Sabbath Dinner: Cooking With Weeds
by: Lauren Reichelt on July 9th, 2010 | 10 Comments »
I am beginning to wonder if perhaps Obama was right to tackle health care reform as a first initiative. It is difficult to find health care issues to write about these days…our mainstream and alternative media are rightly wrapped up in the crises of the day, the Gulf oil spill disaster, the Afghanistan War and high unemployment rates. Of these, at least two are directly tied to our inability as a nation to confront Big Oil. Frustrated with tepid Congressional efforts to stem the oil tide, I decided to take a small step to wean myself off of oil. I began cooking locally available food: weeds!
I love Barbara Kingsolver. Last year, after reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, I made a trip to our local (and extremely affordable) farmers’ market, bought up a farmer’s entire crop of tomatoes and inexpertly canned them. I would have grown them myself except a local dry cleaner dumped their petroleum-based solution onto the ground and polluted my well. Until the superfund clean-up site completes its project, I can’t eat anything grown in my yard.
This year, I have decided to cut down on the amount of plastic bags in my home by shopping at grocery stores that don’t give them away. I am actually experiencing a shortage of bags for lining trash cans. I mostly shop at a local organic farm, Camino de Paz or at La Montanita Food Coop in Santa Fe. Located 45 minutes south of me, La Montanita sells organic foods grown by my neighbors. It doesn’t make sense to fight the ravages of the oil industry by driving 45 minutes to buy my neighbors’ products, so this week when the Espanola Farmers’ Market had its first really good day (growers were delayed by unusual weather patterns), I stopped by. I resolved to make up recipes to cook whatever I found. The results were delicious concoctions of locally gathered weeds.
The list of ingredients I came home to work with included:
Purslane (which I normally spend inordinate amounts of time removing from my garden
Lambsquarters also known as “wild spinach” (which also tends to take over my garden)
Squash blossoms
Garlic
Onions
Garlic chives
Fresh eggs
I came up with two delicious recipes based on these foods and what I could dredge up in my Kitchen. Here they are:
Squash Blossom, Lambsquarter and Saffron Quiche
10 Fresh squash blossoms
1 c lambsquarters
6 eggs
1 bunch chopped garlic chives
1/2 cup chopped red onion and onion green
3 small cloves pressed garlic
about 2-3 cups half and half, milk, cream or some combination thereof
1-2 cups lite shredded cheese
1/4 tsp good saffron
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4-6 mild roasted red Chimayo chile
pie crust
Throw squash blossoms, chile and green stuff into a food processor or chop by hand. Layer it on the bottom of the crust along with all other veggies. Layer cheese on top. Warm or simmer about 1/2 c liquid dairy in a saucepan with saffron. Stir until the mixture turns yellow. Beat eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper and dairy products until frothy including saffron mixture. Pour it into crust. I use one huge deep dish crust but you could use two regular 9 inch crusts. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes then at 350 until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean and everything looks yummy.
Purslane Pesto
1 bag carefully washed purslane
1/2 c walnuts or pinon nuts (I used walnuts)
1/2 c (or more) good extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 small chopped red onion
1/2 c grated parmesan
2-3 roasted Chimayo red chiles
whole wheat spaghetti
salt, pepper, thyme, a little bit of tequila lime seasoning if you have it
Clean the Purslane, cut off the roots and simmer for about 20 minutes. Drain and puree in a food processor with all other ingredients except spaghetti which you boil in the normal fashion. Reserve a bit of olive oil. Saute all ingredients except spaghetti in reserved olive oil. Drain cooked spaghetti and mix it up with purslane pesto. It can be served hot or cold. My kids, who normally prefer fast food, ate three servings.
Warning! Use your own judgement if measurements don’t look right. I don’t measure, I cook by look, smell and taste: a bissel of this and a smidgeon of that. These are my best estimates.
And feel free to modify based on ingredients locally available weed production. That’s what I usually do.
What weeds do you cook with? Please share your recipes!
Crossposted at BPICampus.org
My favorite topic!! Ever since I discovered it (as an adult), I relish every chance I get to do some foraging while connecting and getting familiar with nature nearby, even in cities.
