Rhubarb Wine

Let the wine experimentation continue! I won't know how this is for 8 months or so, but this way I'll have a reference point for next year for this rhubarb wine. I may make another batch if I can hustle up enough rhubarb - I tasted the leftovers (having learned from the dandelion wine a few weeks ago to add MORE water so as not to come up short) and they are great. A bit beer like, at this stage. Not sweet at all, which I am quite pleased with. 

This time I followed this recipe, which was easy and had useful tips. I think I've been perusing too many possible wine recipes, and I ordered a couple too many things that I didn't need (like yeast tannin powder, which you don't need if you have a black tea bag). Fruit wine that is not grapes needs tannin, which can come from tea. Camden tablets are also highly recommended post fermentation to stabilize fruit wine, prevent it from turning brown, and to preserve the flavor. So. I racked the wine into the carboy about a week ago, which means I will rack the wine into a new one in three weeks. 6 months later I can rack it into bottles, give it one more month, and it's ready. So, January or February. Sooner than the dandelion wine!

One bonus of this one, you start by creating a rhubarb syrup with just rhubarb and sugar. After three days you strain out the rhubarb, add water and yeast, and let it ferment. Which means you have a sweet rhubarb by-product that I could not resist trying, despite my desire/efforts to not consume sugar. I ate some with some plain goat yogurt to cut the sweetness, and it was quite divine. I composted most of it, but it was a little painful. Next time I'll throw a party for my sugar-eating friends to eat up that goodness!

Photos show the cut up rhubarb in a 5 gallon bucket, first plain, then with sugar. This is the syrup making in action! (Under cover of a towel.) I neglected to take a photo of the syrupy finish.

*And again, add even more water than directed because you also lose some in the racking. I am going to add an extra full quart next time. Hopefully that doesn't sacrifice flavor.

Nettle chips and Nettle Gamasio

It is prime nettle harvesting time, and I've been out several times in the past week to collect, with great reverence, this amazing plant. I think that nettles might be my favorite foraged food - they are perhaps the one I rely on most throughout the year, and feel profound gratitude for. In addition to all the good vitamins, I just learned that they help with allergies and hay fever. 😍

I primarily harvest nettles to eat as food, because that is my favorite, especially after a long winter without fresh greens. To have abundant nettles (along with my green onions) is such bounty! Last weekend I decided to branch out a little: I made some Nettle Chips (think kale chips, or those seaweed chip things), and I also dehydrated a bunch to use for tea and this Nettle Gomasio (which is genius). It turns out I really like nettles with sesame seeds, which both of these recipes feature. The combo sort of ups the seaweed taste of the nettles, in a good way.

Nettle chips are a little fussy - you have to remove the nettle leafs from each stem (using gloves because they are still stingy), but they ARE delicious.

Nettle Chips, inspired from this post:

• A few tong-fulls of fresh nettle leaves (picked off the stem) - think a loose 2 cups
  
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 tsp magic mushroom powder (or use half as much salt)
• 1-2 T sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees while you de-stem your nettles (using gloves). I rinsed mine and spun them in my lettuce spinner to get the water off.*
   
2. Using tongs, toss the nettle leaves in a bowl with the other ingredients. Spread the leaves (using your tongs again) in a single layer on 2 baking sheets. 
3. Bake for about 6-10 minutes until they crisp up. (The original recipe said to flip half way through. I did that with one pan, and not with the other, and couldn't tell a difference. I was using one of those insulated cookie sheets that prevents burning. If you have a regular cookie sheet, keep a close eye on things.)
   
4. Consume! These stay crisp for at least many days in a tupperware sort of container, so no need to eat all at once unless you want to.
   

*Note I did also try making some of these in the dehydrator while I was dehydrating other nettles, and that also worked, though took longer. No risk of over-crisping there!

 

This was my first time drying nettles in a dehydrator, and it goes pretty quickly, not more than a few hours. Once I got the leaves in the jar, I used my rolling pin end to pulverize them. 7 trays of dried nettles resulted in one quart of dried leaves (for tea), and about 1 1/2 cups of dried nettle powder, some of which went into this Gomasio.

Nettle Gomasio, originally posted here: 

• ½ cup raw, unhulled sesame seeds
• 2 Tbsp. sea salt
  
• 1 Tbsp. ground or finely shredded nori, kombu, and/or wakame
• 1 Tbsp. dried nettle powder
• ½ Tbsp. dried thyme
• ½ Tbsp. dried sage
• ½ Tbsp. dried rosemary

1. In a cast iron pan, toast sesame seeds and salt on medium heat until a few seeds start to pop.
2. Turn off the heat and transfer mixture to a mortar, then add seaweed and herbs.
3. Using a pestle or food processor, grind mixture coarsely, leaving about half the sesame seeds intact.
4. Store in a sealed glass jar, ideally on your table or counter where you can use as often as desired.

