to-do list:

• Manure on asparagus bed
• Plant onion bulbs asap
• Plant lettuce and carrot family seeds at some point
• Lay out garden paths with cardboard then cover with hay
• Set up soaker hoses

That's all for now, but that's plenty. Quick, you have five minutes before the kids get home - go plant something!

Laura

Computer Gardening - NOT Farmville!

In chatting with some friends on Facebook about seed planting times, especially in reference to the act of remembering to plant said seeds, I recalled something as well. I wrote a blog post awhile ago with a link to an excellent online seed starting chart. In that same post, I talked about other online gardening resources. Since that was a whopping two years ago and a million things have changed since then computer-wise, a good old blog post rewrite is in order.

Seed Starting/Planting Charts: I used Organic Gardening Magazine's seed starting chart for years until I found this online version that calculates the math for me. Check out the "lazy gardener's seed starting chart" at You Grow Girl. All you have to do is download it, and enter the recommended planting date for your time zone. It consists of a list of common garden veggies, how long they take to grow from seed, and how many weeks before or after your last frost date that they should be planted. It also specifies whether the plant should be seeded directly into the ground, or started indoors under lights.

Another option is at "The Vegetable Garden". This site also does the thinking for you by allowing you to enter your zip code to get your USDA planting zone. After that, you can use their zone specific planting guide to determine when to get established plants into the ground. This guide will NOT help you start your own seeds, and you need to intuitively know if they are referring to planting direct by seed, or planting established plants. This one also gives a broader range for planting dates, whereas the You Grow Girl chart is more precise. Either way, it's better than guessing!

Online Garden Planners: Two years ago, I was claiming to "still love my pencil/graph paper/college rule notebook." Bah! Never again. This will be my third garden season using the Mother Earth News  online vegetable garden planner.  It rocks, and I'm hooked. I made a map of my garden, drew in the established raised planting beds and fixed paths, and perennial vegetables. Every season, I keep that layout and move around my annual vegetables in a new saved plan. In this way, I can manage successive sowing and crop rotation. The planner has extra features as well, including planting charts and email reminders.

You can try the service out for yourself for 30 days to see if it would be useful for your garden, and the demo videos show you exactly how to input your garden bed layout. After that, it's a subscription service of $24 per year. For a small garden, this planner is overkill. Also, the planner only includes vegetables, herbs and fruit crops. If your garden is mostly flowers and landscape plantings, the database is inadequate.  

Gardening Apps: I hung around on Google Play and tried out a few smartphone based garden planners and didn't like them much. Other planners had terrible reviews and I didn't even try them. I think I am personally not inclined to involve my phone in gardening, which is wise on my part. I garden like the Muppet Show's Swedish chef cooks. Things get thrown, tools get damaged, and I wind up speaking in foreign gibberish. My phone had best stay out of the fray.

However, if you garden more like Martha Stewart, in your pressed khakis and perfectly clean SPF 50 lightweight gardening shirt, you might successfully garden and update your phone at the same time. To that end, I am filching some app reviews from a recent article from one of my favorite publications, The Herb Quarterly.

Map it - "Garden Tracker" (Apple) - $1.99. This might be a good (and cheap) option for small gardens. The app allows you to lay out a rectangular garden up to 2500 square feet and fill it with 65 veggies and herbs. It includes info about planting, garden pests, and lunar phases. If you use this and like it, let me know.

When do I plant? - "Gardenate" (Android) - $1.99. Enter your zone, and get info on what you can plant each month.

For city folk - "Urban Gardening" (Android) - free. Get news from various blogs about container gardening on balconies.

Herbs for beginners - "Herbs+" (Apple) - $2.99. Gardening and cooking tips for 40 common herbs.

Name that plant - "Botany Buddy" (Apple) - $9.99 and "Landscaper's Companion" (Apple and Android) - $4.99. Botany Buddy has in depth coverage of about 2000 plants, while Landscaper's Companion catalogs 25,000 plants in 17 categories.

Name that tree - "Leafsnap" (Apple, Android in development) - free. This one uses visual-recognition software to identify a tree by a picture of the leaf. How freaking cool is that?? I can't wait for the Android version. Currently it only covers trees native to the northeast, but they're working on covering the whole U.S.

Name that shroom - "Wild Mushrooms of North America and Europe by Roger Phillips" (Apple) - $1.99 and "Roger Phillips Mushrooms" (Android) - $3.99. Go mushroom hunting with this app, which covers 1500 varieties of edible, poisonous and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Have fun, and bring snacks!

Name that critter - Apps from the National Audubon Society (Apple and Android) - $4.99. Decide between birds, butterflies, insects, spiders and other garden friends.

Name that wild food - "Wild Edibles" (Apple), $7.99. Naturalist and funnyman Steve Brill made this app. We followed him around on a local tour presented by our county park system, and when it was through, considered ourselves fully informed about the food value of our local "weeds." If Steve isn't coming to your town, you can get the app instead.

