Shaggy Soup

Not a lot of time to do much of anything but fix the house as of late so... Out for a run today and found a fruiting of Shaggy Manes. Seems a bit early, but I'll take them when I can find them.

Unfortunately, they were starting to deliquesce when I got to them, so they won't get their traditional flour dredging and sautee. I've read mixed reviews of using Coprinoids that have begun to deliquesce, but figured I'd give it a shot.

5/6 slightly deliquescing Shaggy Manes with the heavy deliquescing gills removed
1/2 yellow onion
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons flour

Destem mushrooms and dice chunks into small/medium sized pieces. Cut the heavily deliquescing from the gills and remove. Sautee mushroom stems and diced onion, garlic, and parsley. Add spices to taste, and sautee additional 30 seconds. Pour in milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream. In another container, mix two tablespoons flour with remaining heavy cream until thoroughly dissolved. Add flour mixture to soup. Simmer additional 10 minutes.

Brined Milkweed Pods

A while back I put Wild Fermentation on my reading list, and totally forgot about it. The other day at the library, someone had pulled it out and left it on the table. Of course I had to take it home and make the Wife angry with all my fermenting projects. One such project happened to fit perfectly with what I had in the fridge.

I love pickles. Everything tastes better with a little vinegar, salt, and garlic. Problem is, unless you've got a few jars to pickle, it's tough to justify the mess and energy it takes to heat up a big 'ole pot o water. Fortunately, Katz' recipes tend to veer away from traditional pickling and more toward lactofermentation.

I had thought about doing milkweed pickles, but didn't have enough, so I tried something out of Katz' book - Brined Milkweed Pods. (He also claims you can do this with Nasturtium pods, but I don't have any of those around so...) Pretty simple recipe and they taste sort of like olives. I've since tried using bigger pods stuffed with cheese, hot pepper, and capocollo. Tastes like something you'd get at the $7.99/lb olive bar.

Milkweed Pickles
2-3 cups of milkweed pods
3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt
1 cup water
4-6 cloves garlic

Stuff the milkweed pods in a jar mixed with the peeled garlic cloves. (I love garlic so I use a lot of garlic. I also love spicy, so I add cayenne pepper and some chili flakes.) Mix the salt with the water and pour over milkweed pods. Depending on how big your jar is, you may need more or less water - but use the same ratio 3/4 T of salt to 1 cup water. Make sure the milkweed pods are underwater and allow to sit. The pods will float, so you will have to find a way to weigh them down. I've used a Collins Glass and a shot glass. Be creative.

Day Lily Fritters

As a kid I can remember driving up and down the road looking for wild asparagus. They were a tough find, and never really that good. What I didn't realize, at least not completely, was the orange flowers on the side of the road were a much easier, much tastier find. We used to call them Tiger Lilies, but in truth they're Day Lilies, and it would seem that most of the plant is edible.
I haven't experimented with the rest of the plant, but I have dabbled with the flowers. Most recently, I cut the newly opened flowers from the plants in my back yard. It's easier to cut the flowers in half, dip them in egg and toss them on the frying pan. With a little salt and pepper they are absolutely delicious. You can also toss the whole flower on the frying pan, and dump some egg right on top once they cook down a bit and have a tasty omelet. It's also said in different places that the dried flowers can be used to thicken soups. We'll see how that experiment works out...

Dock Coffee Part 3

FAIL!!! Unfortunately, this experiment was a big old fail. The initial taste of the drink was bitter, somewhat akin to coffee. Not exact, but for me, close enough. The problem was the aftertaste. I'm not sure how to explain it, other than slightly woody.  I guess, more than slightly. It was more-or-less unbearable, to the point I dumped it out.

I've not completely given up though... I think my problem was two fold. Firstly, I think the season was wrong. Perhaps if I had held my patience and harvested the roots near winter time they might have had a better flavor. I'm also wondering what might happen if I peeled the roots before drying them. The aftertaste had that woody, bark flavor and I'm wondering if it didn't come from that. Just have to wait until it gets a bit cooler and we'll do it all over again.

Dock Coffee Part 2

After three or four days of drying in the closet, the dock roots were dry, and it was time for roasting. According to Thayer, although he's just assuming, you proceed making the dock coffee much in the same way you would dandelion and chicory. He recommends roasting the roots anywhere from 15-60 minutes at 325 Fahrenheit. I gave my roots a fairly decent bake at 45 minutes. They're a nice brown color and are pretty bitter, but not unpalatable when I chew on them. I'm getting a grain grinder tomorrow so I can grind up the roots and cook them for my first cup of dock coffee... You can see in the picture below they are a nice medium brown color, a little lighter than the outside of the roots.

