Seasoned Mushrooms and Soft Boiled Egg Appetizers

Ingredients:

 per person:

• half a clove of garlic
• 8 slices of mushrooms (I just used button)
• 1 tablespoon of finely chopped green onion or chive and parsley or carrot greens
• one egg
• 1/2 tablespoon of butter

This made a great appetizer, but I could also see it making a very tasty breakfast as well in larger portions. The mushrooms and seasonings make this dish very flavorful. Whereas the egg makes it filling and the yolk makes a kind of sauce to tie everything together. I really liked garnishing at the end because it added a bit of crunch to the mix as well.

Instructions:

First finely chop up all of the greens and mince the garlic. Set a skillet with a lid to medium low heat and add the butter. When the butter starts bubbling, and the seasonings. After a minute or two, or once the garlic has browned, add the mushrooms. Coat them well in the seasoned butter and let them cook for a few minutes until browned. Now flip them, coat them in the butter and brown them on the other side. 

Once done, remove the mushrooms to the serving platters, sprinkle some salt and pepper on them, and remove the skillet from the heat. Let it cool down for a minute and then directly crack your egg into the pan.

You ideally want your egg to be cooking over the lowest heat possible. However I was impatient and you can see the bubbles and brown bottom of my cooked egg. I just couldn't wait, it smelled too tasty...

Cover the skillet and let the egg cook for about 5-10 minutes over the lowest heat possible. As soon as your egg yolk is no longer liquid, but more gel-like you can serve these. Sometimes you can move the pan around a bit to see if the yolk moves or not. What should happen is the outside of the yolk will cook just enough to stop it from spilling everywhere, but the inside is still a thick liquid. Also if you see a white film start to form on top of the yolk your egg is done. Remove it ASAP to the serving platters and lay it on top of the mushrooms (It keeps them warm).

You can see a bit of whiteness on the yolk here...


Top with some salt and pepper then garnish with uncooked green onions and shredded carrot to serve.

Featured Dessert Recipes from Against All Grain

The other day I stumbled on a wonderful blog called Against All Grain by Daniel Walker. I am always on the look-out for easy gluten free baking options and found her site to be full of great ideas. Most gluten free recipes require the use of three or more types of alternative flours. In the long run using this approach to gluten-free baking can be very costly not to mention it takes up a lot of space in your pantry!

In Daniel's blog she sticks to using primarily almond and coconut flour for all of her sweets. Not to mention she substitutes honey for cane sugar whenever possible which was a huge plus for me.

Since these recipes looked so delicious and simple I immediately set out to bake them and prove that they were more than what I supposed were just mythical sweets of legend.

I was very surprised and satisfied with my results. All of the recipes I tried were delicious and had no weird aftertastes or textures.

I tested out her banana muffins, chocolate chip cookies, and honey meringues. 

 I made a few substitutions in the recipe by subbing some chopped carrots for a banana since I didn't have enough.

The meringue cookies were really lovely too. Perfectly crispy and they tasted strongly of honey. However I find out that you cant leave these out overnight. Apparently the honey is hygroscopic enough that they get soggy unless covered or stored in containers.

I forgot to take pictures of the chocolate chip cookies. I ate them too fast. But take my word they were PERFECT.

Check out these recipes and more at Daniel's blog here: .http://againstallgrain.com

Edible Spring Weeds

Wild and homegrown plants are great sources of nutrients. The soil that a plant grows in significantly affects its nutrient profile, and much commercial produce is grown in over-used fields that are depleted of these. With the weather change, now is the time to start planting domestic and wild plants. In addition, everything is blooming which is great when beginning to identify wild plants. Blooms are a distinct part of most species and can significantly aid the process. Here are a few common edible plants you might find in your area.
In order from tastiest to least:

Purple Dead Nettle:

 This weed has a rather minty taste. It has soft fuzzy leaves and can grow quite tall (about 2 ft) if left alone.

Be careful however of the look alike of this plant: in this previous post.

Another commonly seen edible is the wild violet:

Again these plants grow significantly larger if cultivated and kept well watered.

Next is chickweed:

 

 It grows in large mats and has distinctive blooms. The best way to positively identify chickweed is to look for the single line of hairs running along the stem of the plant. No other look-alikes have this characteristic.

 I listed chickweed as third not because of its taste, but more texture. Its a bit stringy. But otherwise its a nice addition to salads.


