The Star of Early Summer: Scapes

Last year around this time in June I posted about garlic scapes, which I used to make a marinade for a slow cooked goat leg. This year I've been experimenting with all sorts of young green Alliums out there, ramps (which are in essence a wild leek but are similar to a scape), onion scapes, and of course garlic scapes. Scapes can arise out of any of a number of plants and are considered a flowering leafless stem. Not all are edible but if you catch them early enough and they come from the onion genus (Allium), then you're in luck! Onions and garlic are incredibly medicinal and healing foods. Onions in general work to lower blood pressure and decrease cholesterol, alleviate dysentery, induce sweating, and treat the common cold. Garlic acts as an antiseptic, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, enhances digestive capabilities, has diuretic properties, and relaxes the blood vessels (i.e. decreases blood pressure). Scapes are the the pure young essence of all these properties and are excellent for ridding yourself of any lingering winter ailments. The bonus to a scape is the flowers popping out on the top, which taste like a concentrated savory onion. In Chinese Medicine flowers are considered to have a more dispersing effect, which means they are particularly good for treating colds and flus as well as skin disorders.



I chose to experiment with an onion scape (courtesy of Kinnikinnick Farm) that had bolted and was technically considered past it's youth and prime in the farming world . Meaning, it wasn't as delicately flavored and instead had more kick and spice to it. I cooked it in with slow braised pork chops until they shredded, along with a few potatoes from the Fall season to give the sauce body, salt and pepper to taste, and some absolutely amazing lambs quarters from Three Sisters Garden (considered a weed) that literally tasted of what the descriptive word GREEN would taste like if it jumped into a vegetable! I used the scape flowers (pictured at the top), which have an incredibly delicious onion punch, to make a light, vinegary, and kickin' drizzler sauce when the dish was plated. We served the braised pork with a poached duck egg and baked purple asparagus.




Pork Chop Braise with Lambs Quarters and Onion Scapes

Ingredients (serves 4)
lambs quarters (2 large handfuls)
2 large thick cut pork chops with bone in
1-2 onion scapes & flowers
salt
pepper
olive oil
6 small potatoes
rice vinegar



1. Brown pork chops in olive oil, add minced onion bulb from scape, save flower and a bit of the green stalk for sauce.
2. Cook on low heat, adding about 1 cup of water for about 1 hour. Add peeled and chopped potatoes in and cook for another hour.
3. Wash and strip lambs quarters leaves off of stem, add to pork when it has begun to shred and is almost done. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. Make sauce: mince or just simply pluck off little flowers into olive oil (1-2 tbspns), rice vinegar 1 tbspn (substitute with good quality white wine vinegar if you desire), salt and pepper. Add 1 tbspn of minced green stalk from scape, using the portion closest to the flower so it's relatively tender.
5. Poach duck or chicken egg and serve over pork with a sprinkle of sauce on each dish.

Apples Make You Juicy

The whole "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" wasn't far from the truth. Apples serve many functions, not the least of which is to increase body fluids according to Chinese medicine. Eat an apple, kill that dry cough that's creeping in as the winter seeps into our homes. Which makes it the perfect Fall fruit. It also cools heat in the lungs, which will protect you from heat-producing activities such as smoking or being around smoke. If you're sick and have lost your appetite an apple will stimulate it. The malic and tartaric acid present in apples inhibits the growth of bacteria and therefore protects your digestion. Apples will even lower cholesterol. Have gallstones? Apples will soften them. Apples are cleansing for the liver and gallbladder in fact. What doesn't an apple do? Well it won't eat itself for you. I went apple picking recently as the season is coming to a close, and it was lovely. I picked Jonathans, Red Delcious, and Jonogolds. There were more but these were the ones I loved. Jonathans for apple juice. Red Delicious for chutneys. Jonogolds to munch on.

Puffball, the Mushroom

I would like to introduce to you the wild puffball mushroom featured in the picture above. It can grow to be the size of a massive pumpkin or it can be a soccer ball like the one you see here. I had no idea I'd be meeting this mushroom in the farmers market today and when I did I was pretty much in love, I mean a massive spongy white cute thing with a name such as puffball? Who wouldn't want to take it home! Alas, today I didn't take puffball home because you need to cook these within a day or two of picking but I will be going back on Saturday to buy one and make a lovely mushroom soup with it.

Native Americans would dry puffballs and use them to staunch wounds. From the Chinese medicinal cooking perspective, mushrooms (all types) have a wide and incredible healing capacity. They are cool and sweet in nature; decrease lipid (fat) levels in the blood; treat liver disorders (hepatitis, cirrhosis, liver cancer, or general liver toxicity); treat excess phlegm (in cases of congestion in the lungs); increase immunity (some are stronger than others, the ling zhi variety fares best for this); help to reduce tumors; and promote appetite (again, think cancer and a decreased appetite here). The only time to be cautious with mushrooms is when you are extremely weak in which case you would not eat them daily, but on occasion it would be fine.

