Hackberry-wild rice porridge

I posted about hackberries last month, and have continued to harvest more since then. It may well be the year of hackberries (for me at least) because a whole tree came down nearby in the Christmas blizzard, making the berries very accessible! I am loving my weekly treks to the fallen tree, winding my way through its downed branches to collect the tiny berries. I discovered that hackberries taste quite different from tree to tree; these ones are less sweet than the ones across the park, and are a little thinner (or have bigger seeds). I read that a traditional/indigenous way of eating hackberries is to mix fat, crushed hackberries, and ground corn to make a porridge. I tried a similar version using wild rice and butter, and it is officially My Favorite Way To Eat Hackberries.

I tried various ratios of wild rice flour to berries, and settled on the one below. The result is a right amount of crunch, creaminess, and sweet. It really is like cream of wheat (from the rice), but with some more texture. Yum. My mortar and pestle, which I'd been wanting for a long time and finally purchased so that I could grind up hackberries, is getting good use and seasoning from my exploits! *I find it is worth the extra minute or two to make sure you have really crushed all of the berries. It helps avoid too big a crunch from an un-ground seed.

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• 1/2 cup hackberries, ground to a paste in a mortar and pestle
• 2 T wild rice, ground in a coffee grinder (I tried mortar and pestle and it was a LONG road to get powder)
• good pinch of salt
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 T butter (salted is best!)
  

1. Put hackberry paste, salt and water in a small saucepan and bring to just boiling. Turn heat down and simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring a few times. The water will reduce slightly, and a nice froth will form on top of the hackberries. This is my favorite step in this process, because the froth and the aroma of hackberry liquid smells so good to me. 

2. Add ground wild rice, and stir/whisk well. Simmer another 2-3 minutes, stirring often, until thick. I usually stir half of the butter into the simmering mixture, and serve with the remaining butter on top, but you could go all one way or the other if you like.

I find this ratio is just sweet enough as it is, or you could drizzle some maple syrup on top.

Daikon Radish Pancakes (MuJeon)

I am loving Asian-inspired breakfasts this winter. I make egg fried "rice" almost every week (will be posting an updated recipe because my new version is better), and I also regularly have some variety of a vegetable-egg pancake. Because fried things are so very good! This morning I tried something new, korean style daikon radish pancakes (Mu Jeon). I modeled them after Mina Park's recipe (which is a video that is quick and useful if you are a visual learner). She says you can substitute lots of things in for/with the daikon, including sweet potato, carrots, or any root veggie. I took that liberally and included some nettles in with my daikon. So far I think I have included nettles in all of my Asian style vegetable pancakes (see Okonomiyaki and Egg Foo Young recipes), except the Korean inspired potato pancakes, which have less egg and flour (Gamjajean). Because, well, I like greens. And because I stored some abundance of nettles in the freezer! All of the recipes above are similar (esp b/c of my greenery in them), but different sauces and slightly different textures.

*I am listing Mina Park's recipe below - she says to use buckwheat flour to be GF, though she used regular flour in hers. When I made them, I reduced things a little, and substituted in the nettles for some of the daikon; I also used tapioca starch instead of potato starch. I made my first pancake too thick - the batter itself is fairly thick - my 2nd one was better. Be sure to press it out (1/2" thick at most, thinner if you can). I don't have a good grater, which I think is less ideal - my julienner means less liquid (see photo below). My daikon was also rather aged, and less watery, so I had to add some (maybe also b/c of the nettles, so I had a few sub-optimal moments. You want a consistency of thick cake batter. You can see in the video that hers is pretty thin, and she slices it up into wedges to eat it. These brown up really nicely, and were so good with the dipping sauce and some kimchi!! yum. I want to make this again, sans nettles.

Batter: too thick here!

Ingredients:

• Daikon radish, shredded (500 g)
• 4-6 green onions
• 1 clove garlic
  
• 1/2 c buckwheat flour
  
• 2 T potato starch
• 1 T toasted sesame oil
• 1 T toasted sesame seeds
• salt/pepper
• 2 eggs 
• oil for frying 

Dipping sauce:

• 1 T tamari
• 1 T rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 T water
  

1. Grate the radish into a mixing bowl and combine with the remaining ingredients. Adjust the consistency with additional flour or water as necessary. It should be a thick pancake batter. 

2. Test the batter by making one small pancake. Season to taste. 

3. Heat a generous amount of oil in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat and spoon batter into rounds or make one big pancake. When the underside is golden brown, flip and cook the other side for a few minutes. Cook on both sides one more time to crisp the pancake. 

4. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Grain-free brownies

Well, for no particular reason, other than we are in some weird times, I wanted to eat brownies. Also, because sometimes I can be a little rigid with myself - with intermittent fasting and wanting vegetables at each meal and all this business - I'm bringing in a little more intuitive eating. Like, maybe I will not have some major health fallout if I don't eat greens most days?!

