5.17.2012

Greens to Grub

The greens are coming in while the hot-lovin' summer veggies are starting to bloom. What to do with all those greens? Uber-lemony sorrel, bitter endive, lamb's quarters by the boat load...You planted it, now you gotta eat it {or the chickens are going gourmet for the next several weeks}.


I've found 2 specific recipes will take care of any overload you may have: Sorrel and Potato Soup from Easy Growing and Goosefoot Pancakes from Wild Flavors*.  They both freeze and thaw well for future fast dinners.

I had 2 large heads of frisee, a type of escarole. A bit of bitter greens in a salad is good, but 2 heads was far too much to keep long enough to use up with salad. I wanted to tweak the recipe to bring out the subtle flavors that make escarole unusual; a quick internet search and I learned that people often pair lemon zest and anchovy paste with escarole.  I subbed the escarole for the goosefoot in Didi Emmons' recipe, and added a bit of both lemon zest and anchovy paste. The combination was sublime. 


*Chelsea Green sent me Wild Flavors to review. I haven't done that here yet, because I've been savoring it, reading a bit at a time. The fact that I want to finish it, but I don't want it to end, I want to soak up every single morsel of information, study and prepare every recipe,  and plant or forage every single plant may be review enough.

1 comment:

Barbara said...

There was a tasty looking sorrel recipe on David Lebovitz recently: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/05/ottolenghi-fried-beans-sorrel-feta-sumac-london/

I'm not sure I would go to the effort of locating sumac where I live but whatevs....

I also recently have been educated in cooking with lettuce and greens....Most Americans balk at using salad type greens like frisee or romaine or whatever in actual cooking but my Italian friend has been educating how many more ethnic recipes include sauteeing, stuffing, or cooking the greens that we normally would relegate to salad to using in recipes.