This goes great on just about anything: salad, veggies, rice, eggs, whatever. Yum. I also think this would make a great foodie gift.

Jerusalem Artichoke Colcannon

I am writing to post tonight's dinner because it was freaking delicious. Often these days I can't get over how good things taste - is it because I was fasting for so long? Is it because I am eating food I picked just hours (or minutes) before? Is it because it is spring and I am having fresh things from the garden, and not last year's frozen harvest, or something from some far flung warm somewhere? I suspect all of these are true. I just know that I am swooning over here in my open-windowed-wonderland. I mean, nettle jerusalem artichoke colcannon with spring onions!? And asparagus!? To be fair, the salmon was also a treat b/c I don't have it often. But still...even the salad of baby kale (half devoured by some bug) and green onions and last year's sun-dried tomatoes tasted amazing.

I am not going to be bothered with amounts here - I'll say what, you decide how much. Though, the more butter the better, in my opinion. I made two servings worth which was a couple larger handfuls of jerusalem artichokes, a small handful of steamed nettles, 1 large green onion, a good 1-2 T of butter and a hearty splash of heavy cream. (I was inspired to make Colcannon from a Nom Nom Paleo post not all that long ago. So if you really want amounts, check out her recipe.)

Jerusalem Artichoke Colcannon

• Jerusalem Artichokes, large dice (and/or potatoes, rutabega, turnips, etc)
• Steamed nettles, chopped
  
• Green onion, finely chopped
  
• Butter
• Cream
• Salt and Pepper

1. Boil water in a pot and add your diced tubers. Boil until soft, 10-20 minutes depending on size.
2. While they are cooking, chop nettles and green onion.
3. When tubers are soft, mash with a fork or potato masher, adding in a good amount of butter and cream, and the nettles and green onion. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Grain free biscuits (with scallion eggs and nettles)

Though Ramadan was over on Wednesday, this biscuit breakfast today felt like my first celebratory brunch of indulgence. (I did have celebratory steak dinner, and daily celebration of drinking things and eating during daylight! What glory. But biscuits feel even more special.) I made a half batch because I wanted only fresh biscuits, and of course I ate all three (though only 2 with greens and eggs)! 😊

I initially wanted a recipe for grain-free spinach/cheese/onion biscuits to make with nettles, but came across none. I do think I could try it with this recipe, so that will be on the agenda, because these biscuits were pretty remarkable. I would venture to say they are the most traditional biscuit I've had yet using grain free flour. The recipe creator names her numerous attempts to create a "southern style" biscuit, and I can tell. They really are quite perfect, even with the fact that I could not quite get my egg whites as stiff as I wanted. (I think I needed to whip my egg whites to more of a peak, but my old school-self generated spinning mixer just can't compete with electricity.)

The recipe requires egg whites, no yolks, so I just used the yolks as my scrambled eggs, and added my green onion and cheese to that. (Because I halved the recipe, I used 3 regularly large eggs.) For the greens, I chopped the steamed nettles up finely and then simmered them with a little coconut milk and salt until they were more creamy. The result was just what I wanted: buttery biscuit with soft eggs and greens. Yum!

Grain Free Biscuits (makes 6)

• 2 tablespoons unsalted grass fed butter
• 3/4 cup blanched almond flour 
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour 
• 2 tablespoons golden flax meal 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
• 5 extra large egg whites about 1/2 cup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Grate/finely chop your butter in pea sized pieces and place in the freezer.
Mix all dry ingredients together.
Once butter is frozen, mix with dry ingredients, place in freezer.

Beat egg whites until fluffy and stiff enough to spoon. Mix into dry ingredients. 

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop batter, scooping out onto an oiled/parchment covered cookie tray.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Use a thin spatula to remove them. 

Dandelion Wine

Dandelion heads were popping all over the place over the last 10 days, and I was able to harvest a bunch of them on a prime sunny morning. Laborious petal plucking ensued shortly after (you need to de-petal within a quick amount of time because the flower heads start to close up); with the company of friends, it was a splendid spring activity, though I neglected to take any photos. *I did have to freeze the first round and go pick the rest on day 2. Next was soaking the petals in water, straining them out, then adding sugar, raisins, fruit and yeast. The concoction bubbled away in my kitchen all last week, sometimes sounding like a gentle rain storm. It was very active.

One week later and upon the quietening of the fermentation, I strained the mixture into a glass 1 gallon carboy with airlock. There it will sit for 2-3 months before I rack it off into some wine bottles for the final 6-9 month stretch. I am looking forward to trying this wine, and am planning to make a rhubarb one in the coming weeks so that I can have a bit of a "local" wine tasting. Local being my yard, plus some extra dandelions from a neighbor in the buy nothing group and some from the Oromo church down the street. I'd like to find some elderberries to try a wine from those too, despite that getting a little farther away!

