Nettle Hummus

I picked my last nettle harvest this past weekend. I plan on making some soup to eat and some to freeze for post-baby times. Nettle soup will definitely be good for a breastfeeding mom and her wee babe.

During this nettle season I made pesto, soup, quiche, and hummus. Everything I have made is so delicious. I haven't had one recipe failure. My hummus was especially good and I am still working on it. It is such an easy recipe that I would love to share it with you. In fact, you should get some nettles for yourself. Go into the woods somewhere and find some nettles. Just picked off the tender tops (with some gloves and long clothing, mind you) but make sure the plants aren't more than a foot or so tall, otherwise, the plant will have developed some sort of something that is indigestible.

Anywho, here is the recipe.

Nettle Hummus
makes 3 cups

INGREDIENTS
2 c cooked chickpeas (I soaked 1 1/2c dried chickpeas and cooked those up since I prefer dried beans)
2 1/2c fresh nettles
3 cloves garlic
1/2c olive oil
Juice of one lemon
3/4t salt
Pepper to taste

METHOD
1. First let's deal with those nettles. Get a pot of boiling water going and stick in the nettles for about 2 minutes. Then, dump them in an ice bath and leave out to drain on a towel for a few minutes.
2. Put your cooked chickpeas in a food processor with the garlic, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Process until smoothish.
3. Roughly chop up the nettles and throw into the processor.
4. Start processiong all the ingredients and while it is going, add the olive oil.
5. Process until smooth adding more oil and salt, if needed.

Enjoy this wonderful spring hummus with crackers, veggies, or anything that could use a good spread!

Rosemary Rhubarb Jam

When we moved into our house, we acquired a nice rhubarb patch. It is so great, every year it grows back and it doesn't need anything. It doesn't need fertilizer, it doesn't need water, and most importantly, it doesn't need weeding. It's perfect.

But...there is only so much you can do with rhubarb. You can't eat it raw but you can turn it into something delicious with a buncha sugar. You can't really go wrong with anything and sugar, I suppose, but rhubarb does have a very earthy taste that is pretty darn good.

For my first harvesting of the rhubarb patch, I wanted to make some jam because I have been eating jam everyday with my oatmeal. I didn't want to make rhubarb strawberry jam though because strawberries aren't in season. I found a recipe that incorporated rosemary with the rhubarb and since I have a rosemary bush, I decided to go for it. When making it, it smells very rosemary-lemonady which is all right but I wondered if I would really want to eat lemonade. Alas, the final result turned out great and I am eating it pretty much every morning. (I have had an oatmeal problem since the beginning of the year. Thanks to Sissy really.)

Rosemary Rhubarb Jam
adapted from Food in Jars
INGREDIENTS
- 4 cups chopped rhubarb
- 2 to 2 1/2 cups sugar (to taste)
- 1 cup water
- 1 frond of rosemary finely chopped
- 2 lemons juice
- zest of 1/2 lemon
- 2t pectin (I used pomona's pectin and followed the instructions on the box)

METHOD 
1. Put the rhubarb, sugar, 3/4c water, rosemary, and lemon in a medium sized saucepan. Let boil for about 5-7 minutes or until the rhubarb breaks down.
2. Add the 2t calcium water if using Pomona's pectin.
3. In a bowl, stir the pectin powder in 1/4c water until it is dissolved. Dump it in the rhubarb mixture and stir constantly for 2 minutes.
4. Take off the heat and stir in the lemon zest.
5. Transfer jam to jars. It will still be quite runny because the pectin won't set until it is cool.
6. Put jars in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes about 3 half pints.

As Per Request

This is why we should have named our farm Dandelion Meadows.

To honor the weed, and as per a beautiful curly haired vegan friend o' mine's request, I shall now post my dandelion stir-fry recipe. Really, this recipe could be used with anything, it is my go to stir-fry method. But for the sake of this, I shall make it all about da spring.

Dandelion Stir-Fry
serves 2

INGREDIENTS
- handful of dandelion greens, washed
- about 3-5 dandelion flowers, petals pulled off
- 1/4lb tofu, cut into bit size squares
- half an onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- about 4-5 mushrooms sliced
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 1 cup rice

Sauce
- 2T soy sauce
- 1T hoison sauce
- 1T mirin (rice wine vinegar)
- 1T agave or sugar
- 1t chilli sauce or red pepper flakes


METHOD
1. First things first, you are gonna have to go forage for those dandelions. Grab some scissors and a baggie and head outside. You are going to be looking for healthy looking dandelions.

This is an UN-healthy dandelion

Healthy dandelion. Lots of leaves pointing skyward.

