where the wild things things are no.12. dandelion.

There is nothing quite like the first signs of spring. It is still relatively cold up here in the Catskills but the first signs of spring are all around. The woods are colored with vibrant green patches of ramp and the edges of nearby streams are dotted with clusters of wild watercress. In my own yard and bleak garden beds are a few renegade early dandelions. The name dandelion comes from the French word Dent de Lion, meaning lion's tooth. It is named so for it's jagged sharp tooth like points on its leaves. I decided to cook the dandelions I needed to pull from the garden beds and to roast the roots for a coffee substitute. The best time for dandelion greens, which are rich in vitamin A and C and Calcium, is when they are quite small early in the season before they produce flower buds. Later in the season they become too bitter. The early settlers used dandelion as a spring tonic to get a boost of the vitamins they lacked over the long cold winters.

My grandmother used to talk about eating wild greens both dandelion and chicory which grew wild in the hills of Puglia. I am not sure she really got her fill living in Long Island City. When she moved to Vermont in the mid 60's she was able to get clean pesticide free wild greens from the local farmers.

The whole plant is edible from the leaves to the flower to the roots. I sautéed the greens and made some dandelion toasts as well as a dandelion frittata. I then roasted the roots on a baking sheet until they were brittle and made quite a delicious coffee like substitute. In fact, I could grow to like the roasted dandelion roots very much.

You don't need a yard to get your dandelion on; they are available in the spring at most farmers markets. I saw they were starting to turn up the past few weeks at the Union Square Greenmarket. Prepare them anyway you would sautéed greens or make a pesto or a soup. The possibilities are endless. How will you get your spring tonic on?

I will post recipies in the next few days..but really this is meant to inspire whatever dandelion recipe you can conjure up!

 

dandelion and pecorino  frittata

dandelion and pecorino  frittata

 

sautéed dandelion greens with bacon

 sauteed dandelion toasts with shallot vingrette and pecorino, top with a poached egg.

prparing the roots for roasting

 roasted dandelion roots

 steeped dandelion root

inspired by the day... irish soda bread. sort of.

I woke up this morning determined to make an Irish Soda Bread. I saw a post on modern farmette on Dulse butter and it has been rolling around the back of my mind ever since.! Anything relating to Inish food peaks my curiosity. Since I don't have Dulse, I am going to substitute juniper. Next time I get some seaweed I will try her butter, for now it has inspired me nonetheless.

I have eaten Irish Soda Bread less than ten times in my life, two or three were in Ireland and the rest, every so often at home. It is something my stepmother liked to pull out around this time of the year along with corned beef and cabbage or New England boiled dinner. St. Patricks Day and Easter inspired these things along with the annual hot cross buns and the coconut lamb cake... a cake in the shape of a lamb covered in swirls of coconut frosting.

These foods have not really made it into my repetoire of cooking in my adult  life. I tend cook with a laissez- faire mediterranean bent, focusing on local and seasonal foods. I pull a lot of my inspiration from my maternal grandparents who were  from Rome and Puglia. Every so often however, I nod to my step mother's roots, Irish, French and New England Farmhouse Yankee beacuse you can never quite deny where you come from. I thank her often for all my canning abilities, cheese making and butter making skills. I learned early how to be a true pioneer, growing up on a small family farm I can milk a cow and a goat, butcher a hen, tap my trees and make  farmhouse cheese. Not bad for a renegade distracted tomboy with one foot out the door and her Piscean head in the clouds all the time. At least I learned something!

So.. on this bright sunny day I have decided to make an Irish Soda Bread. The house is quiet as there is no one home but me. Will anyone be here to eat it before it turns rock hard as they are apt to do? Let's hope! I may find myself carrying it over the bridge to share with Meredith and Clementine. I love the way a soda bread looks. I am a sucker for old school rustic beauty. I can just imagine it sitting on a farmhouse table in the late 1800's with a bit of Modern Farmette's Dulse butter.

