Red Currant and Bee Balm Blossom Butter

A few years back, while at a wild food cooking class, I had the good fortune to take part in making a very beautiful and interesting butter with the flowers of Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa and M. didyma). After harvesting a large glut of this seasons Red Currants, I came across a recipe for Red Currant Butter, using red currant jelly. I thought, why not spice it up a bit and skip the jelly party, just using the more tart fresh fruit?

This admittedly pretty, but tangy, sweet, and slightly savory (from the background hint of spiciness of the bee balm blossoms) butter can be frozen for long term storage and is great served on anything that needs butter... And what's not better with butter? I can't think of many things.

Red Currant and Bee Balm Blossom Butter

What You Need:

1 Stick of organic (preferably grass-fed) unsalted butter, softened.
4 tbsp de-stemmed red currants
3/4 tbsp maple syrup
8 heads of Bee Balm
salt to taste

• First, pluck the feather blossoms off the bee balm flower heads. Try to only get the individual flowers and not so much green stuff...


• In a small bowl, crush the red currants with a fork until nice and juicy. Mix in the maple syrup.


• To the same bowl, add the softened butter and the bee balm blossoms—stir the whole lot until everything is incorporated.


• Taste, then salt to your preference.


• Plop the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper, shape into a roll, fold it up, and pop it in the freezer to harden up.


• Make a slice of sourdough toast, bring out the hardened butter from the freezer, slice off a (nice thick) round, smash it onto the toast and enjoy!

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Cornmeal Crusted Bass with Moscato Red Currant Sauce

Probably one of the most delicious and abundant wild food sources out there is fish. Every few weeks, a good friend of mine takes me out to a private spot where he shows me the in's and out's of fishing for the best of the lake fish of our region. The other day I came home with a whole mess of Large Mouth Bass filets, a basketful of foraged Red Currants, and whipped together this truly scrumptious meal. The tangy red currants, simmered in the sweet muscato, poured over the juicy, crunchy, spicy, and rich fried fish is such a treat.

Cornmeal Crusted Bass with Moscato Red Currant Sauce

What You Need:

Fish:
4 Filets of Bass
1/2 cup Corn Meal
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
3 tbsp butter
Sprinkle of paprika
Sprinkle of cayenne pepper
Sprinkle of salt & pepper
Sauce:
1 cup de-stemmed red currants
1/2 cup Moscato wine (or Riesling or your favorite sweet white wine)
2 tbsp organic cane sugar
2 tbsp butter

• Mix the dry ingredients together on a large plate or 4x8 baking dish. (Add paprika, cayenne, and salt & pepper to your preference—I like it spicy!)


• Beat the egg whites in a similar sized container as the dry ingredients.


• Put the currants,wine, and sugar in a small pot and cook at medium heat.


• Heat the butter in a large skillet or cast iron pan.


• Toss each filet first in the cornmeal mixture, then in the egg whites, then back in the cornmeal mixture.


• Once the butter is hot, plop in your crusted filets and let fry on each side until crispy and brown (about 5 minutes each side).


• While the fish filets fry, watch the currant sauce. Let it cook at a low boil so that it can reduce by the time the fish finishes up.


• Remove the finished fish from the pan and plate up. Stir the butter into the reduce currant sauce, then drizzle it on top of the bass filets and enjoy!

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Cheesy Garlic Mustard Pesto Pasta with Crispy Dryad's Saddle

This recipes draws on Lisa's amazingly flavorful and fragrant Garlic Mustard Pesto. The garlic mustard pesto is super fragrant, complex, and dare I say, luscious. It gives basil pesto a run for its money...

Dryad's Saddle is a really common wild mushroom that I've been harvesting a lot of lately. In this recipe, they're sliced thinly and fried crispy in butter—they add a savory crunch to the whole dish. If you haven't got this on hand, use fresh shiitake.

Cheesy Garlic Mustard Pesto Pasta

What You Need:

1 lb rice or quinoa pasta of your preference (Or go gluten if you can handle it)
1 1/2 cups Lisa's Garlic Mustard Pesto
1 cup grated parmesan or other hard cheese
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

Crisp Mushrooms

5 fresh, young Dryad's Saddle (about 2 or 3oz)
1 tbsp butter

• Put a pot on to boil. When it's rolling, drop in your pasta and stir.


• In a small pan, heat the butter


• Slice the dryad's saddle thinly and drop into the butter once it starts to melt. Cook these at medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until they turn light brown and crispy—just in time for the pasta to finish. When they're ready, take them off the heat and set them aside


• Once the pasta is al-dente, strain it from the pot with a large slotted spoon into a medium bowl. The point here is to bring along some of the cooking water in the process.


• Stir the pesto into the hot pasta.


• Stir in the cheese, vinegar, and oil.


• Add a little more cooking water to loosen the whole mixture a touch. Add salt and pepper to taste, if necessary. Sprinkle on the crispy mushrooms and serve hot with a nice glass of wine, or in my case, a beer :).