You do need some wine making supplies for this recipe, namely wine yeast, a 1 gallon carboy and an airlock, and brewing sanitizer. Some people skip the carboy/airlock and sanitizer, and just pour into clean wine bottles with balloons on top, which means really you just need yeast. Ideally I'd love to make wine with natural yeasts, but to start, I'm adding it in.

I mainly followed this primary recipe, and relied on this secondary one as well. I wanted to make just one gallon for my novice try, though it ended up being about 3 quarts only, in the end. We'll see how that fares. 

Dandelion petals!

My main notes to myself:

• It was a pain to strain the wine a 2nd time (also more sediment b/c I could not rack it), so I think next time I will follow the secondary instructions, modifying the amounts to = 1 gallon. (Unless mine turns out totally amazing, in which case I will just stick with it!)
• I will start with more water next time, too much boiled off or got strained out (this may also be a result of double straining and boiling, again I'll go for the secondary instructions next time). When I researched what to do with all the extra space, it seems that it is okay for the early fermentation process as long as there is an airlock. But if it were in a corked bottle, that much surface area would not be good. I am guessing this will get me 3 full bottles, but likely not 4.
  
• I did sanitize my carboy and will sanitize bottles/the tubing for racking the wine. I just don't want to risk it, but people do.
• Other recipes recommend a ratio of 1 gallon dandelion petals for 1 gallon of wine. This is a little less and depending on how it turns out, I want to add more next time.

Fruit peel and dandelion petals simmering in water

Bubbling wine concoction!

Spring Omelette with baby Jerusalem Artichokes

I picked my first 2 spears of asparagus recently, and decided I most wanted some buttery eggs with spring onions to accompany them. I also had a handful of tiny jerusalem artichokes that I pan fried, and topped everything with some fresh tarragon. (Had it occurred to me earlier, I would have incorporated the tarragon into the cooking part, and not just as a garnish. I had to go cut more after I realized how delicious it was with both. Tarragon and jerusalem artichokes = delish!) 

During Ramadan I find I want eggs at least once a week, and the way I want them is with a lot of butter. A LOT. Buttery eggs - how can I eat them any other way? It makes me think of Julia Child. *Though, speaking of buttery eggs - I took myself on a solo date last week to a "show" at the Walker (show is a loose term, because the single other person there, a stranger, and I, made up both the show and the audience, reading our "script" from note cards placed between us under the pane of glass, making it more like an experience) followed by take-out dinner from Rainbow Restaurant. Which included a very fancy egg dish. And those eggs, while I cannot imagine were cooked with butter, must have been cooked in a good quantity of sesame oil in a hot wok - they were so light and airy and somehow both creamy and crispy. With the accompanying tarot rice flour cake, the dish just melted in my mouth and I was in complete awe. So, maybe it is eggs with fat that I love?!

I've made these eggs with just spring onions, or just with butter and herbs. Stellar every time. 

Spring Omelette (serves 1)

• 2 T butter
  
• salt
• 3 spring onions, chopped
  
• 2 spears asparagus (opt), chopped
• opt herbs: tarragon, parsley, chives
• 3 eggs
  

1) Heat a small cast iron on med heat. Melt your butter in the pan, and add your spring veggies. (I add just the white onion part now, adding the green part just before I pour in the eggs.) Saute the veggies for a few minutes until tender.

2) While they saute, crack your eggs into a vessel, and use a fork to lightly whisk them. I hear over-whisking is not beneficial, so whisk just enough to mix them. If you want herbs, add them, and the green onion bits to the buttery pan. Saute 30 seconds or so before adding the eggs.

3) Pour your eggs into your cast iron. Stir them a bit to incorporate the butter into the eggs. As they start to set, gently stir some more so that the runny part has access to the pan. The goal is an omelette, not scrambled eggs, so you want to stir just enough, then let it sit to set. The butter will help you here. I am no good at flipping my omelette, so I stir/let set until the top is cooked, meaning the bottom will brown just slightly. Fold your omelette over on itself, and serve. 

I had mine with some labneh, which was divine, and the baby sunchokes, pan fried in yet more butter.

Also, it is almost Eid!! The last week was particularly challenging on the fasting front, and it was so lovely to not only get this beautiful henna, but also to a) be around some more people who b) are also fasting. What a gift. I love seeing the different designs each henna artist creates - they are all SO different. 💕

Roasted Dandelion Root tea

This post comes from a culmination of two things: 1) I've been drinking roasted dandelion root tea that I got at the co-op daily during Ramadan - I love it, it's like a sweet, darker tea similar to chicory root; and 2) I cleared some beds in my community garden plot the past several days, including many dandelions, some with decent sized roots. I brought them home and did a little internet perusing, and voila! I have my own roots for tea. I also nibbled a few - and omg! The roots are delicious. Plus they have lots of inulin, good for gut health, and are good for your liver.