Dock Coffee Part 1

Getting into this foraging thing, I went to the library and picked up Samuel Thayer's Nature's Garden and have been doing a bit of reading - and of course, getting excited and jumping the gun. One of the more easily identified and readily available plants right now - at least for me - is a plant called Dock. Apparently it has many uses. It seems like I've missed the season for the edible greens and it's too early for the seeds - not to mention the seeds don't sound like they're all that worth it to me. Another one of the parts of Dock that can be used are the roots. Thayer claims they're too bitter to eat and use as a vegetable. I gnawed on one and that was enough for me - at least for now. The roots weren't quite as bitter as a big 'ole dandelion leaf, but still a little more bitter than I'd like. All the same, the roots can be dried, roasted, ground and used as a coffee substitute.

Being impatient with the seasons and wanting to try everything, I decided to give the Dock Coffee a whirl. The late-spring early summer isn't the best for the roots as the energy in the plant is going towards the flowers and seeds, but I couldn't help myself.

I dug up a bigger plant and cut the roots from the plant. I rinsed the outside of the roots and then split the roots in halves or quarters lengthwise, depending on how thick the root was. After leaving them on the deck in the sun for the rest of the day, I strung them on a string with a needle and thread and hung it in the closet to dry. Now we wait a few days while the roots dry so we can begin the roasting process.

Chicken Milkweed Casserole

I used all my milkweed up making Battered Milkweed the other day, so I went out the field yesterday and picked a whole lot more. In the past I've been using the young tender tips, but this time I decided to see what would happen if I used some of the bigger older leaves. To my surprise they worked out great.  So far, this is my favorite. I used a few pieces of homemade crusty wheat bread that made a nice spongy bread pudding feel to it. It's not bad with mustard on the side.

1.5 cups boiled milkweed - chopped
1 medium yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
1.5 tablespoons mustard
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon dill weed
2 eggs
1.5 cups milk
4 slices of thick home made bread
1 medium chicken breast
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. Saute the onions and garlic. Remove and allow to cool. In separate bowl mix onion, eggs, 1 cup of milk, mustard, coriander, and dill weed. Slice chicken breast into thin strips and boil about five minutes.  Remove chicken and allow to cool. Cut into bite size pieces. Mix chicken, milkweed, and onion and garlic mixture into egg mixture. Grease a nine inch casserole dish and crumble a piece of bread into the bottom. Dump half the mixture over the bread chunks. Chunk remaining bread slices and cover with remaining mixture. Allow mixture to settle and pour remaining half cup of milk over casserole dish. Cook for 40 minutes, cover with cheese, sprinkle on bread crumbs and broil until cheese is brown and crispy.

Pork Stuffed Wine Caps

For a while now I've been eyeballing some of the local wood chip piles for some Stropharia rugosoannulata. I think I've seen some old dried and dead ones from last year growing, but haven't seen any fresh ones. Today I managed to find some good ones. A few were older and no good, but I was able to find four sizable buttons. Not much, but enough to do something, and I figured I'd come up with and try a recipe when I only had four to destroy. Don't listen to what you read on the internet regarding Wine Caps not getting along with onion and garlic. Maybe with just onion and garlic they don't work, but these came out really good.


Wine Caps
1/4 cup red onion - minced
2 ozs pork finely chopped
2 cloves garlic - minced
1 scallion green - minced
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon mace
2 tablespoons sour cream
Dried bread crumbs


Remove stipes from caps and mince. Saute chopped stipes with onion and garlic. Add pork and scallion greens. When pork is cooked add seasonings and cook until glazed. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add sour cream and mix thoroughly. Pack caps with mixture and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Preheat oven to 375 and cook uncovered for 35-40 minutes.

Battered Milkweed with Spicy Raspberry Lime Sauce

Milkweed isn't just for butterflies, it's for people, too. Growing up, my grandmother told me about milkweed shoots, but I never went after it. I always assumed they were bitter - as that is what most of the literature says. Lately, I learned they weren't bitter. Some of the older leaves need a good boil, but the more tender shoots and young leaves can do with a good blanch and they're set to go. Battered up and tossed on the skillet and they're good to go. Don't forget the dipping sauce, it's really what draws it together.

