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.

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.

Nettle egg-cakes

Ramadan is around the corner, and I plan to fast again, so I am in the time-right-before where I feel both excited and a bit panicky. I decided this year to do a little prep (beyond just cutting caffeine) to decrease some daytime food intake now, so that the sudden switch isn't quite so, well, sudden. Which really means I am eating a little later for brunch, a bit less than I might otherwise. I made these nettle egg cakes today, a riff on the multitude of mostly korean pancakes I have tried lately. I don't know why, but sometimes it is just satisfying to have my breakfast/lunch in pancake form. Savory style. Oooh, which makes me think these would have been good with bacon. (Though I did eat them with some basturma, which is almost as good!)

I made these today with just nettles and red onion, though I have made them before using grated potato, and sometimes cheese along with the greens. This is the simplest version that I ate with some plain yogurt. They were really good, and the recipe is forgiving. You can approximate and increase/decrease the veggies to your tastes. (I am on my last, I think, batch of frozen nettles. Good timing, because the green onions are just getting big enough to harvest, and I dug up some jerusalem artichokes yesterday. And dandelion greens are starting. So, I made it through to spring time vegetables! Fasting for the month will also help with the limited produce!) *I also tried them with coconut and almond flours - I used a combo of both in place of the ones below. It turned out great.

Nettle egg-cakes - Serves 1

• 1/3 c steamed nettles (or other greens), chopped 
• 1/4 c red onion, diced small
• 2 eggs
• 1-2 tsp arrowroot starch
• 1-2 T buckwheat flour

Mix all ingredients together; you want a thick consistency - think thick pancake batter. It won't pour so much as scoop. 

Heat some butter, ghee or coconut oil in a skillet. When hot, scoop your batter to the center, and flatten out to a pancake. Cook over med heat for several minutes on each side. This amount makes 2 egg-cakes for me. Serve with plain, thick yogurt, or a little butter, or top with a drizzle of mayo and sriracha. 

Egg Foo Young with Nettles and Bacon

I came across this recipe from Nom Nom Paleo, and I made it with my bounty of nettles, and found these little egg cakes so tasty! They really would make a perfect road snack, or lunch. You know, for the time when I might ever go on road trips or work away from home again.

I basically followed the Nom Nom Paleo recipe, with a couple exceptions: I made mine with bacon, used nettles instead of spinach, and I used a flour combo of buckwheat/tapioca flour instead of coconut flour. Mine turned out more green and less egg-y, I think because nettles are just more dense than spinach, so they are more robust. Next time I want to try these with left over bbq meat, for some reason that sounds like a really good combo. (Egg Foo Young is a Cantonese dish made to use up left over meat and veggies, so left over bbq is totally appropriate.)

Egg Foo Young (makes 6-7 small cakes)
3 large eggs
scant ¼ cup gf flour (I used 2 T buckwheat & 2 tsp tapioca flour)
1 teaspoon fish sauce
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
½ cup chopped cooked bacon, diced ham or cooked meat of choice
5 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (or cooked and squeezed nettles)
1 scallion, sliced
¼ teaspoon baking soda
Freshly ground black pepper
oil for frying

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, flour, fish sauce, and apple cider vinegar until smooth.
2. Mix in the meat, spinach/nettles, scallions, and baking soda, and some freshly ground black pepper.
3. Melt a tablespoon of ghee/coconut oil/bacon fat/avocado oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Use a scoop to plop the batter in the pan, and flatten the pancake to ½-inch thick with the back of a spoon. Don't overcrowd!
4. Fry without disturbing the patties for 2 minutes before flipping the pancakes over and cooking it on the other side for about 1 to 2 minutes more. The pancakes  are cooked through when the centers bounce back when you press down on them with your finger.
5. Cook through all of batter, and serve!

Oftentimes Egg Foo Young is served with a gravy, but I I ate mine plain, and with sriracha. Both ways were super tasty.

Okonomiyaki - Japanese Savory Pancakes with Nettles

I've been wanting to attempt Okonomiyaki for years, and finally decided to try a version from the Smitten Kitchen. I've never had Okonomiyaki before, and clearly this recipe is less traditional because they are small and less batter-y. She (the Smitten Kitchen blogger) calls them more latke-like. It was an easy recipe to make GF, and I found them quite tasty, especially with the tangy sauce and mayo. Yum. 

I gathered a bucket of nettles this week, so I added them along with the cabbage, carrot and scallions. I opted to steam them first because I wasn't sure if they would cook enough otherwise to eliminate the stinging edges. I also halved her recipe and that is what I list below. The first half of the batch I ate plain (with the sauce and mayo), and the next night I ate the leftovers with some bacon wrapped sardines. Yum! (They reheated really nicely on a baking sheet in the oven.)

Pancakes
1/4 small head cabbage, very thinly sliced (2-3 cups shreds) *I used a mandoline
2 medium carrots, peeled into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
1 c of loosely packed steamed nettles, chopped (after measuring, squeeze all the excess water out)
2 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 heaping cup gluten free flour (I used a gf blend, but oat flour or chickpea flour would work well)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Coconut oil or bacon grease for frying

Make the pancakes:
Toss cabbage, carrot, nettles, scallions and salt together in a large bowl. Toss mixture with flour so it coats all of the vegetables. (The nettles might clump a bit because they are wet and squished together from getting the water out. Separate them so they are mixed throughout the other veggies.) Stir in the eggs. Heat a large heavy skillet on medium-high heat. Coat the bottom with oil and heat that too.