Some internet research revealed that dandelion roots are best in the fall, and early spring before they flower. I will be curious to try roasting some roots this summer to do a taste comparison, and will definitely dig some up this fall since now they are all flowering. I initially roasted some roots just for 30 minutes or so, which left a chewy, edible and sweet root. I could eat those all day. But, for tea, you do a longer roast until the roots become brittle and quite brown. Some people dehydrate the roots, then roast them in a cast iron skillet until brown (similar to coffee bean roasting). I have not tried that yet, but it seems either method works. I used even quite small roots, because that is what I had, but larger ones obviously will produce more with less labor involved.

My roasted roots resulted in a bit milder flavor than the kind I get at the store, but they smell stronger - like vanilla and chocolate. (It was as if I was baking cookies when I was roasting them!) I wonder if fall roots would result in a stronger flavor? I will update then. 

Also, speaking of dandelions, this weekend also included my picking many, many dandelion heads, and then removing all of the yellow petals from the green part in order to make dandelion wine. It is decidedly labor intensive. But a lovely task with some friends. I'll make a post once I'm into some later stages, but won't know how it will all turn out until winter sometime. People speak of dandelion wine like a taste of sunshine in the winter, which is just what all those bright big fat flowers looked like on Saturday!

Roasted Dandelion Roots

1. Pick the largest dandelions that you can find. Dig them out using a special dandelion tool, or lever them up  (if in the garden) with a spading fork. You want to pull them out with the least amount of breaking of the roots, keeping them as intact as possible. 

2. Rinse the roots as best you can to get off the clinging dirt. I did this by first submerging all of my dandelions in a bucket and swishing them around. I then brought them inside and cut the greens from the roots, and then scrubbed the roots with a vegetable scrub brush. 

3. All the websites instruct you to let the roots dry before you roast them. I left mine out for a couple of hours so they were not wet, though not technically dry either. I then roasted them in a 200 degree oven for a couple of hours, until crispy (the snap) and browned. They will smell like vanilla!

4. Crush or break up the roots. I put mine in a jar and then used the end of my rolling pin to crush them up more finely, a la a mortar and pestle, without needing to transfer the contents! 

Tea

Put a heaping spoonful of roots in a tea strainer and pour hot water (no longer boiling) over the top. Steep for 10 minutes. Serve as is, or with cream.

Falafel (with Kofta, Salad, Labneh, and Rice)

Well, my friend and I continue to up our Iftar game: last weekend I made kofta with tahini sauce and salad while she made falafel and rice. We also had some (store bought) labneh with a Sadaf yogurt dip seasoning that I could eat endlessly. I already realized that I love thick yogurt with mint, but the seasoning with labneh?! Holy smokes. I can't wait to eat it with some buttery eggs.

Our dinner was spectacular, with very low stress and total ease on our parts while cooking. We made enough to last 2 rounds of leftovers, and it feels like such a treat. While I did not make the falafel myself, I am pasting her recipe for my future preparations. She has made this several times and it is one of my fave falafel recipes - particularly because it is not a smooth paste, it is more chunky. The result is a more toothsome falafel that is also heavily herbed with cilantro and parsley, which was just so perfect on the warm weekend. I was swooning all of Iftar!

The main thing to note for this falafel (and really the best falafel, in my opinion), is to use uncooked chickpeas. Which means you need dry ones that you then soak overnight. They will expand to 3 times their size, so you need a big bowl and plenty of water. The chickpeas cook when you fry them. Yum.

 Falafel - makes 32 (or so)

• 2 c dry (uncooked) chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• 1 c chopped parsley
• 3/4 c chopped cilantro
• 1-2 minced serrano peppers (with seeds)
• 1 med onion, chopped small
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T toasted sesame seeds (opt)
• 1 1/2 heaping tsp ground cumin  
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3-4 T chickpea flour (or other GF flour)
• Grapeseed or Avocado oil for frying

1. Soak dry chickpeas in water for at least 8 hours overnight, up to 24 hours.
2. Grind chickpeas in a food processor until it resembles course salt/coarse breadcrumbs (not smooth).
3. Mix in all other ingredients, holding the flour.
   
4. Slowly add in flour until mixture is able to be formed into a ball w/out falling apart.
5. Form balls (or ovals) with hands (wetting hands first helps); let rest 30 minutes.
6. Deep fry or pan fry falafel until golden brown and crispy. Place on paper towel to remove excess oil and serve warm. (We did this in my wok, which worked pretty perfectly.)
   

My salad was tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, cucumber, green onions and some spinach, dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and a little red wine vinegar. It was so good with the tahini sauce and seasoned labneh and the falafel. All the herbs! The fresh lemon! The kofta!