2. Cut the leaves at the base and cut flowers off a couple dandelions and save those to use.
3. Head back inside and cut up all your ingredients.
4. Start cooking the rice. If using brown rice, you may want to start the rice before you go outside to harvest dandelions, that way everything is ready all at the same time and you don't have to wait for the rice to cook.
5. Add 2T oil to a frying pan. When hot, add tofu and turn heat down to low. Stir/flip constantly for about 5 minutes or until tofu is crispy.
6. Add onion, garlic, and mushrooms and fry for another 5-7 minutes or until mushrooms are wilted and onions are translucent.
7. Add shredded carrot and dandelion petals and greens. Fry for about 3 - 5 minutes until everything is wilted and soft.
8. Mix sauce together in small bowl and then add to the pan.
9. Let everything soak in the sauce on low for about 3 min or until the sauce is all soaked up. (If you need to add more sauce, go for it. If the dish is too bitter add a bit more agave.)
10. Eat over rice.

I hope you enjoy!

p.s. if you have frozen peas, add those in with the mushrooms and onions, they are awesome in this dish!

Home Foraging

Lately I have been reading about foraging and how it is such a great thing to do in the Pacific Northwest because such great things grow 'round these parts. Although I have been reading and looking at plant pictures, I was too nervous to go foraging and eat things when I didn't really know what I was doing.

But, because hippiness runs in the family, I was able to recruit my cousin, Laurie, to come show me the plants I can eat around my own house. I want to forage because a) I think it is cool to be able to eat plants that already are growing and you didn't even have to do anything (like weed them because they are weeds!) and b) it is free. Plus, nature provides some pretty awesome plants in the spring. Most of them make a pretty good attempt at detoxing all the winter shit in your body. I think we all could use a little help with that once in awhile! So, why not let nature help in the process.

Laurie

Not everything on the property is medicinal or detoxifying but even if it is edible to went in my fridge. Some of these fancy plants included:

1) Um.....hm.......I don't remember the name. But, let's just call it peppery tiny flower weed. We have about 6,594 of these growing around our house.

2) Horsetails (with a dandelion thrown in for good measure...although it is sad looking). This weed, formally known as son-of-a-bitch-roots-for-miles-weed, is actually pretty good for your if you eat it. You have to cook it though and you only eat the young stems when the leaf/stemy things are still folded upward.

3)  Dandelions. They really are dandy. You can eat the leaves, flowers, and root. It is bitter but that is good for you (something about liver and fluids). Plus, you can just add something sweet to manage the taste. I have been adding it to salad and stirfry. We definitely have a ton! Our farm could have been named Dandelion Orchard.

 4) Stinging Nettles. These bastards are like the superfood of spring. They clean your innards. Laurie suggested that I make Nettle Pesto, it was very good. Although, I did add a little basil too for good measure.

Nettle Pesto
makes 4-6servings

INGREDIENTS

- 1/4lb stinging nettles
- 2 sprigs worth of basil leaves
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/2c walnuts (or pine nuts)
- 1T lemon juice
- 1/2c olive oil
- 1/2c parmesan cheese

METHOD
1. Add basil, garlic, walnuts and lemon juice to food processor and pulse about 3 times.
2. Fill a large pot with water and add some salt. Bring to a boil.
3. Fill a large bowl with cold water.
4. With gloves, submerge nettles in the cold water and let them soak for about 5 minutes. Remove and discard water.
5. Put nettles in the boiling water and boil for 1 minute. This will take the sting out of them. Drain and let cool a bit. Squeeze as much water out of nettles as possible.
6. Add nettles to food processor and begin mixing.
7. After it is mixed well, add olive oil slowly and cheese. Mix until well incorporated.

We had ours with pasta (brown rice for me) and I even mixed it with a cheese sauce one night. It was delicious!

So go out and forage something it your yard. Just make sure it is edible. Call your hippyish cousin if need be.

Rhubarb...good.

We have a patch of rhubarb growing at our house and the only real thing I like to do with it is mix it with sugar and more sugar.
Last year I found a Rhubarb Parfait recipe in my Cooking Light or something similar and then when I went for it this year I couldn't find it. I went to the trusted internets and found this. However, if you ask me the measurements are ridiculous and unless you are actually feeding the president and his cabinet, you don't need this much. So...I redid it:

Spring Rhubarb Parfait
serves 4

INGREDIENTS
6 stalks of rhubarb cut into thin slices
1/4c sugar
vanilla ice cream

For topping:
1/4 sugar
1/2 c flour
2 Tbs butter softened
3 Tbs water
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix rhubarb and sugar in a sauce pan over Medium heat. Cook until rhubarb has broken down.
3. While the rhubarb is cooking, in a medium bowl, mix together with your hands the sugar, flour, and butter for the topping.
4. Add water, vanilla, and salt to the topping bowl and continue to mix with hands. Dough should be chunky but not sticky. Add more flour and water as needed.
5. Put dough in small pieces on a non-stick baking pan and bake until slightly brown (about 6 - 10min).
6. When dough is baked, in parfait cups or bowls, put a scoop of ice cream, then the rhubarb mixture and finally the dough on top.
7. Enjoy!