At this point in an ideal world, I would insert an image of my growing seedlings or some screenshots of my online garden planner. But I have yet to document this year's gardening attempts, and my garden plan is too big to upload to the web. In the meantime, here's a nice picture Tom took last summer of The Buddha, a grasshopper and a bunch of zinnias. Happy spring!

Garden Status Update

No, my garden is not on Facebook. But here is what's up as of 3/24:

Indoor seeds: Almost all of the tomatoes are doing well and have their first set of true leaves except for my San Marzanos (10 year old seeds - I guess they are finally dead). Despite my best efforts at labeling, I have two sets of seeds marked "Great White", one of which is thriving profusely and the other which has no hints of seedlings whatsoever. This will be an adventure. The peppers and eggplant are coming up more slowly and the tomatillos are not up yet at all. The rest of the seeds are so-so. The Bea fennel, celeriac, parsley and shiso are not up yet. The others are producing, even the mystery seed. The next step will be to leave one strong seedling in each cell of the tomato and pepper packs. The others will stay as-is since they were sown in plastic grape tomato containers and will get planted earlier than the others.

Outdoor seeds: None of the herb seeds in my Earth Boxes came up. Either it's not warm enough in the greenhouse or they all rotted from being constantly wet and cold. We'll have to see about that one.

This weekend I started some cold weather seeds in the greenhouse to get a jump on the planting season. These are, for the most part, normally sown outside directly in the soil in April.

Box #1: Spinach - Baby's Leaf, Mustard Greens - Florida Broadleaf, Escarole - Eros, Kale - Lacinato, Purslane - Golden, Mibuna - Early

Box #2: Turnip - Golden Ball, Beet - Chioggia & Touchstone Gold & Cylindra, Parsnip - Hollow Crown, Swiss Chard - Bright Lights

Soaked seeds were planted along the fence among the grapes, about 24 feet each of the Burpeeana Early and Super Sugar Snap. Sweet peas were planted in pots and in the rose bed.

General maintenance:
Weeded the pea bed. Started to lay cardboard out for garden bed paths (to be later topped with straw).

To Do:
Finish weeding raised beds in lower part of garden. Continue to lay out cardboard and keep an eye out for straw for sale. Rebuild collapsed asparagus bed. Start artichoke and parsley seeds. Thin tomato seedlings and feed with fish emulsion. Fertilize asparagus, blueberries, hydrangea, rhodes.

Peas Interrupted

What is WITH this weather. Normally, I am getting my peas into the ground now. Today my ground is covered with sleet and ice and generally unpleasant forms of precipitation. And although I have read that you can just push aside that snow and plant your peas anyway, I'm not doing it. Why? Because the ground beneath is full of sleeping weeds that I didn't get to yet during the balmy weather at the beginning of the month. I am sure, based on past experience, that I will accidentally pull up peas if I weed after the fact. Also, it's damn cold out there, and I'm not that dedicated to the cause. I have another plan.

Instead, I am going to start my peas between wet paper towels placed in plastic bags, all 3rd grade earth science style. I've noticed that this somehow gives me multiple weeks jump in pea production. I believe this is because I am not good at keeping peas consistently watered, and therefore it takes them at least three weeks to come up when they go right into the ground. But if I sprout them first a little indoor, I can see their little heads peeking up through the soil within a week.

This year, I'm planting only two edible pea types - one snap pea (Super Sugar Snap) and one shelling (Burpeeana Early). I usually plant too many types, never label them properly, and never know when to pick them. I'm going to grow these in the grape beds so i can trellis them up bamboo poles while stabilizing the poles with the grapevine wire.

While I have peas on the brain, I'm also soaking some very adorable sweet peas. Contrary to what their name implies, these guys are not edible, and may even be poisonous. The flowers are beautiful though and good for cutting. I'm trying three kinds: "Color Palette Cupid" - 8" tall and destined to be a spring centerpiece on my patio table. "Explorer Mix" - 2.5 feet tall and meant for my giant deck planter. "April in Paris" - 8 feet tall. I think these will hang out in the same bed with my perfume rose.

Regardless of my hesitation, snow or no snow, those peas have to get in the ground this weekend. My pea planting schedule will not be interrupted!

Seed Starting: Heirloom vs. Hybrid vs. Wacky

"I don't have time!" I said to myself. "I have too much other shit to do!" I declared. "I'll just have to buy actual plants this year." Decision made.

But then I found myself again at Home Depot for a bag of dirt. Sixty dollars later I am carrying out an infant, a bag of dirt, and a pile of seeds. (Note: infants not for sale at Home Depot)

First, a lesson in seed terminology. Second, my list of seeds started this week including an explanation of the bizarro ones.

Heirloom vs. Hybrid Seeds
The above terms used for plants and seeds describe how a plant has come into the world. Heirloom plants are older varieties whose seeds have been saved and passed down over time. The plants are "open pollinated" and seeds from an heirloom vegetable will produce plants that have the same properties as the parent. In the case of tomatoes, heirloom plants also might be "determinate" which means that they grow to only a certain height and their fruits ripen all at once. "Indeterminate" varieties grow more like vines, and the fruits ripen in succession and produce all season long. All the heirlooms I grow are indeterminate, which means we have a fabulous time ever year figuring out the best way to support them while they grow. But more on our trellising adventures later in the season.

