Pollen Honey Fudge

I was really excited to make this recipe from my new favorite blogger, Forager Chef. I almost missed cattail pollen season, but last week while doing my regular walk around Lake Hiawatha, I spied the cattails and went in for a closer look. Sure enough, the tops were emitting yellow powder. I feel hesitant to collect pollen from plants so near the golf course or roads, cattails being useful for removing toxins in the environment by absorbing them, but I'd been cataloging a few locations on some hikes around the city that felt a bit more remote. So that night I headed out to one spot, and another the following day. That 2nd day was windier, and I only got about a tablespoon of pollen, despite some of the cattail shoots just opening and turning yellow. When people say it is a short harvesting season, they are right! 

I got about a cup of pollen from both trips, a low return on two hours of time, but enough to do something with. I consoled myself that first attempts at anything have lower yields, and now I am more aware of what I am looking for. 

So! This pollen fudge - it totally highlights the pollen. It's so yellow! I had to add a little more pollen than Forager Chef suggested, but that might be because I loosely measured my honey and may have been a little off. In any case, his recipe follows, which he says was inspired by Chinese and Iraqi pollen confections. His recipe links to this YouTube video of Pine Tree Flower Cake made by a woman in China, which is totally stunning. I watched more of her videos - no wonder she has millions of views! I found this fudge tasty, unlike anything else I've eaten, and a nice post dinner bite. I found I wanted a little crunch, so I tried rolling one in shredded coconut (good), and will try another in some crushed roasted nuts.

My one cup of cattail pollen.

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons pine or cattail pollen (previously frozen to sterilize it)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter or coconut oil for a vegan version
• 4 teaspoons mild honey
• Pinch kosher salt

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, working with a fork until it just comes together, then switch to your hands and knead to a soft mass.
• Gauge the texture of the fudge, if it seems to soft to work with, add some more pollen.
• Chill the “fudge” to make it stiffen if it gets too soft on you. I like to form them, then chill to hold their shape. Just imagine you’re working with PlayDoh
• Shape the fudge into truffles, or another shape, dust with powdered dried pine needles, chopped fresh spruce tips, or more pollen as for truffles, and serve as a small sweet after a meal.

Lamb's Quarter Saag Curry

Had I thought of making this dish when I still had raw milk, I would have made some paneer to go along with it! But, I used up all of my raw milk to make yogurt, so that will have to come another day. Instead, I made a straight up saag curry, as well as a shrimp curry with tamarind and fresh peas, and a couple of baby zucchni from my garden. I almost attempted a daylily version of Nepalese style okra with jerusalem artichokes, but that got a bit too ambitious for my weekday evening. 

Both curries turned out really delicious, very distinct from one another, though I took some liberties with the latter. It was my first time using tamarind paste, which I bought at the Ethiopian market sometime last year. I love the tang! Even without curry leaves, it was still really good. That recipe inspiration is here (I also used coconut cream instead of fresh coconut, which went fine), and the only thing I'd do differently is be more attentive to the shrimp - mine overcooked because I did not turn the heat all the way off for the curry to thicken. Next time I'd let it simmer a little longer before adding the shrimp, then just serve as soon as the shrimp is cooked.

I made my lamb's quarter saag following a combination of this recipe and this one. I promptly harvested more lamb's quarters on my post dinner walk to freeze for more of this exact preparation. Yum. (Though, this morning as I was steaming them, I noticed a distinct pee smell. Some of my greens came from around my boulevard tree, and I think that was not the most judicious choice. I rinsed them again and added some extra ginger - I'm hoping for the best.) 

Lamb's quarters work especially well here because you blend them up, so you can be extra forgiving with leaves and stems (just remove the tough main stem of larger plants), but you could use any green. Note: you blend up the lamb's quarters with ginger and garlic and some jalapeno, and you add a little extra ginger/garlic later to saute. They are listed separately below, but heads up for your "mis-en-place" if you do that kind of thing. Also, the nuts here serve to thicken the saag. I liked that addition, but it would be fine without, or just add extra cream at the end. I had leftover soaked and dehydrated almonds that are soft and blend well, so I used them. If I hadn't, I would skip that.