So, I did not wait for my birthday, or someone else's birthday, and just made them. And so far, I am thoroughly enjoying my brownie encounters. These are good. Not overly sweet. Chocolatey, more dense than cake, but not fudge-like. Eating them feels really satisfying, unlike some treats I might get myself (the GF cream puffs at the co-op, for example) that actually are NOT that good, in the end. Last time I ate said cream puffs, they were dry and under-whelming. 

I recently saw a tiktok video by BlackForager (Alexis Nikole), who I LOVE, of her acorn flour pancakes. (I wish I was savvy enough to upload a tiktok video here, but alas, I am not.) It makes me think, hmmm, these brownies with acorn flour?! That would be the most stunning of treats, so maybe I'll see about making that happen. (Also check out her cattail song!)

So. These brownies are sweetened with dates and dark chocolate, and come together pretty easily in the food processor. One of my chocolate bars had some cayenne in it, which I get a little kick of in the brownies. I baked mine in a 9" cast iron skillet, though it was lined with parchment and my batter was fairly thick and didn't spread all the way out. The original recipe (another Mark's Daily Apple one) was baked in a 7" square baking pan, which reportedly resulted in thick brownies that could easily be thinner. So - go with something in this sort of size arena. (Note the original also has instructions for a keto, sugar-free version if you are interested.)

Ingredients (for 10-12 brownies)

• ¼ cup Salted Butter
• 3.5 oz. (100g) 70% Chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup Full Fat Coconut Milk
• 10 Dates, soaked (I used mostly Medjool, with a few Deglet)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Almond Flour
• 5 Tbsp. Cacao Powder
• 2 Large Eggs

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Set up a double boiler by filling a pot with a few inches of water and placing it over medium heat. Once it begins to boil, reduce to a simmer and place a heat-safe bowl on top of the pot. Add the chopped chocolate and butter to the bowl and gently mix using a spatula until the mixture is melted.

Soak the dates in hot water for at least 10 minutes. Drain the dates and add the dates, coconut milk and vanilla extract to a food processor. Blend until the mixture is fairly smooth, making sure to stop the processor occasionally to scrape down the sides. Add the chocolate and butter mixture and pulse a few more times. Add the almond flour and cocoa powder and pulse until combined. Add the eggs and blend until smooth.

Pour the brownie batter into a greased or parchment lined baking dish (a 7”x7” but made fairly thick brownies, so you can also use a larger dish). Feel free to top with chopped chocolate or walnuts. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the center is fairly firm. Allow the brownies to fully cool before slicing.*

*I couldn't resist and ate some before they were all the way cool. They are better cool, FYI. 

Braised Short Ribs

I bought short ribs on my last farm order because they were buy one get one free, though I have never prepared this cut of beef before. I am assisting for another training all weekend, so decided to make this dish to heat up and eat with less cooking fuss. They are quite fatty, which I generally appreciate, but I wonder if these particular ribs have a bit...extra? In any case, they were tasty in the way of a stew, where the meat falls from the bone into a really rich sauce/broth. I really do enjoy cooking meat on the bone in this unctuous manner. I ate mine over some mashed root veggies (rutabega/turnip/daikon blend) and it was delicious. The original recipe serves it over polenta (or go with grits, or my keto grits, aka porridge).

I modified this recipe slightly, less wine, no shallots, I used arrowroot in place of flour (though I think you could skip that step all together), added garlic, and used bacon instead of pancetta. I did brown my ribs on all sides, which is a bit fussy. I think you could skip this if you want to save time and you would not sacrifice flavor.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds beef short ribs, cut into pieces
  
• 3 slices bacon, chopped fine
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 c arrowroot starch or GF flour
• 2 small onions, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 c red wine
• 2 c beef broth
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary

1. Salt and pepper ribs, then dredge in arrowroot/gf flour if using. Set aside.
2. In a large dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat until complete crispy and all fat is rendered. Remove bacon and set aside.
3. Raise heat to high. Brown ribs on all sides, about 45 seconds per side in the rendered bacon fat. Remove ribs and set aside. Turn heat to medium.
4. Add onions and carrots to pan and cook for 2 minutes. Pour in wine and scrape bottom of pan to release all the flavorful bits of glory. Bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes. 
5. Add broth, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Taste and add more salt if needed. Add ribs to the liquid; they should be almost completely submerged. Add thyme and rosemary sprigs (whole) to the liquid. 
6. Put on the lid and place into the oven. Cook at 350 for 2 hours, then reduce heat to 325 and cook for an additional 30 to 45 minutes. Ribs should be fork-tender and falling off the bone. Remove pan from oven and allow to sit for at least 20 minutes, lid on, before serving. At the last minute, skim fat off the top of the liquid. (Can also refrigerate mixture, then remove solid fat from the top.)
7. Serve 2 ribs on bed of mashed root veggies, or creamy polenta or grits, spooning a little juice over the top.