On the other hand, hybrid plants are intentionally produced by cross pollinating two different varieties of plants in hopes of developing a version with specific qualities of both parent plants. Seeds from a hybrid plant will not produce the same exact plant as the original. Hybrid plants are often bred for convenience (small plant sizes, disease resistance, fruits that package well and don't bruise) rather than flavor, which is why I usually go heavy on the heirlooms. However, I do think that a hybrid home grown tomato is better than what you can get in the store, so my "Beaverlodge" tomato variety is an early hybrid that I can usually get to produce in early July.

My Heirlooms:

• Pepper - Corno di Toro
• Tomato - Polish Linguisa
• Tomato - Great White
• Tomato - Purple Calabash
• Tomato - Yellow Perfection
• Tomato - San Marzano
• Tomato - Sugar Snack

My Hybrids:

• Tomato - Beaverlodge
• Eggplant - Little Prince

My Wacky Stuff (Another note: "wacky" is not a seed type. I just don't know what these things are and am figuring that you don't either):

• Root Parsley "Hamburg" and Celeriac/Root Celery - We're big fans of root vegetables here. Big. And there are way more interesting root vegetables than carrots. These two are delicious, and add a fun twist to mashed potatoes or a roasted veggie platter. They both taste like their edible foliage, but are milder. In these varieties, the roots are the stars.  
• Tomatillo - Fundamental to salsa verde, tomatillos are a Mexican food staple and a member of the same plant family as tomatoes. One plant produces like crazy, but I can never stop myself from planting two of them.
• Broccoli "Romanesco" - I suck at growing broccoli so I don't have high hopes for this. I might grow it in the greenhouse to try to avoid the inevitable cabbageworm attack. If it does actually grow, it will produce a whole head of lime green, pointy florets that look similar to Madonna's cone bra in her Blonde Ambition tour.
• Shiso, Green - I've never grown this and am not sure I've even seen it in real life. Shiso is a traditional Japanese cooking herb with aromatic cinnamon-flavored leaves. Also comes in purple. If it works, we might see some fancy new recipes coming from Tommy-San.
• Malabar Spinach "Red Stem" - Another newcomer to my garden. This is a tropical vine that grows in the heat of summer, and is described as spinach-like. I love the idea of a spinachish plant for summer, so we're trying this.
• Epazote - Herb native to South America and used in Mexican food, especially bean dishes. This has the potential to be a rotten weed in these parts, so grow in a pot and watch for volunteer baby plants in your garden beds. I haven't had a chance to cook with this, but it's supposed to help bean related digestive problems. Here's to hoping.
• Cavolo Broccolo Spigariello, called "leaf broccoli" - I got these seeds in the Christmas Tree Shop of all places. It attracted me because the whole rack of seed was all in Italian and I couldn't identify the plant in the picture. Google tells me that this has little broccoli heads but is really grown for the leaf and harvests like kale. It's a cut and come again plant that will grow all season. Let's see if it works.
• Fennel, Bulbing "Trieste" - Tom is totally obsessed with fennel bulbs for cooking and insists we grow as much of this as possible. We never use all that we grow. I used to think that was fine because the plant would flower and go to seed, but seeds never seemed to appear. It turned out that some fennel varieties are grown for seed and others for the bulb, but there are no varieties that do both. If you know of one, dear reader, please inform me! In the meantime, we will be growing the "Trieste" variety for seed, and also the ......
• Fennel, Seed "Bea" - ..... and this one for seed. I named it "Bea" after a sweet gal named Bea Kunz, owner of Sage Hill Farms, who graciously sent me this seed. I can't wait to grow it and harvest my own! If I get a good enough crop, maybe I will take a page from the book of Bea, and share my harvest.
• Mystery Seed - This is thanks to my excellent labeling skills. What is it? Who knows. It could be a kind of basil. Or maybe columbine. As of now, it is planted, and we will just see what develops.

Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next week!

Laura

It's the Year Of the Heirloom Grain!

What has two thumbs, crazy eyes, and an unrealistic sense of time restrictions ? This gal! It's nearly spring again, and I'm nearly out of my mind with excitement for garden prep. And just like every year, I begin with a burst of high enthusiasm and enormous destined-to-fail plans. This year's grand schemes are listed numerically below. Commentary by the lunatic that takes over my logic and reasoning abilities every spring follows.

1.) I will blog every week, even if it's just a paragraph to log what I've done. [This one is totally doable because I have so much spare time! I'm sure my disabled 9 year old and newborn infant will magically become completely self-sufficient every Sunday evening at the exact moment I sit down at my computer! No problem! And I'll even still find time to shower!!]

2.) I will fertilize all vegetables and perennials according to their individual specifications and requirement. [I don't know anything about fertilizing beyond randomly throwing compost on plants when I remember to. As long as you put a plant in dirt, it should grow - right?  But this year I'm going to be totally organized! I'm going to N-P-K the shit out of this place, and these plants won't know what hit them! They will be happy and healthy and wildly productive, and I will be the best gardener ever. EVER!!!]