Lamb's Quarters Saag Curry

• 4-6 cups lamb's quarters (4 if they are pretty tightly packed; this is flexible)
• 1" knob of ginger, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/8 jalapeno pepper, chopped (or more if you want extra spicy)
• 10 soaked cashews or almonds (opt)
  
• 2 T ghee or butter
• Seeds from 2 cardamom pods
• 1" cinnamon stick piece
• 2 cloves
  
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 c red onions, minced (I used part onion part garlic scapes)
• 1/2 tsp ginger, minced
  
• 1/2 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 tomato chopped (or 1/2 c frozen tomatoes)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 3/4 tsp garam masala
• 1-2 T heavy cream to serve 

1. Prepare the lamb;s quarter puree: Steam or blanch your greens. I did this by bringing 1-2" of water to a boil in a pot,  then adding the greens and covering the whole thing. I stirred them a couple of times, so that in 2-3 minutes the greens were all wilted/steamed. You could also do a 1 minute blanch and then rinse in cold water. You don't want to overcook because you will lose the bright green. Once the greens are cool, add them, the ginger, garlic, jalapeno and nuts to a food processor and puree until smooth. 
2. For the Saag sauce: heat ghee or butter in a heavy skillet/pot over med heat. Once hot, add your whole spices: cardamom seeds, cinnnamon, cumin seeds. Saute just for 30 seconds or so, and add your minced onions. Saute until soft, a couple of minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and saute another minute. Add your tomatoes and sea salt, and stir to combine well. The tomatoes will have lots of juice, so let that release. You want a sort of wet paste. Once the tomatoes are soft, add the garam masala. Saute 2-3 minutes. You may need to add a little extra water here to keep the mixture wet.
3. Once the sauce is thickened, lower the heat and add your green puree. Heat just for a couple of minutes, until the curry starts to bubble. Taste for seasoning, add more salt or a little hot water if it is too thick. *If you have paneer, you would also add that in now, also stir in 2-3 T cream if you prefer that to nuts. Serve with some swirled cream on top. 

This would be great with dosa, which is on my list of fermented things to try making, and also of course rice or the Indian spice Kohlrabi or again, the Nepalese style okra and jerusalem artichokes.

Argentinian Style Marinated Lamb Tongue

At the behest of my friend who grew up eating lamb and goat tongue (it is so delicious, she said), I ordered some lamb tongue on my quarterly meat order from Hilltop Family Farms. I've been eyeing tongue for awhile - sort of wanting to try it, but cow tongue is so enormous that it was more of a side-eye look. I hadn't totally thought about smaller animals until she mentioned it. Goat and lamb tongue seem like great entry options, they are small and seem less intimidating. Also, my Odd Bits cookbook describes lamb tongue as mild, which I found reassuring. Jennifer McLagan (of Odd bits) is a fan of tongue brining, which I'll try in the future.

It seems people most often slow braise their tongues, and then peel the outer tongue layer while warm. This family recipe was passed on to MN chef, Alan Bergo, who I stumbled upon while perusing internet tongue recipes. He has a website called Forager Chef, and a book coming out in two weeks called The Forager Chef's book of Flora that looks lovely. I mean, how serendipitous to find him - it's everything I want in a food blog: foraging (thus seasonal and local), creative, and looking at various cultural food traditions for inspiration. I can't wait to dive into his website some more - my jaw dropped when I saw his recipe for pollen honey fudge. What?!! Genius. (Especially b/c he uses a little butter to cut the sweetness, which is thumb's up from me.) He even has a post about roadkill. 💕

So, tongue!! I mostly like it - I am interested to try it some more. (I liked it enough that I am drinking the braising broth, which is good cold and a bit like collards/nettle pot liquor meets a light bone broth.) Tongue is slightly pate-like to me, but more firm. Firm the way smoked oysters out of a tin are. I especially liked this marinated tongue on some seed crackers (perhaps sparking the smoked oyster thought), which was super tasty. My salad was good, and modeled after Alan Bergo's video. He used avocado and cooled potatoes (think salad nicoise) and radish. I used cooled jerusalem artichokes and asparagus (steamed and also cooled), and fresh pea pods. Both of us used lettuce and a hard boiled egg. The marinade was very tasty, though I used a bit too many red pepper flakes so the tongue was spicy. I think it is a really nice appetizer (I ate mine for dinner), and I really like the fresh herbs in there. The marinade (with cilantro and mint) made me think of chimichurri, no surprise, which was really nice in this summer heat. I would make this again, except maybe I'd actually just use a chimichurri sauce and serve it on crackers. 