Fourth on the list is dandelion. Although a bit bitter, the blooms and greens are still tasty in salads.

Lastly is red clover. It is known to be a great herb for health however, it is even more bitter than dandelion. Best to use only the most young and tender parts. Red clover should be easy to differentiate from white clover. A) because it is usually just larger (you can see the white clover in the background of this picture, and B). because it is fuzzy.

These are great weeds to cultivate in whatever green space you maintain. I've been transplanting some into my garden to make sure they are safe to eat since we have a lot of dogs that live in the area.  Happy Spring!

Making Simple Winter Healing Herbal Tinctures: Dandelion and Usnea

     I recently began a journey to start foraging in my area a few months ago. I don't have much time for it, but I love being outside and learning the names and uses of new plants. I love plants and everything about them, growing them, smelling them, eating them. This passion combined with my acne issues made me seek out ways to use plants to abate my breakouts. Store bought tinctures are ridiculously expensive, so one thing led to another and soon I was making my own herbal medicines from wildly gathered plants.
    At first it was a lot of work to learn to identify everything and how to properly store and use them as medicine. However, once I got past the first hurdle it has been easy to continue the process. It was a bit overwhelming at first to identify what I would like to collect, so hopefully I can provide a guide for those of you looking to expand your horizons with herbal medicine. 

Using sources such as the wonderful Kiva Rose's site and others, I familiarized myself with what I wanted to collect and what ailments I wanted to try treating. (As a side note:  Kiva Rose's blog is really phenomenal, she has done a great job describing the energetics of herbs and how they can be used for everyday purposes. I learned so much! It is a must visit! )

I chose two winter herbs to gather that I highly recommend for beginners:

Dandelion

 It has unmistakable toothy leaves.
image source: http://healthybodynow.net/

Usnea

 

It is the center lichen pictured. It is fuzzy, easily separated, and sometimes has flat fruiting parts. However it is still unmistakably hairy ( aka: old man's beard) and pliable with a white interior under the skin of the organism.

I chose these two because they were abundant in late fall, and still are in the dead of winter, and do not have any poisonous look-alikes. I am paranoid that I might forage the wrong plant in my naiveness, so I try my best to start with very distinct plants. Please when you are foraging be very careful and always identify, identify, identify!

Dandelion is a wonderful bitter that can be used as a delicate diuretic. It helps expel toxins while maintaining potassium concentrations. Most diuretics can be a bit harsh because you can become dehydrated, however dandelion helps prevent that with potassium absorption. Typically used for liver and kidney support. I was interested in using dandelion because I know my acne is hormone related. The liver is a site for hormone production and breakdown. It synthesizes testosterone and estrogen and expels any excess hormones lurking around looking for trouble. I have heard that dandelion helps clear acne for this reason. Dandelion has neither a cooling nor heating effect on the body, so it is a useful delicate tonic for most all persons.

Usnea is an even more essential herb to keep in your medicine cabinet. It is a strong antibacterial and used for bladder (e.g. urinary infections) and immune support. It has a very cooling effect on people and is good in situations were there is excess heat (or energy/overproduction) in the body. I use this medicine to prevent me from getting sick in the winter months, and surprisingly as a disinfectant wash for my face. It works brilliant for both accounts. I have not gotten sick this winter and my face feels very nice after I apply a few drops of tincture.

Harvesting:

Dandelion harvesting in winter is best for root collection. In the winter all of the nutrients migrate down to be stored in the root section of the plant. These are much easier to unearth in wet soil. Search for these in open field areas or on the edges of woods. Be careful not to take plants if you think they may have been contaminated with dog feces. Local parks are usually not good places to gather.

Usnea is very abundant if you know when and where to look for it. The best time to search is directly after any rainy, windy, or snowy weather that might shake loose tree branches or things growing on them. Look for fallen branches on the ground with other fungi growing on them and you are likely to spot usnea. Like all lichen, usnea is sensitive to pollution and will not grow in city areas well. I say this and yet I find usnea quite frequently in my neighborhood,  just never enough to make medicine with :)  Look for these when you are hiking or are in more rural areas.

It is additionally important to gather these during moist weather because usnea gathered on wet days tastes is earthy and sweet but batches collected on dry days are quite bitter.