3.) I will plant and grow my own heirloom wheat and make homemade bread out of it. [OK! Even my enthusiastic looney-toon self knows that this is just batshit crazy. But why not? Why shouldn't I try? I'm almost forty, and not getting any younger. The time to do weird shit is now, and I believe this goal qualifies.]

Go ahead, laugh. I certainly am. I, too, observe myself with a detached bemusement, having seen myself pull this stunt time and time again. But I fully embrace the silliness and hope of March while preemptively forgiving myself for not following through. I'm sure someone/everyone has said this better, but if we don't have hope, what do we have? And who knows - one of these years, I just might go ahead and kick some ass, just as I intended. Better stay tuned to see if 2013 is that year.

And so to fulfill goal #1 for the week -

Accomplished this week:

• Started herb seeds in the greenhouse in Earth Boxes. Box #1, all basils: Genovese, Sweet, Lemon, Greek, Lime & Dark Opal. Box #2: Cilantro, Chervil, Summer Savory, Watercress.
• Cut back grapes.
• Ordered specialty seeds: Lacinato Kale, Imperial Star Artichoke, Red Garnet Amaranth, Red Head Quinoa.

To-do:

• Start indoor seeds, especially tomatoes and peppers.
• Prune roses
• Finish garden and perennial bed clean up.
• Fertilize asparagus, blueberries & hydrangea.
• Rebuild collapsed raised beds (hear that, Tommy?)

Goals number two and three require more research so more on those later. I would include a picture of the current state of disrepair of the vegetable beds but the baby is crying. Yep, this is totally going to work just fine!

Laura

Real Sicilian-Style Pizza

Written and Photographed by Tom DiGangi, Jr. 

My grandmother lived with my family when I was a boy.  And, I learned a lot about food because of it.  She was born and raised in the small hill town of St Anna on the southern coast of Sicily before she settled in Philadelphia after an eventful emigration from the old country.  As I have been told, the journey involved a gun, a stowaway, and oddly enough, a donkey.  But, that is a story for another day.

Grandma used to make a pan pizza that I still dream about.  It bore no resemblance to the uber-cheesy, topping heavy, beasts that Pizza Hut, Pizzeria Uno, or any of the other unfortunately Italianesque chains perpetrate on diners in shopping centers and food courts around the US and the globe. 

No.  Bernadina Abruzzo’s pizza was sublime.  A medium crust - not to thin, not to thick, crispy to bite, yet airy to chew - was the foundation for it all.  The rest was incredibly simple.  A base-coat of fine olive oil.  A sparing amount of homemade tomato sauce, lightly flavored with garlic and basil, topped the crust.  An even more sparing dusting of parmigano, or more often then not, pecorino, cheese finished the pie.  After all, she was from Sicily, where sheep milk and its resulting pecorino cheese still reigns supreme. 

  

Simple as it was, I cannot imitate it and have given up.  Instead, I have taken to improvising on her theme of simple, high-quality ingredients used in shockingly small proportions.  The following recipe is one of those attempts.  It elicited a “this is absolutely delicious” response from Laura who rarely expresses praise above “good.”  What can I say?  She is part German, so as long as the food is on time, it’s usually o.k. by her.  With that context, “delicious” is high praise.

Pan Pizza with fennel sausage, mushrooms and arugula

Ingredients

4 Cups Pizza Dough – see recipe

4 Oz. Sweet Pork Sausage with Fennel

1 1/2 Cups Tomato Sauce, homemade – see recipe

4 Sun-dried Tomatoes, finely diced

2 T Dry Vermouth

2 Cups Hen of the Woods Mushrooms (A.K.A. Maitake), roughly chopped

(substitute with crimini or button mushrooms)

2 Cups Arugula, roughly chopped

1 Cup grated Caciocavalo Cheese

1 Cup grated Parmigano Reggiano Cheese

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Procedure

To make the pizza dough…

Laura makes great (and easy) bread dough every week that we leave in the fridge.  Check out Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for the recipe and procedure.  When we want to make bread, we pull out a handful of the dough, form it into the desired shape and let it rise for an hour while the oven is heating-up.  To convert this bread dough into pizza dough, we add a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and kneed it in.  Then, let it rise in an oiled bowl on the countertop for a couple of hours, but it could sit there all day and would only get better.  The longer the dough is left to rise, the lighter the pizza crust.  You could always use store-bought dough, but you wouldn’t, would you?

To make the tomato sauce…

Sauté a few cloves of crushed garlic in a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil until lightly browned.  As you may infer, precise measurements are not critical here.  Add a small can (about 20 oz) of high-quality whole plum tomatoes that you crush with you hands or a masher.  Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.  Season with salt, add about a dozen leaves of whole basil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Done!

To assemble the pizza…

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a sauté pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add the sausage, crumbling it into small pieces.  Cook over medium heat until brown.  Add the sun-dried tomatoes, tomato sauce and two tablespoons of dry vermouth.  Scrap the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release any good stuff stuck to the pan.  Simmer for a few minutes and set aside.

