Eating Your Yard – April 13, 2012

We planted our garden early this year.  It is so unseasonably warm, we just couldn’t help ourselves.  We are growing peas, lettuce, broccoli, okra, tomatoes and herbs, but it will be weeks before there is anything from either garden to eat.  There are, however, things in most of our yards that can be eaten as well.  I recently learned you can cook daylilies just like squash blossoms and pansies and violets have no taste but are pretty in a salad or used to decorate a goat cheese.  But, if you are really hungry, most weeds can be eaten as well.  I find this interesting, but don’t see a reason to eat my yard most days.  I did make an exception this week though for dandelion. 

Mostly, my experience with dandelion is trying to dig them out of my flower beds, but they are actually a very edible plant.  In fact, every part of a dandelion can be eaten in some way.  It would take a lot of harvesting to gather enough, but dandelion root can be eaten in stir fry and dandelion flowers are boiled to make dandelion wine.  But the easiest part to use is the green.  The dandelion greens can be cooked just like kale, turnip, spinach or any other green.  I have read that this is the time to gather the greens (before the flowers bloom).  I picked a few from my yard and added to other store bought greens to make a great wilted salad.  This recipe was adapted by Mark Williams, the Brown-Forman Chef, from an old Shaker cookbook:

Wilted Dandeline Greens

4 cups dandelion or other greens

4 slices bacon

½ c. apple cider vinegar

2 T. sugar

¼ c. water

1 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1 T. chopped onion or shallot

4 hard boiled eggs

Carefully pick, clean and chop the greens.  Fry the bacon in a skillet and reserve the fat.  Add vinegar, sugar, water, salt and pepper to fat and heat until well blended.  Remove from heat and toss in greens and onion, mixing well.  Serve garnished with crumbled bacon and chopped eggs.  

Making the Best of a Bad Wine Choice – April 6, 2012

I find it difficult and boring to keep purchasing the same bottle of wine over and over again.  This usually leads to lots of fun new wine discoveries, but can often mean the purchase of something that just doesn’t fit your taste.  I find the easiest way to use a less than stellar wine is for cooking.  Red wine is great when making homemade spaghetti sauce and I use it in a fabulous Portuguese Chicken recipe I got from Bon Appetite.  You won’t believe how rich and yummy this is http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/02/portuguese_chicken and it’s the perfect meal to make ahead and warm up for dinner.  But many other sauces use both red and white wines.  Do a web search and you’ll find lots of Italian, French and other recipes with wine. 

Another easy use for an open bottle of wine is Sangria.  There are two varieties (Spanish and Mexican).  The Spanish is the fruiter type which usually has fruit pieces floating in it.  But Mexico and many Caribbean countries created a lighter more refreshing version which is great for using a surplus of limes which these countries have in spades.  I made a Peach Sangria today for friends because it goes well with white, rose or sparkling wine.  There aren’t any good peaches yet, so I added white grapes and mango pieces.  The basic Spanish Sangria would have Brandy and Triple Sec instead of Peach Schnapps.  

Peach Sangria

1 bottle white, rose or sparkling wine

½ c. Peach Schnapps

Up to ½ c. sugar or Splenda) to taste

1 diced mango

2 cups white grapes (cut in half)

½ liter ginger ale (I used diet)

Pour wine and Schnapps in a pitcher and add fruit.  Sliced citrus fruit is traditional, but peaches, kiwi and berries are great.  Stir in sugar and chill.  Add Ginger Ale (or Club Soda or citrus soda if you prefer) right before serving.

In case you want to try the Mexican/Cuban/Island Sangria, here is the recipe:

Island Sangria

1 tsp. sugar

2 oz. lime juice

4 oz. soda water

2 oz. or to taste of white Rum

4 oz. red wine

Pour sugar in bottom of glass.  Add lime juice, rum and soda water with ice and mix to dissolve sugar.  Carefully pour wine on top of drink to create two colors.  Serve with straw to mix.

Now, if you have a little time on your hands and want to make something to share with friends, you can use your left over wine (or other liquors) to make jelly.  This is the basic wine jelly recipe.  If you wanted to make moonshine, rum or vodka jelly, you just replace some of the wine in the recipe with the liquor.  Surprisingly, wine jelly tastes pretty much like grape jelly.

Wine or Moonshine Jelly

3 ½ cups wine (can replace ½ c. or more with moonshine or other liquor)

½ c. fresh lemon juice

1 (2 oz.) package dry pectin

4 ½ c. white sugar

Add first three ingredients and boil in large saucepan, stirring frequently.  Add sugar and stir until dissolved.  Return to boil for one minute.  Remove from heat and skim any foam.  Ladle into sterilized jars leaving ½ inch and process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.  This is especially good as an appetizer on cream cheese.