Medicinal Storage Methods:

There are four main ways to preserve herbs for medicine (that I know of):
-in glycerin
-in oil
-in vinegar
-in honey
-in alcohol

Glycerin is used as an alternative for alcohol extractions. I don't use it. 

Additionally I do not use herbal oils. For internally consumption they must be processed CORRECTLY in order to prevent botulism poisoning. This crock pot method that can be safely used but it is time-consuming.You can not simply place herbs in oil for extended periods of time, this is very dangerous.

Herbal infused vinegar is really lovely for salad dressings and such, but it is hard to stomach as a tonic in spoonfuls. Use 2 parts vinegar to 1 part herbs. Vinegar will kill bacteria, so as long as the herbs are submerged in the fluid, nothing will grow.

Herbal infused honey is a real winner when eating whole spoonfuls of harsh tasting medicine are involved. Unfortunately neither of these herbs infuse well with honey. Dandelion is bitter tasting and usnea will not extract into aqueous solutions. So try this one in the spring when dandelion blossoms are around. Raw honey has antibacterial properties as well, so as long as all of the herbs are submerged you should not worry. Make sure to stir your infusion every now and then.

Alcohol infusions (aka: tinctures) are my favorite way to store medicinal herbs. It is quick, simple, and the most antibacterial substance I know of, so I feel quite comfortable with this method of preservation. The only drawback is that you need very concentrated alcohol to make the usnea tincture. It requires at least 60% alcohol to extract the medicinal molecules from the lichen. So you need 120 proof booze. I have a bottle of bacardi on hand, but everclear would probably be more favorable because it is tasteless. I dilute my alcohol to about 40% for dandelion tinctures, because you don't need as concentrated of a solution for it and that alcohol stuff is expensive sheesh. Make sure your herbs are completely covered in alcohol when you store them.

Preparation:

As for preparation of the medicines it is very simple.
-clean gathered herbs with water (most time consuming step) and a bit of vinegar

- chop with a knife or roughly process the herbs in a food processor

-add to a preferably opaque glass container and cover with alcohol

-label with date and plant name (sharpies come right off with alcohol)
-store in a dark place cool place
-after two weeks, take 2 - 4 spoonfuls of liquid as needed daily depending on severity of condition. I would recommend starting with a low dose and working your way up to make sure your body is fine with the herb.

 

(The steeped herbs after several months)

Be aware: These medicines do not taste good. They tend to be bitter and strong. Collecting the freshest ingredients will help minimize their harsh taste. I find that the benefits of having them for use outweigh the stinging taste though.

I have read a lot of literature on preparing herbal tinctures, however I am not a medical doctor and information listed on this site should not be taken as medical advice. Please refer to more knowledgeable sources for any serious ailments you might be attempting to treat.

Bacon Beef Stew and Blue Skies

Don't let anyone ever tell you that bacon isn't good with everything. For realz its even good in desserts.

I finally made my first ever tasty soup from homemade stock. I've tried many times to make a broth base for soups and failed to produce anything that tastes better than watered down chicken flavor. I think the key was that I stopped trying to make a stock from just a single meat. Soup is used to get rid of leftovers for a reason! It seemed to taste a lot better when everything was just mixed together.

I don't remember exact quantities, but for posterity I'll record what I can. Because I will make this again. It was really good.

~8 hrs for broth, 1 additional hr for stew

For the Broth:

• A few large pork rib and chicken bones. ( I used some from barbeque ribs the night before). If you don't have barbeque ribs to boil, use about a 1/2-1 tsp barbeque sauce to the flavor stock.
• One piece uncooked smoked bacon (I bought some Benton's Bacon. Pretty sure that's what made my soup delicious)
•  half an onion
• 3 stalks celery
• a few carrots
• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• as far as spices go I used some: allspice, turmeric, fresh thyme, fresh  rosemary, cumin, shichimi togarashi (probably wouldn't hurt to add some mustard seed and nutmeg. But I dunno didn't try it.) 
• copious black pepper and some sea salt

I cooked the broth in my slow cooker for about 8 hours. Then I filtered the soup through a strainer, threw away the vegetables, put the bones back in the broth, and refrigerated it.