Coat a half sheet pan with a liberal amount of extra-virgin olive oil.  It should be thick enough so that you can write your name in the oil in the pan with your finger.  Stretch the dough with your hands to roughly the size of the pan without breaking the dough.  Do not use a rolling pin, as this will break the edges and release the air from the dough.  Your goal is to keep as much of the developed air (or rise) from escaping from the dough.  Press the dough into the pan, leaving at least a half-inch edge to develop the perfect crust handle.  If the dough is too elastic and pulls away from the sides, let it rest a few minutes, then finish the job.

Remember, it is all about the dough, so add the toppings sparingly!  Start with the tomato sauce and sausage, then the mushrooms and cheeses.  Reserve the arugula.

Place the pizza-in-a-pan on the center rack in a 400-degree oven for 10 minutes.  Then rotate the pan and cook for another 10 minutes.  Add the arugula and return to the oven for three to five minutes.  Total cooking time is approximately 25 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and let rest for at least five minutes before serving. 

Accompaniment

I dreamed-up and indulged in a cocktail while making this dish, and named it the British Virgin Islander, because it incorporates the English favorite, gin, with the Caribbean staple, rum.  But, there is nothing virgin about it.  If someone else has already created this drink or used this name, please accept my apologies.  I am aware of neither.

In a shaker, mix plenty of ice with 1 part gin, 1 part white rum, ¼ part dry vermouth, juice of ½ of a lemon, and juice of ½ an orange.  Mix and strain into a chilled martini glass.  Finish with a rim garnish of a wedge of orange and a wedge of lemon. 

I can’t promise you’ll love it, or that it goes best with the pizza, but it felt right to me. Enjoy!

Secrets to a Great Fall Harvest

Written By: Tom DiGangi, Jr.

Photos By: Laura Knott & Tom DiGangi, Jr.

Each autumn, friends and family respond with quizzical looks and surprised comment when we report on the garden’s output in October, November and – yes, sometimes – December.  When most folks are raking leaves and tossing rotting jack-o-lanterns, we are harvesting greens, peppers, root vegetables, and an assortment of herbs.

What then is the secret to a great fall harvest, you may ask?  Actually, it’s at least three secrets.

First, the gardener must be lazy or preoccupied, and fail to harvest in summer.  See previous blog posts, such as this post , which shall serve as testimony to the truism about us being lazy or preoccupied.  This year, we simply didn’t harvest our fennel bulbs when they were ready in July – preoccupied I suppose.  Maybe we were too busy watching the Philadelphia Phillies magical 102 win regular season.  Then nature took its course. The large stalks began to die in the heat of summer, and all hope was lost for a harvest.  Yet we let the dying plants just stay in place – lazy I suppose.  Don’t repeat this to the kids, but our inaction was ultimately rewarded.  Now, young bright green fennel plants are emerging around the brown and brittle stalks.

Unfortunately, this is not metaphor for the Phillies season, as they failed to sprout anew in the playoffs, instead just dying-off after the regular season.  But, at least I have fennel for football season.  Sunday football will feature whey-fed pork sausage sandwiches (from our friends at Bobolink farm) with sautéed fennel.  I can taste it already.  That sandwich could benefit from some peppers.  But, peppers - you say - are summer fruits.  They can’t join the party.  This brings us to secret number two.

Invest in a fabric “greenhouse” or plastic “coldframe” to keep your summer plants going into winter.  The theory is that a transparent cover over your planting beds allows sunlight in to warm the soil during the day and traps warm air throughout the night.  If the greenhouse is too great an investment, then pick-up some cheap cloth row covers that you use to literally cover your crops (i.e., a sleeping bag for plants).  You can remove them in the morning to allow direct sunlight and replace them in the evening to keep off the frost.  They won’t work too long into the cold months, but will definitely extend the growing season.  With row covers on, chances are the pepper plants, like the Giant Marconi seen here,

will last longer than my beloved Philadelphia Eagles will remain in the NFL playoff hunt.  However, defeat in sports is much easier to digest when followed by a sausage, fennel and pepper sandwich.

Let’s say that you don’t have the patience for row cover management, or you're just not that into peppers.  Then, focus on secret number three... next year.

Plant a garden that produces more than just summer season favorites like tomatoes, eggplant or cucumbers.  Add in cool weather crops like celery root, fennel, horseradish, leeks, peppers, pumpkins, spinach, swiss chard and turnips.  In our garden, these are all still going strong this fall.  Some of these crops can be planted in spring for an early summer harvest, and may produce a second harvest in the fall.  The fennel and swiss chard did just that for us this year.  The multi-season life of chard is evident in this photo.

New crisp leaves appear from the tops of the roots, now revealed from the snipping of leaves from those roots all year long. 

Come to think of it, that swiss chard sautéed in a bit of garlic and olive oil would go really well with the sausage, fennel and peppers.  Now, if we could figure out how to grow beer, then we would really have something to make us feel better about Philadelphia sports this autumn.