The puffball mushroom, specifically, is a TCM medicinal herb, referred to as ma bo. It clears heat, relieves toxicity, and targets the lungs in particular (therefore good for lung conditions such as sore throat, tonsillitis, and a cough with heat signs). According to TCM, the puffball also staunches bleeding, much like the Native American usage.

This is what I plan to do with my puffball (they tend to be similar to an eggplant in consistency):

*go easy on the cream if you are truly treating a cough with heat signs OR avoid cream entirely if there is phlegm in involved, this soup works sans cream as well.

1 large soccer ball puffball
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
chicken stock
cream
butter
chives


1. Saute minced garlic and onions until caramelized then add puffball (chop into small squares or thin slices) and cook until tender. Add chicken stock and cream, bring to a boil and reduce a little. If you want it thicker you can add flour to the chicken stock before it goes into the soup OR you can add potatoes.
2. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve with chive garnish if you wish.

If you want to hunt for these yourself (they cost $1/oz which gets pricey) here is a link to learn a bit about HOW, but be warned, mushroom foraging is dangerous if not done correctly or taken seriously.

Check out this picture of a man with the giant puffblall he found.

Here's a link on the BBC about a woman who discovered a gigantic puffball in Scotland.

Nopales, a Prickly Affair

Nopales are from a wonderful tasting cacti (the nopal) that comes from Mexico though it can be found in other places such as in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to name a few. They have been a part of Mexican cuisine for 1,000's of years. The nopal is also known as the prickly pear cacti. The prickly pear which is more well known outside Mexico is the beautiful red prickly fruit/flower that buds from the nopal. The paddles or pads of this lovely cacti are what we refer to as nopales or nopalitos (when prepared) and are used in many different ways. You can boil them, boil then fry, or grill them. You can eat them in a salad, in a taco, with scrambled eggs, the list is endless and once you understand the flavor I think it's really about making it your own. It doesn't necessarily have to be made in a Mexican recipe.

You want to choose relatively small nopales (if you are going to harvest them yourself), around 8 inches in length, and you will have to wear gloves to protect you from the spines. If you are going to purchase some, the only place I've seen them is in Mexican groceries.

Nopales have incredible healing properties that are just beginning to be tapped into (well, I should say - tapped into in N. America because the Mexicans have known for a long time they're good for you!). I have no doubt they'll synthesize some ingredient or other from them and put them in a bottle, but in my opinion: buy them for 50 cents, take them home, cook them yourself! Nopales are said to treat digestive issues, diabetes (they regulate blood sugar levels), and high cholesterol. They also happen to be high in vitamin A and C. If you were to use them for medicinal purposes some examples of usage would be as follows: if you are pre-diabetic or are diabetic, this is an excellent snack replacement or addition to your food choices as it would potentially help to further decrease your blood glucose levels; if you have digestive troubles, this is an excellent soothing plant for your stomach and can be added to salads or eggs or whatever you choose to eat it with; likewise for those with high cholesterol, add it to your diet to help combat your cholesterol levels along with some of the other things I have discussed you would have a nice combination of foods that you know can lower cholesterol (see hibiscus/flor de Jamaica entry).

I chose to make a light salad of nopales which turned out wonderfully but in the next round I am going to make them roasted on a barbeque grill.



1. First, I washed the nopale (I only used one for my lunch today), I cleaned off the sides which were rough by slicing them off, I used a peeler to cut out the dark rough "eyes" (much like potato eyes), then I boiled it for approx. 12-15 mins in salt water (once it turns olive green and is soft you can take it out). Drain the water.
DO NOT OVERCOOK YOUR NOPALES THEY WILL TURN STICKY AND GROSS!





2. I let it cool and then sliced it into thin strips, placed it in a bowl, added one thin sliced garlic clove, lots of lime, sea salt and pepper, and that's it! Delectable.



3. If you want to go further with this, buy some fresh soft shell taco's (I like the corn based ones), toast them lightly on a flame, put a few slices of the above nopalitos in there, some white cheese (I used the Mexican white cheese, crumbly and not too heavy), a dash of yogurt, and some chili - DEEEELISH, do it.



The Gourmet Sleuth has a wonderful and extensive entry on nopales here: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/nopalitos.htm#Nopales%20History.

Here is an entry from someone who ate nopales while he was undergoing chemotherapy:
http://mycancerchronicles.blogspot.com/2007/09/nopalitos.html

If you want a more technical and scientific explanation (also incredibly interesting), go to Miguel Angel Gutierrez from UCLA's Department of Biological Chemistry article here: http://repositories.cdlib.org/uclabiolchem/nutritionbytes/vol4/iss2/art3/

Hibiscus for Hypertension

The flower Hibiscus sabdariffa, also known as flor de Jamaica in Spanish, is not only delicious but also incredibly medicinally beneficial. I drank this flower tea growing up in Thailand as my mother would brew it often when she found out you could purchase it there, having already been exposed to it in Colombia. I vaguely recall the tea as being "good for you" (how often we hear that nowadays), but the reason for it being good for me did not stick in my mind, perhaps because hyptertension, high cholesterol, and water retention are not necessarily something a 15 year old thinks about. Before it was just a delicious chilled rose-colored tea water with a hint of cranberry'esque tartness, now it has taken on new dimensions as I continue to cultivate my knowledge of food as medicine.