  
Dipping Sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 garlic cloves - minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
2 tablespoons raspberry jelly
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon chili flakes
juice of 1/2 lime

Mix all ingredients together and let sit.

Batter
3/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons curry
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 cup seltzer

Mix dry ingredients together, add seltzer slowly until a batter is formed. Make sure not to get it too wet or it won't stick to the milkweed. Boil water and blanch milkweed. Drain and rinse under cold water. Remove water - either towel dry, or use a salad spinner. Dip dried milkweed in batter and drop onto hot buttered frying pan.

I'm Not A Cow!

Lately, I've been reading a fair bit online about Red Clover and it's versatility. To be honest, I wasn't sure. I know it's edible, but it's just a cover crop to help restore nitrogen back to the Earth and keep the soil intact while it lies fallow. It is also a fodder crop and last I checked, I wasn't livestock...

Needless to say, I had to try some. It grows in abundance outside in the fields and along the edges of the sidewalks. Surely no one would miss it, and I wouldn't actually have to go digging around looking for it. The next time I went for a walk with my son, I brought along a bag hanging from his stroller and started picking clover heads and popping them in the bag so I could make tea when we got home.

While I waited for the water to boil, I began stripping the leaves from the clover heads and tossing the flowers into my French Press. Finally the water boiled and it was time to combine and steep. I let it sit for sometime - 25 minutes or so - then dumped it into a half gallon mason jar added some ice and a bit of honey and away we went. I have to admit it wasn't the best tea I've had, but easily something I'll do again. Perhaps a lemon or lime slice might help. Next time I'll try a combination of white and red clovers.

Polyporus squamosus

When spring comes around people start looking for Morels. Apparently, they're quite tasty, I've never actually eaten one, so I don't know. It's said among mushrooming circles that aside from the morel, there isn't much in the way of edible spring mushrooms. How disappointing. There are other spring mushrooms, and they are edible, but in no way are they enjoyable, almost not worth picking - or so it is said. Polyporus squamosus is one of those "edible, but not" spring mushrooms.

Walking along the edge of a field, looking for some morels - in the wrong place - I saw a long dead Elm log sprouting a good handful of these Dryad's Saddles and I figured I'd give it a go. Some of the bigger ones were already too tough to cut, and those I left to continue on with their mushroomy lives. The others, I nipped and stuffed in my bag to take home and try.

Once home, I took them out and cleaned them off. Ran them by my AG one more time just to make sure they were in fact P. squamosus, they were, and so I stuck them in an old strawberry container and put them in the fridge to figure out what to make with them.
Before trying to figure out what to do, I took out an older tougher mushroom and decided to give it a try. Going by what everyone else says I trimmed the soft outer edges and tossed it in the frying pan with some butter and salt. And, just because, I put in a thicker piece to see how tough it really would be...

Sure enough the outsides were edible, and whoever started spreading the rumor about P. squamosus being inedible ought to be hung by their toe nails. Perhaps these aren't comparable to morels, but with just butter and salt, they were pretty good. Definitely a mushroom I'll go looking for again, and considering how easy it is to identify, it should be one every beginning mushroomer gives a shot.

Getting Here

Over the last year or so, my wife and I have tried to reduce our trash, and become a more sustainable household. It's proven to be expensive, and when you're just getting started, little expenses can make a difference. We still try to do things with the environment in mind, but buying milk in refillable jars for twice the price of milk in a non-refillable plastic jug had to go. Maybe someday when we have disposable income we can make more environmentally positive decisions, but until then we'll just have to make do. That said, we have monitored our garbage and it seems a fair bit comes from food. Not to mention when you get your food, it probably came a few hundred miles before it got to you. That head of lettuce may not be in a plastic bag, but it still bumped across miles and miles of pavement in a truck spewing noxious fumes into the air. But truly, how many people think about things like that? How many people see a jar of ketchup and think 'ketchup' instead of 'tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, spices?' With that in mind I've decided to try and harvest more of our meals from the local environment, be it fished, foraged or hunted. Being that we currently rent and don't have a garden, and no land to hunt, most of what is used to supplement our pantry will have to be foraged. Sounds daunting, but the more I look into it, the more I'm realizing that there are plenty of edibles growing like weeds outside my door.