APRIL 2005

For the month of April we are highlighting some recipes from our ombudscrone, Michèle Burdet To learn more about Michèle, please visit our faculty page. Enjoy!

Copyright 2005 Michèle Burdet
All Rights Reserved
Email: alpine.healer@befree.ch

Steamed Wild Greens

Root Roast

Holistic Fries

Steamed Wild Greens

This recipe is simple to execute once you have acquired the ingredients. I take them all from my garden, which simplifies matters. About ten years ago climatic changes seemed to affect germination from commercial seed at this altitude. This phenomenon destroyed my production of spinach and carrots. So while hiking one September I gathered the seed from wild spinach growing up between 1800-2000 meters (a bit over a mile high). Imitating nature, I scattered the seed in a bed I had prepared and then covered it with a thin layer of leaf mold. I did this in the fall, which is the way nature does it, instead of waiting for spring to sow commercial seed.

The next spring I had half a dozen spinach plants. And they proved to be perennial. I gather heir seed and use it to reseed bare patches in that planting bed. And my perennial plants are producing enough that I eat my wild spinach at least once a week from May to September.

It is possible this resembles what Jane calls Lamb's Quarters or Pigweed. All I know is that it looks like spinach and tastes like spinach. If the shape of the leaf looks like a spinach leaf, I'd say it's spinach. If it walks like a duck, has feathers like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I'd say it's a duck. For my recipe you can just as well use domestic spinach.

I gather my spinach and a smaller amount of borage. I use the younger, tenderer leaves of borage, before they get speckled. Then I put on rubber gloves and go over to the fence and cut the tops off about ten stinging nettles plants. Nettles sometimes thrive as volunteers in a circle around a place where small branches and larger garden trash are burned. They are growing just across the fence from my compost heaps.

Roughly speaking, it's 75% spinach, 20% borage, and 5% nettles. I wash the spinach and the borage together while, still wearing rubber gloves, I pick the nettles leaves off their stems. Then they get washed too. And all the leaves are drained in a colander. Then I put them into a large pyrex bowl with a lid.

You can cook your leafy veggies in a steamer or a pressure cooker if you have a thing against microwave. I zap my bowl of leaves in the microwave, on high, for about five minutes. Meanwhile, I am simmering my chopped onion in a skillet, in a little ghee (clarified butter). When the leaves are cooked, I chop them up on a cutting board and slide them into the skillet. Mix it all up and let them marry for another minute or so, then pick up your sidearm to hold the ravenous wolves at bay long enough to get the dish to table. A little lemon juice and salt is nice, but not obligatory.

Another use for stinging nettles is in soup. In northern Italy I was served a fabulous soup composed of nettles and radish leaves. It was easy to duplicate at home, using a little cream to thicken the broth. If you grow radishes, never throw the leaves away. I mean, why should your stinging nettles be hanging over the fence looking lonely and unloved when there are so many things you can do with them?

Such as drying the leaves for herbal tea. I always have a big jarful to carry me over the winter. Nettles tea helps clean up the kidneys. They will love you forever if you pour nettles tea through them once a week.

Bearhugs and bon appetit!

Michèle Burdet
CookingCrone

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Root Roast

This is a royal way to eat root vegetables: carrots, turnips, parsnips, rutabaga ("swedes"),
kohlrabi, celery root, long white radishes, broccoli stems, and whatever else you find that looks like these culinary delights. You mean you don't save the stems when you prepare fresh broccoli? You will learn how useful and good they are. If you have a few Brussels sprouts left over, they can go in, and I always use shallots for top garnish.

You need a roasting dish, either cast iron or pyrex, oval or rectangular. I prefer the cast iron (some are nicely enameled) so that you can place it directly on your stovetop burner. I usually start this dish on the stovetop and then transfer it to the oven when I have everything in.

Smell your veggies to get in the gourmet mood. These roots have such lovely earthy aromas. Scrub them, then get out your big chopping board and a stout knife. It helps if it is sharp!

Pour a generous film of extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil in the bottom of your roasting dish, and turn on the heat somewhat less than medium. You want your vegetable pieces to start sauteeing lightly while you work. I usually start with the carrots, who seem to need a bit more cooking.

So slice up your carrots, slide them into the oil and let them begin to sizzle. Do not fry any of this, don't use more than about 3/8 heat. Then peel, chop and slice your roots. It's fine to save some of the colorful skins --- the purple of the kohlrabi, the green and orange of the rutabaga --- if they are scrupulously clean. Some lend themselves to being little rounds, like carrots and white radishes, some simply like to be diced, others slice into julienne strips. The broccoli stems need to be peeled and smoothed, and then sliced into rounds.

Pile them in one atop the other, turn them from time to time between orgies of slicing and chopping, sprinkle in a little more olive oil. It's great for your arteries and your digestive tract, and the veggies adore it.

When everything is in the roasting dish, stir them again, add another dollop of olive oil, and slide the dish into a preheated oven: 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit or 180-200 degrees Celsius.

While they begin to roast in the oven you peel and slice your shallots -- a couple of big ones will do nicely. Cut them into big bite-size chunks. Peel and halve your Brussels sprouts -- just a small handful, for the contrast.

When you see that the roasting is starting to take hold, add your shallots, sprouts, and another finger or two of olive oil.

From here on you are eyeballing the progress of this dish. As soon as the top layer starts to singe around the edges your meal is ready. Generally I don't add seasoning, but you can sprinkle on some sodium-free salt. Or nutmeg.

This is spiritual eating at its best. These vegetables are rich in all kinds of good stuff, and their texture suggests them as a substitute for potatoes. A godsend if you are a food-combiner and having guests who are not. This recipe came to me from some people who have lived thirty years in Italy. It lends itself to any selection of root vegetables you happen to have.

Broccoli stems are very useful. You can use them for hors d'oeuvres either as little biscuit-like rounds, or as long slabs on which you spread some cheese.

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Holistic Fries

This recipe is short and sweet and is based on root vegetables. My favorite combination is one kohlrabi and one rutabaga. After the usual scrubbing, I peel off any part of the skin that is bruised or discolored, so as to preserve the subtle colors of these two veggies.

Then I slice them in "julienne" style, that is, shaped like French-fried potatoes.

My trusty old cast-iron skillet gets a liberal slathering of extra virgin olive oil, and when it is medium hot, in go the "french fries". Saute them gently, not anywhere near maximum heat.

Always keep in mind the maxim of Satchel Paige, the legendary pitcher in the old Negro Baseball League -- he was still pitching winning baseball in his 50's. He said "Avoid fried foods, they angrifies the blood."

So we don't fry these "french fries", we saute them at a slow pace, frequently turning with a spatula to avoid burned surface. These are so good on the plate that they go off the plate with the speed of light. One kohlrabi and one rutabaga are obviously the proportions per person.

Bearhugs and Bon Appetit!

Michèle Burdet
OmCrone

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