Thailand and China are in fact the major producers of hibiscus so it is no wonder I drank it often when I lived in Bangkok. It is thought to be that Thailand produces better quality hibiscus than China, but that Sudan has the best variety, though it's exports are small and rare because of production difficulties. Malaysia became a large producer as well in the 1990's.

The uses for hibiscus are varied as it is used through the world in Asia, Africa, North America, Europe, and South and Latin America. In the U.S. they have primarily toted it as being a drink high in vitamin C. In Thailand they recommend it for the treatment of high cholesterol and hypertension. In South America it is considered good for not only it's high vitamin C properties but also as a mild diuretic and laxative. In Sudan it is used as a cough suppressant and the heated green leaves of the flower are used for cracks and boils on the feet. There are so many uses for this beautiful flower, that I am likely missing some, but will keep this post updated if I learn of more.

While I have been referring to it as flor de Jamaica since I bought it in a Mexican market, you can also find it under the following names (I obtained this information from Wikipedia):

"The roselle is known as the rosella or rosella fruit in Australia. It is also known as meśta/meshta on the Indian subcontinent, Tengamora in Assam, Gongura in Telugu,chin baung in Myanmar, กระเจี๊ยบ'krajeab in Thailand, bissap in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger, the Congo and France, dah or dah bleni in other parts of Mali, wonjo in the Gambia, zobo in Nigeria (the Yorubas in Nigeria call the white variety Isapa (pronounced Ishapa)), karkade (كركديه; IPA: ['karkade]) in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, omutete in Namibia, sorrel in the Caribbean and in Latin America, Flor de Jamaica in Mexico, Saril in Panama, rosela in Indonesia, asam paya or asam susur in Malaysia. In Chinese it is 洛神花 (Luo Shen Hua)"

There are a few different ways to make hibiscus tea, you can boil and steep the flowers for 20 minutes or you can soak them in room temperature water for 2-4 hours (depending on how strong you want it). I chose to do the boil and steep for 20 minutes and the tea turned out delicious, I added 1 large tbspn of rock sugar to sweeten it and I served each glass with a sprig of mint leaf, delectable! Here are the pictures:





The approx. measurement is 1/2 cup flowers to 4 cups of water, but you can play it with according to taste.



Let the flowers steep for 20 minutes.



I used rock sugar which I find to be less "sugary" and more nourshingly sweet rather than sickeningly sweet.



The dried flowers expland and turn back into vibrant flowers in the water.



I put the steeped flower juice into a pitcher so I can keep it in the fridge nice and chilled and ready to drink whenever I want.



A glass of chilled flor de Jamaica juice with a sprig of mint in it.

If you were to primarily use this to treat hypertension, high cholesterol, cystitis, or water retention, you would drink it every day. Because it is a mild diuretic, there aren't the normal dangers associated with diuretics. However, I always recommend that people monitor themselves whenever using anything on a daily basis and it is good to take "medical breaks" from frequent use of any herb or medicinal food.

As a side note, while researching this flower I came across a recipe for Sorrel Punch, which is the fun and alcohol-laden Carribbean version of flor de Jamaica (they just like to have more fun in the Carribbean!). Here is a general recipe (which I have not tried yet but hopefully will attempt this summer), I got it from the blogger eCurry.com:

To make the Sorrel Punch:

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups dried sorrel flowers
2. 1/4 cup fresh gingerroot, peeled and chopped
3. 1 stick cinnamon
4. 4 whole cloves
5. 1 cup sugar
6. 6 cups water
7. 1 1/2 to 2 cups over-proof Jamaican rum (or any of your favorite dark rum)
8. Lemon, lime and orange slices, for garnish

Preparation:

In a large, heat-proof bowl, combine the sorrel, the ginger, the cinnamon stick the cloves and the sugar. Set aside.

Bring the water to a boil and pour it over the sorrel, spices and sugar. Allow the mixture to cool. Cover the bowl and let and let the punch steep for two days.

Strain the mixture through a fine cheesecloth and return the liquid to the bowl.

Stir in the rum. Cover once more and allow the mixture to stand for two more days.

Strain the punch a final time and place it in the refrigerator to chill.

Serve the Sorrel Punch over glasses full of crushed ice, with garnishes of lemon, lime and orange slices. (During the holidays, this is accompanied with a slice of Fruit Cake)


**The lovely hibiscus flower has made it into the news (8.20.2009) as the New York Times displays all the edible flowers being used in cocktails.