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Oniony Roasted Japanese Knotweed

A while back, I tasted roasted asparagus for my first time, and it was lovely. I had a glut of Japanese knotweed on hand and figured it would make an awesome star for a roasted dish like the asparagus. The lemony flavor of the knotweed, the carmely flavor of roasted chives, and the richness of the oil, is perfect.

Oniony Roasted Japanese Knotweed

What You Need:

30-40 tender Japanese knotweed shoots
1/2 cup of chopped chives
2 TBSP Olive Oil
1 TBSP Hazelnut Oil
Pinch sea salt
Pinch black pepper

• Heat the oven to 350 degrees.


• With a sharp paring knife, peel the knotweed shoots to remove the thin skin. This takes just the ~slgihtest~ pressure—I sort of scrape lightly to just peel the skin. Too deep and you'll cut the knotweed in half.


• Spread the knotweed on a baking sheet


• Sprinkle over the chives and the two oils. Toss the whole lot together


• Add salt and pepper to taste


• Bake for 4 or 5 minutes, until the knotweed turns pale and the chives crisp up. Serve immediately

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Nettle & Spinach Spanikopita (Crustless)

*This is a guest post by Mary Angelini. Mary is passionate cook and foodie. She spends much of her free time studying cook books, dreaming up recipes, and, of course, cooking delicious foods. She is starting a small food business centered around using locally sourced ingredients—selling at local markets and providing custom-made nutritious loca meals to busy families. She lives on a suburban homestead with her family in Clarkston, MI.*

Serves 6 - 8 if made in a pie dish
Serves 4 in 8oz ramekins

Nettles are the ~perfect~ star for the classic spanikopita recipe—rich, flavorful, and super-nutritious. This time around, the dish comes without a crust, cooked in ramequins. Perfectly gluten free!

Nettle & Spinach Spanikopita (Crustless)

What You Need:

1  lb frozen chopped spinach
1 lb fresh chopped nettles
3 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 1/2 tsp dried dill
1 tsp salt
30 grinds of pepper
8 oz feta (crumbled)
2 eggs
½ to 1 cup of heavy cream
1 tbsp butter (for greasing the baking dish)

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


• Place frozen spinach and nettles into a pot, add water cover and bring to a boil.


• Boil for several minutes until spinach is thawed and nettles tender, about 5-8minutes.


• Drain the greens in a colander (and save the boiling water for use as soup stock forlater).  When the greens are cool enough to handle squeeze all the water out of them that you can.


• Heat the olive oil in a medium sauce pan.  Add the onions and saute untiltranslucent.


• In a medium sized bowl whisk the eggs, ½ cup of cream, dill, salt, and pepperwith a fork until well mixed.


•  Add the greens, onion, and feta and stir again untilcompletely mixed. If the mixture is too dry add more cream a tablespoon at a time until it is “loose” as it will firm up when baked.


• Spoon into a buttered pie dish or buttered ramekins and bake for 40 minutes or until egg mixture is cooked.

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Dandelion Blossom Pakoras

A super common way folks, including myself, recommend preparing dandelion in the spring is as fritters. They're fried, doughy, and delicious. What a stealthy and easy way to get anyone to try a wild food like this!

I was inspired by The River Cottage's recipe for cauliflower and sweetcorn pakoras—those savory and spicy indian treats—to switch up the run-of-mill dandelion fritter recipe.

What You'll Need:

2 - 3 generous handfuls of dandelion blossoms with stems
Sunflower or coconut oil
A few sprigs of fresh parsley (or any fresh herb from the garden, really)

Batter:
150g gram (chickpea) flour (use any flour you like, really)
1/2 tsp salt
2 heaped teaspoons of ground cumin
2 heaped teaspoons of ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1/3 tsp cayenne
1 tsp baking powder
125ml cold water

[caption id="attachment_508" align="alignright" width="140" caption="Pakora Batter"][/caption]

• Pick the dandelion blossoms mid to late afternoon when they are in full bloom. Try to get at least 2 or 3 inches of flower stalk as well.


• Heat 1/2 an inch or so of oil in a small pot (i use a 4 inch pot so I don't have to use too much oil to get a nice depth). Put it on medium heat while you prepare everything else.


• Whisk all dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.


• Slowly pour the water into the dry ingredients while you stir. The mixture should be the consistency of a thick custard—you may need to add more water to achieve this.


• Pop the blossoms off of their stalk and plop them into the batter.


• Chop the stalks into 1/2 inch segments and toss them into the batter  as well.


• Stir the blossoms and stalks into the batter until coated.


• 
  
  [caption id="attachment_509" align="alignright" width="140" caption="Frying Pakoras"][/caption]
  
  Once the oil is heated, spoon the mixture in and fry on each side for 1 minute or so, until dark golden brown.


• Set finished fritters on a plate covered in layers of brown paper bag or paper towels, whichever is handy.


• Salt the finished fritters. Finely chop the parsley and sprinkle on top.


• Enjoy!

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