For the Stew:

• 1/2- 1 lb beef sliced thin for stir-fry
• one potato
• four large carrots
• quarter of an onion
• handful of dried shitake
• clove of garlic
• soy sauce
• red-wine vinegar

-Before making the stew filter the broth through a fine mesh sieve into a stew pot. Remove the bones. (The filtering will remove all of the fat that solidified on top from being in the fridge. Turn the eye on to get the broth boiling in the pot.)

I was tight on time so I precooked the stew ingredients:

-In a skillet over medium heat, warm up a little bit of bacon grease and toss the beef in some soy sauce and red-wine vinegar until just barely browned. Its ok if its not entirely cooked because the soup will cook it a bit more. Just don't dry it out.

-Toss the beef in the stew and add some more bacon grease, soy sauce and red-wine vinegar. Cook the vegetables and garlic over medium high heat until just browned. Again its ok if they aren't entirely cooked throughout.
(It might also be necessary to cook the vinegar so it is not overpowering. But again I'm not sure because I am awful at making soup)

-Toss them into the pot as well and lower heat to a simmer. Simmer for another hour or so.
When vegetables are tender remove from heat and add a handful of dried mushrooms. They will swell to be twice and big as their dried size. Don't pre-soak them either, just directly add them. Salt and pepper to taste.

The sweet smoky flavor of the bacon and barbeque really made this stew taste delicious. I drank it up. Literally. Which was probably because I used chop sticks to eat with.
Makes approximately 4-5 servings.

 

We've also been having some lovely weather and the birds seem to love it :) How many can you count? I found ten.

    

Sunomono: Asian Carrot Vinegar Side Salad

~5 min


Ingredients:

• One Carrot per person or one whole cucumber
• Rice vinegar (or white vinegar with some sugar and salt)
• Soy sauce
• Sesame seed oil
• Toasted sesame seeds (optional)

  

This is a type of Japanese side dish called Sunomono. It consists of thinly cut vegetables soaked in vinegar and soy sauce. It makes a quick and tasty side dish for dinners. It can be made with any raw vegetable but is usually made with either cucumbers or carrots and daikon radish. I don't regularly buy daikon so this is a version with just carrot. 

First toast the sesame seeds by adding a thin layer of them into a skillet on low heat. 

 It takes about 10-15 min before they develop a darker color. They will start to smell like popcorn when they are done.

Second shave the carrots into thin slices with a peeler.  

Add about a Tablespoon or two of vinegar and a few dashes of soy sauce and sesame oil to taste. Refrigerate until the time of serving and top with toasted sesame seeds.

 

Crunchy Indian Tofu Lettuce Wrap

~15 min

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp Sesame seeds
• Coconut oil
• 1/2 package of tofu
• 1/4 tsp of chilli powder, garlic powder,  turmeric powder, ginger powder, cumin powder, salt
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg and cayenne

•  Green Onion, lettuce and rice for serving 

 

This was an experiment to begin with and only turned out marginal because I forgot salt and garlic :(
The amounts of spices are approximate so please modify as you see fit. I also don't have much experience with cooking Indian dishes, so some other spices like Coriander might be a nice addition to this as well, but I didn't have any in my pantry.

However what was really wonderful about the resulting dish,  was the crunchiness of the tofu after being fried in the sesame seed paste. Otherwise it just tasted ok, nothing more.

To start:
-Cut the tofu into slices ~1/2  X 1/2  X  1/4 inches. Pat with a paper towel to dry them.
-Stir together spices well in a bowl and add the tofu.
-Toss to coat evenly.

-Using a mortar and pestle, grind the sesame seeds into a course paste
-Spread both the Coconut oil and sesame seed paste evenly in a frying pan.
-Heat the mixture to medium heat.
-When ready add the spiced tofu such that all of the slices are in contact with the pan

 Uncooked tofu.

Fry for about 3- 5 minutes on one side until browned a bit,  and then flip all of the pieces so they can brown on the other side. I like to use chopsticks or tongs for this because it is hard to flip each individual piece with a spatula.

 Cooked tofu.

Remove from the pan and top with raw finely chopped green onions. Serve with rice or in a lettuce wrap.

I also used this opportunity to try roasting spices to see if it made any difference in flavor on the neutral tasting tofu. I heated the powders over low heat while frequently stirring and tasted no discernible difference between roasted and non-heated dry spices. More than anything, the taste of the spices was dulled due to roasting. So in conclusion: It wasn't worth it.

Roasted spices on left, uncooked spices on the right.

Recipe serves 1 person.