Plant Cooking Instructions
Dandelion You may sauté, simmer, or pickle the immature flower buds that grow at the base of the plant. The French sauté the crown, the white part attached to the top of the root at the base of the leaves—also deli- cious—before the plant flowers. Try eating dandelion flowers after discarding the
bitter, green sepals (modified leaves) at the flower’s base. Parboil for one minute, dip in pancake batter and fry the flowers in a healthy cooking oil to make dandelion frit- ters. A few flowers baked into casseroles taste good, too. The taproot is edible after boiling in one or more
changes of water to get rid of the bitterness; remove the pithy core before slic- ing. Other root vegetables taste better, so this one isn’t at the top of the list. Dandelion roots also make a caffeine-free coffee sub- stitute using the same techniques used with chicory root, or combine the two roots.
Sheep Sorrel A salad ingredient par excellence, the basal leaves are also tasty when steamed, simmered in soups, stews and sauces, or sautéed for 10 to 15 minutes. The flowers are bitter, and leaves from the flower stalk, while edible, are inferior to the
basal leaves. Steep 1⁄4 cup of the leaves, stems and flowers (the
stems and flowers are too tough to eat raw) for 20 minutes in 1 cup of water just off the boil. Chill this tea, and sweeten if desired, for a superb lemony beverage.
Cattails Peel cattail shoots before the flowers begin to form (when the shoots toughen). Discard any layers that are too hard to pinch through with a fingernail and then add the tender, white core raw to salads, or simmer in soups, sauté, bake or stir-fry. Cattail hearts cook in 5 to 10 minutes. Clip or snap off the top halves of the immature, green
flower heads when they first emerge from their sheathes. Steam 15 minutes, and serve with a sauce (otherwise, they’re somewhat dry), like corn on the cob, a distant rela- tive.
Mix some savory herbs with corn oil or olive oil
thickened with mellow (light-colored) miso (or add salt) and bake, covered, in a casserole dish for 15 minutes. They’re also delicious broiled 5 minutes with this mixture, but take care not to burn them. When the flower heads turn golden, shake off the pol-
len into a paper bag, sift, and use as flour, half-and-half with whole grain flour, in any kind of baking. It won’t rise like wheat flour unless a little xanthan gum is added, but it’s especially good in waffles and pancakes, which don’t have to rise much, and in corn muffins.
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September 2010 31
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