I just saw that Food52 did a whole post on Corned Beef and Cabbage and Irish Brown Soda Bread. See it here.

Juniper Butter

One half pint of organic heavy cream

6 dried juniper berries

Pinch of sea salt

Pour the heavy cream into your blender or small Cuisinart

Crush the juniper berries with the back of a spoon and add to the heavy cream

Add a pinch of sea salt

Blend at a high speed until the butter forms and separates from the buttermilk

Removethe butter and strain in a cheese cloth

Discard the butter milk liquid

Refridgerate until firm

Brown Irish Soda Bread With Dates and Raisins

(Quick Irish Soda Bread)

Adapted from the Joy of Cooking 1964 edition. My grandmother's  copy worn and tattered...

I bastardized this recipe. just saying.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Sift together in a large bowl

2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the dry ingredients

6 tablespoons chilled butter cut in small piecesadd the choppped butter and mix with your fingers until it resembles a coarse  corn meal

1 tablespoon black strap molasses

 Add the molasses

1/2 cup raisins

1/4 cup dried dates 

a few shelled green pistachios

1/2 to 2/3 cup buttermilk

Add the dried fruit and the buttermilk

Mix until just bended

The dough should not be dry.

Put the dough in a greased cast iroon frying pan or on a sheet pan

Form into a round loaf or mound

Cut a bold cross on the top, letting it go ovethe sides so the bread will not crack.

Bake 40-50 minutes

This particular recipie was like a rich brown scone. not exactly soda bread but delicious just the same!

THe original recipie calls for white flour

white sugar and raisins

( I added the dates , pistachios, molasses and wheat flour)

 

best coast picnic.

 Last week I was out on the West Coast and visited with some friends in Albion, in Northern California near Mendocino. The drive up Highway 1 from San Francisco is absolutely stunning no matter what time of the day you choose to do it. Before heading up North we stopped at Bi-Rite Market to pick up some provisions. Bi-Rite is at the center of the food frenzy happening around 18th Street and Guerrero. (Tartine Bakery, Delfina, Delfina Pizzeria and Bi-Rite Creamery all share the block and now very near is a Freeman's Barber Shop) Bi-Rite is the sweetest little market busting at the seams with gorgeous produce, citrus, meats and cheeses. We picked up some Anna's Daughter's Rye Crackers (there seems to be a major cracker scene happening out West) and some Cowgirl Creamery Inverness cheese, both, which are not available on the East Coast. The Inverness cheese is pure Jersey cream heaven and was perfectly paired with the thin rye crackers. We also picked up some Satsuma oranges and some smoked salmon. Then we hit the road, crossed the red bridge and started our adventure North. The Cow Girl Inverness cheese barely made it past Bolinas before we had devoured it entirely. It was tempting to open the second one we had picked up for our friends but we stayed strong. While in Albion, we decided to go for a picnic near the Mendocino Headlands. It was gorgeously foggy day. We stopped to pick wild watercress, which we spotted in the fresh water trickling towards the cliffs. Even though it was a foggy day, the picnic was brilliant! We did of course have some Mast Brother's chocolate to share with our friends so we could give Brooklyn a little love. We traveled with chocolate and Bellocq Tea to share with West Coast friends.

On the way back through San Francisco, we made sure to leave time to run to Bi-Rite to pick up those provisions once again to share with family in New York. We grabbed our last Tartine croissant, ran into our friends Gemma and Andy in line at Tartine and had a quite a laugh as we ran into them in Stockholm last summer! We see them more around the world than in Brooklyn. (They were just honored in PDN's 30) We then headed to the airport and said goodbye to San Francisco and headed home, cheese in hand. Last Sunday we had a best coast picnic right here on Broome Street, the only thing missing was the fog.

 

 wild watercress

 

Best Coast picnic in New York paired with juniper pickled onions, black watercress and smoked salmon!