where the wild things are. poached egg with garlic mustard.

This past weekend a group of friends and I went on a "wild walk" on our friend Carver's land in Bovina in upstate New York. Carver and his wife Sonya own The Pines restaurant in Gowanus and are interested in seasonal local foods both wild and otherwise. We were lucky to have local Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower as our guide. She is wealth of knowledge when it comes to wild plants. We set out on an incredibly cold and rainy morning after a super delicious brunch (we were more than a little sad to leave the roaring fire) and roamed both pasture and woods. Before we even got out of the yard proper, we had spotted garlic mustard. Garlic Mustard from what I have read was brought to the United States in the 1860's as a culinary herb but escaped into the wild and is now an invasive plant. You will see this early flowering wild plant along roadsides in the spring, it has delicate vibrant green leaves that are heart shaped and toothy with  tiny white flowers. It does not have any poisonous look a likes. You will know this plant at once when you rub the leaves; it gives off a garlic odor. The leaves and the flowers are bitter but very delicious. Garlic mustard can be used in pesto or a salsa verde or raw in salads. All parts of the plant are edible and the roots apparently taste like horseradish.

When I got back home I searched our property for Garlic Mustard and found it literally two feet from my back door!

The next morning we decided to try it out for breakfast.

 I blanched the greens and served a poached egg over them. 

I have seen farmers selling Garlic Mustard at the Green Market in Union Square.  However, if you can't find any just substitute any bitter green in this recipe. You can't go wrong with eggs and greens.

I will post more on our walk soon.

xx

Poached Eggs with Garlic Mustard

2 farm fresh eggs

1/2 pound of Garlic Mustard with flowers or a similar bitter green (Dandelions would be just as good)

4 tablespoons of olive oil

 Cracked black pepper to taste

Sea salt to taste

Wash the garlic mustard and remove the leaves and flowers from the stems

Discard the Stems

Set the flowers aside

In pot of rapidly boiling water blanch the Garlic Mustard leaves for 10 seconds or so, just long enough for them to soften and turn a beautiful vibrant green.

Remove the Leaves from the water with a slotted spoon and divide between to plates.

Drizzle the greens with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

In the remaining boiling water crack two eggs and poach. 

When the eggs are one slide one each with a slotted spoon from the pot to the plates.

Drizzle with a bit more olive oil

Top with cracked black pepper and Sea Salt

Add the delicate Garlic Mustard flowers on top.

Serve with tow slices of toast. I used walnut raisin bread because that is what I had around. (Thank you Paola!)

I rubbed the toasts with garlic after toasting.

summer.

Summer in the Catskill Mountains... to be continued.

 

 

twenty years

I am in the midst of editing twenty years worth of work shot with my Deardorf 8x10, faced with the bittersweet passage of time.

 

 

Copyright © 2011, andrea gentl. All rights reserved. 

where the wild things are. no.2. elderflower vodka.

My sweet friend India made this elderflower vodka at the height of summer when the elderberry bushes were laden with blossoms. I imagine her, one baby in the sling and the other, Odette, trailing happily after her, sun hat tied tight, on some wild adventure to pick the elderflowers on Bramley Mountain Road. A recipe, from another friend at Eating From The Ground Up, inspired this vodka.  Elderflowers are the palest of cream or the color of summer butter. Their saucer-sized blooms are east to spot. They smell both sweet and a bit spicy. They are best picked before the scorching noonday sun causes their delicate aroma to fade. You will need to make the cordial immediately after picking the flowers. Take note of where you find your blooms so you can return in September to pick the deep purple black elderberries which are high in vitamin c and other antioxidants. This past weekend I made a delicious elderberry sorbet, but they are most commonly used for jelly.

Elderflower vodka adapted from Eating From The Ground Up.

Vodka

Elderflowers

Sugar

Place about 20-25 elderflower heads in a mason jar (don’t pick them all if you want elderberries later in the summer!)

Cover the flowers with vodka and seal the jar tightly

Place in a cool dark place for 4-6 weeks to age. (The vodka in this photograph was left longer, about 8 weeks)

The liquid will turn anywhere from a buttery yellow color to a deeper amber, depending on how long you leave it to age.

After the appropriate time, strain the flowers off with cheesecloth and pour the liquid back into clean Mason jar

Add 1/2 cup of sugar and shake to dissolve. When the sugar is dissolved the cordial is ready to drink.

  Copyright © 2011 Andrea Gentl all rights reserved 

elderflower vodka aged 8 weeks.

edgar's roses

When we first bought our old farmhouse in the woods in Upstate New York, I was somewhat disappointed to find that there were no old rose briars on the property. I made it my mission to plant some old species roses. After having grown up in a two hundred year old house in New England, I had grown accustom to overgrown wild old species roses.  We had many varieties from single petal to double bloom in vibrant shades of pinks and whites. I love the way the perfume of a rose hangs heavy on a humid summer day. As luck would have it, there was an abandoned house just up the raod fom us where an eccentric old man named Edgar had lived. In his front yard were the most beautiful double bloom pink roses. They had grown into a wicked pile of bramble, canes, and thorns amidst the blackberry scrub. Very carefully we dug a few plants and trannsfered them to our place... and now after many years Edgar's roses  have grown accustomed to thier new home.We have heard from locals that two women, visiting family at the nearby farmhouse in the late 1800's, brought the roses from England. This past weekend as I walked across the yard the thick spicy bloom of roses hung in the air.