One note: tongue is both the part visually discernable as tongue, but also with some other meaty part. Both tasted good, but differed texture-wise. Also, thankfully Jennifer McLagan menionted that tongues come in all variety of hues, from pink to gray, and some are mottled. One of mine was, and it was weird looking, causing me to wonder. But it's normal. Also, it is normal that 3 out of 4 tongues will peel really easily, and one will be stubborn and require a paring knife. FYI. That was true for me, too.

This is the tongue without other stuff

Braising the Tongue

• 1-1.25 lbs Lamb or Goat Tongue (about 4-8 tongues, depending on size)
• 5 cups chicken stock or water
• 1 each: small carrot ½ small yellow onion and 1 stalk of celery, roughly chopped
• 1 dried bay leaf
• salt

Final Marinade

• ½ cup blend of fresh herbs: parsley, cilantro, mint, tarragon (I used cilantro and mint)
• ½ cup virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt or more to taste
• Crushed red pepper about ¼ teaspoon, or more to taste (optional)
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove lightly crushed with the back of a knife
• lemon zest (opt)

Instructions

• Combine the tongues and ingredients for braising in a high-sided pan, such as a 3 qt sauce pot. Make sure the tongues are covered with water, if they aren’t add a little more water until they’re covered by approximately ½ inch.
• Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook slowly, covered, about 1.5 hours, or until the tongues are tender when pierced.
• When the tongues are tender, take them off the heat and cool in their liquid until you can handle them. Peel with your hand or a paring knife, it will be easier if they’re still warm.
• Trim any excess connective tissue and bits of skin that may be left on if any were resisting being peeled.
• Refrigerate the tongues for a few hours to firm up and make them easy to slice.
• Slice the tongues into ¼ inch slices, then combine with the marinade ingredients. Double check the seasoning and add more salt, vinegar, or crushed red pepper to taste, keeping in mind the seasonings will get stronger as the tongues sit and the flavors meld.
• Transfer the tongues to a container, pressing them down so the vinaigrette and juices cover the top and refrigerate until needed. They're best after marinating for a few hours/overnight. The tongues will keep refrigerated for 4 days. 
  Serve the tongue on crackers, or add some veggies to the marinade and toss it up for salad. I think a little sweetness is a good gesture here (potatoes or jerusalem artichokes, carrots, avocado, peas, asparagus, maybe beets) along with some lettuce and herbs.
  

Raw, Grain Free Granola

I am riding an inspiration train of making my own food lately. What if I could make/grow/forage most things rather than the grocery store? Sometimes I take this to more extreme imaginings than others, but right now I am experimenting with direct farm purchased raw milk to make yogurt, and raw cream for my morning tea. Next up will be to try making butter, and then cheese from raw goat milk. 

Raw milk has lots of great benefits, and in MN the only legal way to purchase it is direct from the farm, in my case Humble Beginnings Family Farm. They are lovely - I held a baby goat that snuggled into my arms, met the baby turkeys and ducks, and 2 of the 7 human kids, both of whom were so great, and one who is also a redhead. :)

I also got some raw yogurt from the farm so that I have a culture to make more with (it is delicious). All to say, I am about to be flush in some yogurt, so I decided to make some granola (which is um, decidedly not local and requires the import purchasing of nuts, but I'm moving in stages here). Because it is hot, I decided to make it in the dehydrator, which then meant I might as well soak them first and get all the benefits of such a thing. Maybe I will feel totally amazing after some weeks of raw cultured dairy products and nuts free of phytic acid and increased nutrient availability? We will see!

I used these guidelines for nut and seed soaking, basically you soak in water and salt overnight, and then dehydrate at a low temp for 12 hours. 

I then riffed on this recipe for my granola, which turned out great. I used very little sweetener, so it is minimally sweet except for whatever dried fruit you add. Dehydrating the granola means it is less toasted, but still crispy, with all of the enzymes and nutrients intact.