A Beginner's Cut Flower Garden - First Steps

An ideal day for a cut flower article would have been Mother's Day, but I am running severely behind schedule (as usual) and  haven't gotten to it. I normally celebrate Mother's Day with a reprint of my favorite blog entry ever, known as Joyce's Mother's Day Heist. Alas, even that little bit of nostalgia got passed over this year in the May melee of summer garden prep.

You see, we last left off in the fall with the semi-completion of what I fondly call "The Great Wall of Tommy" (hereafter known as GWOT). All of the remaining grass inside our fence was tilled up and turned into a two-tiered vegetable garden with about 17 raised beds, plus the plantings all around the fence perimeter. In total it's about 3600 square feet of delicious full sun exposure resulting in (FINALLY!) enough room for a cut flower garden.

I've always wanted cut flowers but felt that every square inch of sun needed to be reserved for tomatoes and peppers. That would not have been a problem if only I lived in Vermont somewhere in the proximity of Waitsfield. If I did, I would just buy a share of Amy's Organic Cut Flowers and let her do all the work. A $100 share gets you 10 fresh bouquets - one per week for ten weeks. That is an amazing deal, considering you would pay about the same amount for non-organic, non-local, and not-long-for-this-world flowers from your grocery store. I really wish I lived closer and could do this, but without an expensive relocation on the horizon, I figured the next best thing would be too start digging and then check in with Amy Todisco herself for some advice.

The two beds I chose flank the GWOT, and will hopefully make a lovely first impression upon entry to the veggies. The bed on the left had been empty and mulched last fall, and was not too bad when April rolled around. However, the bed on the right had some token fall plantings and no mulch. The result? Well, let's see. Or let's talk about what you DON'T see here: some lovely varieties of stonecrop slowly choking to death , a series of unimpressed rose of sharon saplings, overwintered ornamental cabbages, depressed mums, buried lamb's ears, a high-maintenance diva rosebush crying into her martini, and my lonely little buddha (though enlightened and non-attached, still secretly wishing to be back safely on the shelf at the Christmas Tree Shoppe with his other identical buddha friends). What you DO see is an obnoxious little white flowered creeper called chickweed, which spreads by running along the ground and dropping seeds to come up next year. The bed on the left had a total of about four of these plants and took minutes to weed. But weeding that other bed resulted in scenes both dirty and graphic, involving filth, sweat, and various and sundry four letter words. Let's take this time to look away, and check in with Amy about some important first steps.

I asked Amy for advice about starting a cut flower garden for the first time. What follows is Amy's handy to-do list.


1. Choose a full sun location (at least 8 hours per day).
2. Soil should drain well.
3. I would recommend getting a soil test to see what kind of fertility it has and what it might need. Usually the agricultural extension office in each state can provide this for gardeners.
4. Choose flowers. Probably planting seedlings versus seeds is the easier route for the first garden. Seeds take a long time and it's more satisfying for the new gardener to see something already in the ground.
5. Ideally, grow organically (which means using compost as opposed to Miracle Gro, as well as liquid seaweed and/or fish emulsion for fertilizer, and no pesticides.)
6. Water, weed, and watch as the flowers grow, attracting butterflies and bees, and impressed onlookers.

Wonderful! Now here's the part where I admit that I asked Amy's advice after already choosing the site, buying plants, and digging. As luck would have it, I did pretty well except for the soil test part.  I always mean to get one of those! One of these days ...

Soon after I started, my beds looked more like this:

I managed to rescue the lamb's ears from the right and move them to the left bed, as seen above. The mums and rose of sharon trees were relocated, and the cabbages put in a pot until their inevitable death due to the heat of summer. Most of the stonecrop survived, and I transplanted some creeping thyme between the stones in the path. The diva rose stayed put, shooting me dirty looks and talking on her tiny cell phone the whole time  (she's named "Bella Donna" so I should've known she'd be a pain). The buddha breathed a sigh of relief and I gave him a nice wild portulacca plant to hold in his cupped hands. Done.

And now for the real fun. I had already done the shopping for plants, doing a lot of googling to find recommendations. I was planning on mixing perennials with annual plants, annual seeds and even vegetables, space permitting. Here's my current inventory:

Perennials - Foxglove, Delphinium, Liatris, Thrift, English Daisy, Sea Holly, Yarrow, Blanket Flower, Salvia, Peony, Lupine

Annuals - Zinnia, Osteospermum, Dahlia, Snapdragon, Cosmos

Seeds - Zinnia, Sunflowers, Sweet Peas

Veg - Malabar Spinach, Grapevine (to grow over the deck)

Of course, I had to ask Amy about her favorites as well: "Let's see, my favorite cut flowers at this point, and I may change my mind after this season growing some new ones, are zinnias, sweet peas and snapdragons. I also like the perennial peonies-the more fragrant the better. And, I love lavender-the flowers, the essential oil, you name it." That means Amy can jump off the turnpike the next time she's cutting through Jersey to get someplace else and will still be able to find her favorite flowers in my yard!

