Grape Leaf Pesto

If you have wild grape leaves in your area, this is the best time to pick them while they are still tender and unblemished. I collect them in large quantities and those I don’t use immediately, I blanche and freeze for later use. They are particularly useful in pickles and ferments to help keep vegetables crisp while they also add some good flavour, but can be used in many other ways, some of which you will see in related posts below. For identification, uses and nutritional information, click here for my introduction to them.

Long before there was any green on the vines, I began to think what new recipe I could introduce this year, and came up with the idea of a pesto. The first try was a complete success, although I will definitely try it with some variations. For this recipe I mixed it with nettles to make it greener, as by blanching the grape leaves as I did, they tend to turn a kind of olive colour. Other greens could be used according to what you have available, so feel free to use your imagination. I used black walnuts from our area, but regular walnuts are also fine.

I picked very young ones, but when they are mature I recommend removing any of the central stem that looks a bit tough.

Grape Leaf Pesto

4 cups grape leaves, loosely packed

1/2 cup stinging nettles

a small bunch, (about 8) mint leaves

1/3 cup walnuts

1 large clove garlic

150 ml olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Blanche the grape leaves and nettles for about 10 seconds. Drain and combine them in a food processor or blender with the other ingredients.

This makes a very flavourful pesto which I have enjoyed on pasta, in sandwiches and on crackers, but my favourite is to use it as a base for pizza, spread on an oven-fresh sourdough pizza crust.

And then add whatever you like.

Related posts: Wild Grape Leaves; Stuffed Fermented Grape Leaves ; Fermented Wild Grape Leaves; Grape Leaves with Roasted Vegetables; Pickerel in Grape Leaves with Mushroom Za’atar Sauce; Quiche in Wild Grape Leaf Shells; Grape Leaf, Herb and Yogurt Pie.

Linked to: Fiesta Friday #228

Kuku Sabzi

This is a dish I discovered recently in, of all places, a donut shop which I only visited because I was in need of a coffee fix. A little plastic container of something green caught my eye and I had to try it. I decided it was some kind of exotic omelette and that it contained chickpea flour. Other than that all I knew was that it was one of the best store-bought breakfasts I’d had.

When I returned a few weeks later to ask for another one, the owner explained her customers only wanted donuts, so she gave up making her ‘green patties’. She was pleased I was interested, and told me her husband is Iranian, and that this traditional sort of frittata is called kuku sabzi. So at least I had some way of finding out how it is made.

Once I read a sufficient number of recipes, I was able to come up with my own using, you guessed it, weeds from my garden.

What I learned in my research is that it is indeed a sort of omelette, heavy on the herbs and light on the eggs – just enough to hold the mixture together. It seems just about any kind of herb goes well in this dish, as do sometimes dried fruit and/or nuts. Spices also vary, but I came across one recipe that called for advieh, a Persian specialty blend which includes rose petals. The recipe I used can be found here, but do note that if you don’t have rose petals you can leave those out.

So once I mixed up some advieh, picked a lot of lambsquarters from the fields, I went about making my first sabzi.

Kuku Sapzi

Ingredients

2 cups lambsquarters, packed

1 cup parsely, packed

3 eggs, beaten

1 Tbsp chickpea flour

2 tsp advieh

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Chop the greens. Mix them well with all the other ingredients. Heat 4 Tbsp olive oil in a heavy skillet. Add the mixture and pat it down. Cover with a lid and cook on a medium low heat for about 8 minutes. Remove the lid and broil for about two minutes, until beginning to brown on top. Serve warm or cooled. It will keep refrigerated for 3 days.

The number of variations for this recipe could be endless, and I will definitely be making this again but with different herbs and greens, sometimes nuts or cheese and fruit. It is one of those dishes which can be adapted to any location, just about any season, and unless you have something against green, you will want to make it often.

Linked to: Fiesta Friday #227, Lizet at Chipa by the Dozen; Jhuls at The Not So Creative Cook.

Related posts: Lambsquarters,  Lambsquarters Triangles, Lambsquarters Samosas, Lambsquarters and Farro Burgers.

Lilac Marshmallows

Making marshmallows is quick, easy and even fun, with the added bonus of having a confection which is so superior to the store bought variety. I only recently began to experiment with different flavours, beginning with maple, honey, and spices. Then it occurred to me to flavour them with flowers from my garden and so I began with lilac. I look forward to other flavours as they come in season –  honeysuckle, peony, elderflower and Queen Anne’s lace to name a few.

The process is simple. The basic one for standard white marshmallows would be made with one cup sugar and one cup water. Heat the syrup allowing to simmer for a few minutes, then pour it gradually onto gelatine softened with a little water. I use the powdered Knox gelatine which comes in one-Tbsp packages. Originally I was using three packets per cup of syrup and this made a pretty stiff and stretchy marshmallow. For this recipe, I used only 2 Tbsp. which I prefer but the marshmallows are less robust and a little softer than the others.

As you pour the hot syrup over the gelatine, mix on high speed with a hand mixer. This will take about 10 minutes. If using three packets it is easy to over mix and the mixture will start to set before pouring it into a pan if you’re not careful.

Pour the mixture into any shape of pan you like – I used a 12 inch square dish. Chill in the fridge for about an hour until they are well set.

Lilac Marshmallows

1 cup lilac syrup

2 Tbsp powdered gelatine

5 Tbsp cold water (substitute a little colouring such as grape or blueberry preserve or juice)

Heat the syrup while the gelatine is dissolved in water. Gradually pour the syrup over the gelatine and beat on high speed. The colour will lighten as the mixture puffs up, so if you want a stronger colour, add more juice to the water. When thick and forming peaks, pour it into a pan and set in fridge to cool. Cut into squares and serve.

Related Posts: Lilac Ice Cream; Lilac Fizz; Lilac Pavlova

Linked to: Fiesta Friday #226; Jhuls at The Not so Creative Cook.

Honeysuckle Sorbet

I recently came across a recipe for elderflower sorbet made by David Lebovitz, and not having any of that particular flower available at the moment I decided to use honeysuckle instead.  This recipe is worth trying with just about any edible wild flower I expect, especially if they have a strong enough flavoured flower to withstand the strong lemon flavour. The honeysuckle does have a good honey taste, and could be detected, but I would have liked it a little stronger. Maybe next time, double the amount of flowers or reduce the amount of lemon.

I picked mostly young buds, not fully opened and soaked them in the hot syrup overnight as recommended. I followed Lebovitz’s recipe exactly except I used 1 full cup of flowers instead of his 1/3 to 1/2 and I strained the lemon juice to get rid of any pulp.

The sorbet tasted distinctly of lemon with a light honeysuckle after taste. It was not as sweet as I expected, although I could hardly be surprised given the generous amount of lemon.

I’m not sure why I have never made sorbet before. If this summer continues to be as hot as it has been, I’m sure I will be making a lot more, and this recipe will form the base of them all.

Related posts:  Honeysuckle Ice Cream; Honeysuckle Syrup

Linked to: Fiesta Friday #226, Jhuls at The Not So Creative Cook.