Luckily for me, when I was living in New York city several years ago, I came across flyers for weekend group walks in local parks with an expert in ‘Wild Food Foraging’: naturalist Steve Brill, also called “Wild Man” -(who became a local celebrity). Every Saturday, Sunday and holiday, he conducted 3-hour walks in different parks for a small participation fee. It was always an exciting adventure discovering many wooded and ‘un-gardened’ sections of parks. It enriched me with a definite experience of wilderness ‘right smack’ in New York City or its close environs.
There were so so many edible plants: wild onions and garlics, numerous herbs and mint types, many fresh dandelion plants and various salad and soup greens. Then there were the ‘delicacies’ and ‘specialties’: Day Lillies, and other edible flowers. There were fruits and nuts from the trees, roots of different kinds, even swamp and lakeside water plants.
Every health precaution was taught and re-taught concerning IN-edibles, poisons and other important relevancies.
Going home, a couple of us would get on the subway all sweaty and red-cheeked, smelling of the mints we had stuffed into our back-packs and pockets, and some fresh earth stuck under our nails and on our shoes.
Possibly because we were always in great spirits over our ‘finds’, it never annoyed our fellow riders: most were weekend ‘vacationers’ who found it all amusing and would often ask where we were coming from. They were always impressed to hear that so much ACTUAL FOOD grows all around us.
The initiator and leader, ‘Wild Man’, had obtained official permits for ‘foraging’ groups, and scientific data about pesticide-free areas which we visited and gathered in.
He also taught us vital conservation principles, mainly not to ‘ravish’ any growths, but to pick and gather only amounts and ways that ensure full sustainability of every area we touched.
Sadly, I don’t have the privilege of that activity now in a group. But, ever since then, I keep an eye on nature wherever I am and gather what’s appropriate and available when possible.
It’s a joy similar to vegetable gardening: a close and vibrant connection to the earth every day; a sense of keeping watch on my favorite patches, bushes, trees, to see how they’re doing, learning their seasons, etc. Also, the endless surprise of new growths and discoveries, and continued learning from books and the internet, where there’s plenty of info.
I encourage everyone to inquire about local possibilities and getting ‘intimate’ with their nearby outdoors. It’s great fun; you simultaneously learn about wildlife, insects and birds who always share the bounty.
Kids especially enjoy the freedom that comes with being outdoors, casually dressed and constantly discovering new things and creatures. They especially love collecting memorabilia from among the myriad of available “sheddings”: pine cones, pretty leaves, pebbles, snail and insect shells, acorns and attractive nut shells, bird-feathers, etc.
For kids THAT’s still the ‘real world’. When will that become the real world again for the rest of us?
Shira
What a great experience! Thank you for sharing.
I did not realize it, but the link to purslane in this article is actually a link to “Wild Man” Steve Brill’s essay on purslane, which he says is his favorite vegetable. It’s a small world!
Dear Neighbor Lauren, This is Dominique from Santa Fe. I loved your column, I too have discovered purslane and lambsquarter who happen to volunteer in the pots where I grow my vegetables! Delicieux! For friends who want to explore new ways of being/lving in our changing world, I suggest that for your sweet heart’s next birthday you adapt the gift idea (who needs another ‘object’) to asking a herbalist/botanist to lead you in a herbal walk as was suggested by Shira’s post. That’s what I did recently, for my partner’s birthday, and it was just wonderful.
It’s great to know my neighbors are reading! That’s a wonderful idea. I will look into it. If you are ever in Espanola on a Monday, drop into our farmer’s market. It is much more affordable than Santa Fe.
I live in an isolated area of Quebec beside the Gulf of St. Lawrence – we’re a northern territory, and gardening is difficult here, but I keep at it. I doubt that any of weeds – other than dandelions – that infest my garden are edble.
Do you know what they are called? We could find out!
Usually the best way to find out is to ask elderly natives. In my community, I ask elderly Hispanic and Native American folks. But if you know the names of plants we can google them.
What a fun post! The pesto sounds really good. I grew up munching on lemon sorrel (looks like clover with little yellow flowers), which grows as a weed in Wisconsin. Might be good for pesto too! I also remember candying violets and johnny jump-ups to use as cake decorations, and drinking the little drop of nectar from honeysuckle flowers.
Yum. I remember trying to make mulberry pie as a five year old. As I recall, my recipe consisted of mulberries and sugar.
I was out pulling weeds last weekend and ended up with a massive case of hives!
Handful of individuals understand how comforting it is to have this kind of an open forum for expression that we discover as part of your web site web site.