• 1 c sesame seeds
• 1 c pumpkin seeds
• 1 c walnuts
• 1 c almonds
• 1 1/2 c unsweetened shredded coconut 
• 2 T maple syrup (or more if you want a sweet taste)
  
• 1/3 c coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon 
• splash of vanilla extract
  
• 1/2 c craisins or other dried fruit (opt)

1. Mix the nuts and seeds together. I opted to chop the walnuts and almonds up a bit (I just did it by hand), you could leave them whole or pulse them and the seeds in a food processor for a more crumbly granola.
2. Stir in the maple syrup, coconut oil, salt, cinnamon and vanilla until everything is coated.
3. Spread on dehydrator sheets (I used those tray sheets so as to not lose any bits through the mesh) and dehydrate at 115 degrees for 10-12 hours, until crunchy.
4. Mix in craisins (or dried fruit) if using. Keeps in the fridge for up to 6 weeks, or you can freeze. (Or keep in a cool dry place, likely for a month? Maybe more?)
   

Sauerkraut slaw

Well, for a little change of pace (not greens!) I made some slaw with last summer's kraut. Why have I not put kraut in slaw before?! For some reason in the heat, I really like eating cold sour things. I finished off my (cold) apple cider vinegar soaked nettles, which was ideal to eat out of a jar from the fridge, and I've been eating up some of last year's experimental ferments: ginger beet (not great, I'll do ginger carrot next time) and a Morrocan spiced beet (still needs some tweaks, but good). 

I've now got 4 days of training in Pacific time, so I made brisket overnight in the crock pot (basically homemade bbq sauce and brisket simmered for 12 hours) and this slaw for some easy dinners. Both things I want to eat when it is hot.

This concoction was inspired by a fermentation book from the library that I photocopied some recipes from, but sadly did not write down the name of the book. (Sorry dear author who I am now not referencing. She also had recipes for fermented ketchup and dosa and all kinds of things that may show up in future posts.) I've made this slaw a couple of times now with what I have on hand, and have felt satisfied each time. I mean, sour + sweet = you can't go wrong (usually).

• 1/4 c raisins
• 1/2 small red or green cabbage, sliced thinly (red is prettiest!)
  
• 1 c kraut
• 2 carrots, julienned/grated/match-sticked
• 1 large apple (I like pink lady), chopped small
• 2 green onions (or equivalent red onions), finely chopped
  
• Fresh parsley if you have it (2 T)
• 1/3-1/2c mayo
• 1 T mustard
• 1 T apple cider vinegar
• 1 T honey 
• salt to taste

1. Combine the dressing ingredients (mayo, mustard, vinegar, and honey) in a small bowl, mix until homogenous. Add the raisins to it to get them extra juicy!
   
2. Combine the veggies and fruit in a large bowl.
3. Pour the dressing on top, add salt (or kraut juice) to taste. Serve! (This gets better if you let it sit a bit, so make early for extra deliciousness.) 
   
   

   

   This time I added a little kale with the green cabbage
   

Nettle Oxymel Salad

This is not a fancy recipe, but it IS a stellar salad - so simple, and so delicious. I first made this salad to have with soft boiled eggs, cooked over a rocket stove to celebrate a friend's retirement, outdoor picnic style. It might be a combo of the fresh herbs, the sweetness from the nettle oxymel, and the salty gomasio, but really I could eat this salad daily (which I basically am right now). 

An oxymel is apple cider vinegar with honey and additions, in my case nettles. Fire tonic, with ginger and garlic and whatever else, is another oxymel. You basically soak the herbs in the vinegar/honey concoction for some time, infusing extra health benefits, so that you can sip on the health promoting tincture, or in my case use it as salad dressing. 

 

 

 

 

Nettle Oxymel

• 1 lb fresh nettles, chopped
  
• 1 1/2 quarts apple cider vinegar
• 1 pint honey

Combine all ingredients in two quart jars, submerging nettles below the surface. The original recipe recommends chopping your nettles, but I forgot that and used whole ones. I think chopping will impart more flavor, so I'd do that next time. Let sit for 2 weeks, then strain and bottle. Refrigerate. *Since I did not chop my nettles, I steamed them with some red onion and ate them afterwards. They were deliciously vinegar-y, with some sweetness. 

My salad was a combo of some lattuces, arugula, dandelion greens, mint, dill, parsley, and tarragon. I tossed the greens with the nettle oxymel and olive oil, and then doused the whole thing with a hearty shake of nettle gomasio. The salad is GREAT with eggs (with more gomasio) or just as is.