And there you have it. My cut flower garden is on it's way, but not completed. The plants are in, seeds are sprouting, soaker hoses are laid out, but the mulch isn't in place. I'd like to have my "after" picture with some big beautiful flowers in it, so give me another month for the fascinating conclusion of my cut flower adventure! Thanks again to Amy Todisco for indulging my requests for input, and best of luck to her and her cut flower garden CSA. Please check out her websites, especially the cool products she offers on her website www.greenlivingnow.com.

Thanks for reading, and see you soon!

Wild Foods Of Spring: Fresh Trout and Twin Crustini

by Tom DiGangi, Jr.

I set out to create a meal constructed fundamentally of wild ingredients.  This endeavor has become something of a rite of spring in recent years.  It sounds like a big project - making a meal without a trip to the store - but in all honesty, it’s pretty easy. 

The project began at six o’clock on a drizzlely Tuesday evening, after the standard vehicular combat along Interstate 78 that some people would call “commuting.”  A quick change of clothes – from blue suit, red tie and winged-tip shoes to wading pants, fishing vest and Indiana Jones-inspired hat – and I was soon casting a fly into the Pohatcong Creek that borders our property.  A dozen or so casts later, and the main ingredient was procured and dispatched, streamside.

SOAPBOX WARNING (If you are uninterested in conservation, skip this paragraph.)

Now, it is rare that I keep a fish to eat.  Years of informal fishing education have gotten at least one important concept to stick in the chowder that passes for my brain.  That is…we can’t just treat our planet like everything in it is ours for the taking.  We humans have to conserve the gifts of nature, not screw around with them, or worse, not recognize them as gifts at all.  I suppose that’s why Laura and I take so much pleasure in gardening.  You plant something.  You care for that thing.  That thing and the other things around it support each other (e.g. bees and fruiting plants).  Finally, that thing feeds you, and you start the cycle all over, again.  So, when I kept a single trout for dinner on that Tuesday evening, it was with great humility and respect, and promises to release the next dozen fish I catch and to support a Trout Unlimited stream restoration project next weekend.

ALL CLEAR (It is now safe to keep reading.)

Cleaned trout in hand, I proceeded to the garden, along the way, pulling some dandelion greens from the lawn.  In the garden, I snipped some chives and harvested some over-wintered spring onions.

Here is what I did with the ingredients, including some of our previously harvested and stored garlic, locally produced honey and unfiltered apple cider vinegar.  Laura makes her own bread.  So the only products not self-produced or local were the salt, pepper and olive oil.  Not bad.

Pan-Seared Wild Trout with Dandelion and Spring Onion Crustini (Serves Two)

Ingredients

1 Whole Wild Trout (gutted, head and fins removed)

4 Spring Onions or Scallions (roots removed)

4 Slices of Crusty French Bread (½-inch think slices)

1 Garlic Clove

3C Dandelion Greens (roots, stems and flowers removed)

½C Chives

1T Wild Flower Honey (local, if possible)

7T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1T Apple Cider Vinegar

Black Pepper (freshly cracked)

Salt to taste (sea, grey or kosher)

Procedure

To make the Crustini… Toast the bread slices until golden brown.  Rub each slice with the whole garlic clove to transfer the essence of garlic to the bread.  Drizzle 1 teaspoon of olive oil over each slice (4 teaspoons in total) and set-aside.

To make the Fish… Season the whole, cleaned fish inside and out with salt and pepper.  Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to a non-stick pan and place over medium heat.  When the oil starts to shimmer, add the fish and the spring onions to the pan.  Cook for 5-7 minutes depending on the size of the fish.  Flip the fish and cook an additional 5-7 minutes.  The onions should finish in the same time as the fish.  Remove the fish and onions from the pan.  With a sharp knife, remove the fillets from the fish by making an incision along the back (dorsal) of the fish and gently separating the fillets from the bones.  Set-aside.

To make the Salad… In a non-reactive bowl, make the dressing by whisking the honey, vinegar, salt and pepper to combine.  Slowly add 3 tablespoons of the oil while whisking to create an emulsion. Add the dandelion greens and chives to the bowl with the dressing and toss gently to coat.

To plate the dish… place a fillet in the center of each of the two plates, and a slice of crustini on both sides of each fillet.  Top one crustino with the green onions and the other crustino with the dandelion and chive salad.  Duplicate with the other plate.  Drizzle both plates with the remaining oil, and serve with a white wine such as Riesling Trocken.

Gourmet Weed Primer - Dandelions, Part II

Dandelion Pappardelle with Chicken Ragu (Serves 4) - Tom DiGangi Jr.

