I love Barbara Kingsolver. Last year, after reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, I made a trip to our local (and extremely affordable) farmers' market, bought up a farmer's entire crop of tomatoes and inexpertly canned them. I would have grown the tomatoes myself except a local dry cleaner dumped his petroleum-based solution onto the ground and polluted my well. Until our local superfund clean-up site fixes our local wells, I can't eat anything grown in my yard.
Frustrated with my bad neighbor and tepid Congressional efforts to stem the dual tides of oil and unemployment, I decided to take a small step to: 1) wean myself off of oil; and 2) prepare for the potentially long stretch of joblessnes ahead.
I cooked up my first locally available batch of weeds!
I am cutting down on the amount of plastic bags in my home by shopping at grocery stores that don't give them away. (I am actually experiencing a shortage of bags for lining trash cans.) I mostly shop at a local organic farm, Camino de Paz or at La Montanita Food Coop in Santa Fe. Located 45 minutes south of me, La Montanita sells organic foods grown by my neighbors. It doesn't make sense to fight the ravages of the oil industry by driving 45 minutes to buy my neighbors' products, so this week when the Espanola Farmers' Market had its first really good day (growers were delayed by unusual weather patterns), I stopped by.
I resolved to make up recipes to cook whatever I found. The results were delicious concoctions of locally gathered weeds.
The list of ingredients I came home to work with included:
Lambsquarters also known as "wild spinach" (which also tends to take over my garden.
Squash blossoms
Garlic
Onions
Garlic chives
Fresh eggs
I came up with two delicious recipes based on these foods and what I could dredge up in my Kitchen. Here they are:
Squash Blossom, Lambsquarter and Saffron Quiche
10 Fresh squash blossoms
1 c lambsquarters
6 eggs
1 bunch chopped garlic chives
1/2 cup chopped red onion and onion green
3-4 small cloves pressed garlic
about 2-3 cups half and half, milk, cream or some combination thereof
1-2 cups lite shredded cheese
1/4 tsp good saffron
1 tsp nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
4-6 mild roasted red Chimayo chile
pie crust
Throw squash blossoms, chile and green stuff into a food processor or chop by hand. Any roasted chile will work but I especially like to use our local red variety because it is simultaneously tart and sweet and it bites. Layer the mixture on the bottom of the crust along with all other veggies. Layer cheese on top. Warm or simmer about 1/2 c liquid dairy in a saucepan with saffron. Stir until the mixture turns yellow. Beat eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper and dairy products until frothy including saffron mixture. Pour it into crust. I use one huge deep dish crust but you could use two regular 9 inch crusts. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes then at 350 until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean and everything looks yummy.
Purslane Pesto
1 bag carefully washed purslane
1/2 c walnuts or pinon nuts (I used walnuts)
1/2 c (or more) good extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves crushed garlic
1 small chopped red onion
1/2 c grated parmesan
2-3 roasted Chimayo red chiles
whole wheat spaghetti
salt, pepper, thyme, a little bit of tequila lime seasoning if you have it
Clean the Purslane, cut off the roots and simmer for about 20 minutes. Drain and puree in a food processor with all other ingredients except spaghetti which you boil in the normal fashion. Reserve a bit of olive oil. Saute all ingredients except spaghetti in reserved olive oil. Drain cooked spaghetti and mix it up with purslane pesto. It can be served hot or cold. My kids, who normally prefer fast food, ate three servings.
Warning! Use your own judgement if measurements don't look right. I don't measure, I cook by look, smell and taste: a smidgeon of this and a bissel of that. These are my best estimates.
And feel free to modify based on ingredients available locally. That's what I usually do.
Happy oil protest!
Crossposted from www.BPIcampus.com