I used my fingers to grab little piles of batter, depositing them on the skillet to form 3 to 4 pancakes. Press down gently with a spatula so they flatten slightly. Cook for 3 minutes, or until the edges brown. Flip the pancakes and cook them again until brown underneath. Keep them warm in a 250 degree oven until they are all cooked. (And again, these saved just fine in the fridge for me to reheat on a baking sheet later.)

Tangy Sauce
2 T ketchup
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (or sub fish sauce)
1/4 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 tsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp tamari2 tsp honey
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Combine all sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and let simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, until smooth and thick. (I think you can probably do this without cooking and it will be just fine! My ketchup was pretty thick, so I only simmered mine a couple of minutes, and it seemed unnecessary.)

Wild Nettle Soup with Jeruslem Artichokes

This is the first time I have not had a spring boundary waters trip in 5 or 6 years. Prepping for those those trips is a time-consuming process - dehydrating food, making jerky, packing everything, planning routes, etc. Inevitably garden stuff got delayed some, and I was not always here for some of the markers of spring, including the time to harvest nettles. So this year I am here! I made two nettle foraging trips in the past week, and have been eating them every day, if not more. My vitamin, calcium, and iron levels are becoming extra robust. If you want to harvest nettles, see my older post here about what to look for.

Yesterday morning I gathered a bucket full of the prickly greens, and decided to try making pesto, and also a soup because this rainy, cool weather seems to call for it. I created the recipe from what I had around, including jerusalem artichokes from the garden (dug up as soon as the earth was diggable and now living in a bucket in my fridge), and chicken bone broth, made over the winter from all of my roasted chicken thigh bones. It turned out really nice and was a beautiful green. If it was just a bit earlier I'd have been able to use green onions from the garden, but they are already starting to produce their offspring, so I'm leaving what I have left to re-populate.

Wild Nettle Soup
5 c. chicken bone broth
1/2 lb. jerusalem artichokes, quartered (potatoes would also work)
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, sliced
6+ c fresh nettles (use tongs!)
sea salt to taste

Jerusalem artichokes (also called sunchokes)

1. Bring broth to a boil in a large pot. Add jerusalem artichokes to broth to cook. They will impart a nice sweet, nutty flavor to the soup. Boil jerusalem artichokes until soft, 6-10 minutes.
2. As that is happening, saute onions and garlic in butter or olive oil until soft.
3. When jeruslem artichokes are tender, add onion/garlic, salt, and fresh nettles to the broth. Nettles will cook down (and will lose their stinging properties once they wilt). I had a hard time measuring the nettles, but you have some room here to use more or less than I've suggested.
4. Process the soup with a burr whip thing or in batches in your food processor.
5. Serve as is, or stir in some cream!

Nettles!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the big nettle forage I went on. It was my first time getting nettles, though not my first time eating them. The season may be wrapping up for them soon, but I thought I'd post about it in case there are still some out there to go after. I read somewhere that you want to harvest them before they are knee high - so keep that in mind!

Nettles have more protein than any other plant, and lots and lots of iron, vitamins A and C, potassium and other good for you vitamins. My Charming Companion's friend ate them daily throughout her pregnancy, and the doctor actually told her her iron was a little too high! High?!

The trick to eating nettles is to harvest them while wearing gloves (and pants) and using a scissors. Cooking them for 30 seconds removes the sting from the nettle - so one just needs to get them cooked. My Charming Companion and I harvested a couple of buckets full to freeze. Be sure to use tongs to handle these babies until they are cooked.

Nettles basically look how they sound. They don't look particularly edible because they look like they will sting! The edges are ridged and they grow tall, and there is a little furry-ness to the stems.






Cut the top part off the nettles, stem and all. (Some people say you can't use the stem, but I did and didn't even notice!) The new growth is the upper part, so cut just below the 2nd or 3rd tier of leaves, and again, don't use nettles that are over knee high.




To wash the nettles, we set up a two bucket sort of system. Fill a bucket with water and dump all the nettles in. Use the tongs to swish the nettles around and remove layers from the top. Put them into a 2nd bucket or large pot (this was a big canning pot).



To cook: Bring your largest pot, filled about 3-5" high with water, to a boil. When it is boiling, fill it with as many nettles as you can fit. Cover and steam/boil for 5 minutes or so. You may need to swish things around/push the nettles down.

Drain the nettles (keep the water to drink for nettle tea!) and press/squeeze out the water as best you can. (You can touch them now, they will just be hot!) We spread the nettles on two big trays and set them outside to cool off.

Once they are cool, do one more squeeze and you can store the nettles in the fridge for about a week, or put in bags and freeze.







They are partially cooked now, so you can use them to make all kinds of things: soup, pesto, saute them with onions, etc. The nettles have a chewiness that is more noticeable than any other green. They were delicious in this fritata with a little red pepper and some green onions.