Here are a few things to know about this recipe. First, pappardelle is a ribbon-shaped pasta about five inches long and one inch wide. Second, if you don’t have duck fat lying around the house like we do, just use a little extra olive oil or bacon fat. Third, please do not use chicken breast meat, as it will be dry and tasteless in this dish. Finally, stirring-in the ricotta cheese with the heat off is critical to making a creamy sauce. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Pasta:

3 Eggs

2 ½C (300g) All-purpose flour

1C Blanched and squeezed-dry dandelion greens

4 Chicken thighs (bones and skin removed)

1T Extra virgin olive oil

Sauce:

3T Extra virgin olive oil

1T Duck fat

1 Yellow Onion, diced

1 Carrot, diced

2 Celery Stalks, diced

2 Garlic Cloves, crushed

1t Red pepper flakes

2t Dried sage

1C Red wine

8oz Canned Plum tomatoes with packing juice

½C frozen peas

2T Fresh garlic chives, minced

2T Ricotta cheese

2T Grated parmigano reggiano cheese

Salt to taste

Procedure

To make the pappardelle, squeeze all of the water out of the dandelion greens and process to a fine paste in a food processor. Add the eggs and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, and process until well incorporated. Next, add the flour and process until a ball of dough is formed. Remove the dough and kneed for a few minutes on a lightly floured surface to form a smooth, not sticky, ball. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least a ½ hour. Roll out the pasta into thin sheets, using extra flour to keep the dough workable. Using a pasta roller attachment for an electric mixer is a good way to make the rolling process easier and the end product more consistent. Then cut the sheets into 1-inch wide ribbons to form the pappardelle.

To make the ragu, heat the duck fat and 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Brown the chicken thighs for a few minutes on one side. Turn the chicken over and add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, red pepper flakes and sage. Sauté the chicken, vegetables and spices for a few minutes more, then add the tomatoes (crushing them in your hand as you go) and red wine. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and let simmer for 40 minutes. Add the peas and continue simmering for another 10 minutes.

To finish the dish, boil the pasta in a gallon of salted water for just a couple minutes. Add the pasta to the ragu. Remove the ragu from the heat. Stir in the chives and cheeses. Adjust the seasoning and serve immediately with a hearty red wine, like Dolcetto.

Think we're done with dandelion? Nope. Stay tuned for Tom's next wild foods meal and his recipe for Pan-Seared Wild Trout with Dandelion and Spring Onion Crustini.

Gourmet Weed Primer - Dandelions, Part I

I mean it! It's dandelion week in our yard, house and blog, and Tom is fired up about it. I harvested a smidgen of a fraction of those onerous weeds cropping up in our garden beds, and Tom has been blanching, sauteing, kneading and pulverizing these things into new recipes. Even NPR caught the vibe of his enthusiasm this week with an interview of wild greens forager Sam Thayer. If you're not sure WHY you should be eating dandelions, check out the NPR interview or visit my blog entry from last year - The Easiest Way To Remove Dandelion Weeds From Your Garden. But if you want to know WHAT you should be doing with the dandelions once harvested, TommyD is your man.

Dandelions – My Port in a Storm

Tom DiGangi Jr.

In all honesty, I don’t love dandelion greens. Most of the time, I just like them. Arugula, chard and spinach are the greens I would marry. Dandelions deserve a couple of dates, and then… move on. But, that’s just fine with me.

As winter wanes, my desire for fresh greens waxes. So, each spring, dandelions and I have a nice dinner, maybe take-in a movie, you know… get reacquainted. Then, we lose touch for the rest of the year, until winter creates that longing, once again. It’s a great relationship. And, after a harsh winter like this one, I’m fired up about spending some time in my port in a cold and snowy storm.

The dandelion is bitter and intense. Yet, it is enticing because it is the first produce from our yard. The trick is to find ways to tame the intensity of dandelions. Here are two recipes to mellow the personality of this spring spark plug. They both employ a technique called “blanching,” which reduces the bitter flavor and sets the bright green color of the greens. The recipes also utilize my other favorite harbinger of spring – garlic chives – highlighting the adage “what grows together, goes together.”

Thai Dandelion and Carrot Soup (Serves 2)

Ingredients

1 Quart Asian-inspired stock (see below)

1 Carrot, quarter inch dice

1 Quart freshly harvested dandelion greens (no roots or flowers, please)

1T fresh garlic chives, minced

2T soy sauce

Salt to taste

Procedure

Blanch the dandelion greens by placing them in a large pot of salted and vigorously boiling water for two minutes. Remove the greens and “shock” them in a large bowl of ice water, mixing the greens until they are cool. Then drain the greens, and set-aside.

Combine a quart of the stock and the diced carrots in a small pot. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and let simmer until the carrots are almost cooked through (about 10 minutes). Chop the blanched dandelion greens into bite-sized pieces and add to the pot to simmer for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and stir-in the chives and soy sauce. Adjust the salt to taste and slurp up the liquid health.

Asian-inspired stock

Ingredients

Handful of leftover chicken and/or pork bones

1 Onion

1 Carrot

3-4 Fennel stems

3T Fresh cilantro

3 Dried Thai chiles

1 Star anise

3T sun dried tomatoes

3 Garlic cloves

3 Fresh quarter inch thick ginger slices

3 Quarts of water

Procedure

To make the stock, combine all ingredients in a 4-quart (or larger) pot and simmer, mostly covered, for at least 2 hours. Skim the foam off the top of the stock occasionally while simmering. Pass the stock though a sieve. Discard the solids. Let your imagination and the contents of your pantry and fridge create variations on this list. Ultimately, you are just looking for a homemade, healthy and flavorful stock, with some classic Asian dimensions.

Come back tomorrow for Tom's recipe for Dandelion Pappardelle With Chicken Ragu!