The Soaked Bean

Seeking Nourishment, Finding Traditions

Lardon, Egg + Dandelion Green Salad

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dandelion greensThis is a Swiss recipe, taught to me by a children’s book that Lu’s cousin wrote about making this salad as a girl with her grandmother (Lu’s grand-aunt).

If you’re wondering how you can write a whole book (even if only child-size) about making a salad, then you probably haven’t foraged for greens before.

Nourishing qualities aside, when you forage for something wild your dinner suddenly becomes an experience.  Maybe you take a bus to visit a friend in her village at the top of the lake and pick greens in a field beside a river, or maybe the greens are right smack dab in your backyard.  Either way, there you are, gathering green with own two hands, feet (bare is best) firm upon earth, and as you’re gathering you’re weaving connections, the deep, rooted kind, to your food, to what nourishes you, us all.

eggsI remember my first experience foraging for dinner.  It was in Greece, where old women walk the narrow village streets carrying plastic bags filled with green, “horta” as they’re called there, wild weeds.  I was living in Pelion, a mountainous region south of Thessaloniki and I was handed a plastic bag and instructed to fill it.  I remember thinking how ample the country was as I crouched and picked and crouched and picked, to have nourishing greens growing everywhere.

Looking back, I realize that a lot of what I was foraging for were dandelion greens.  Dandelion!  A plant that grows almost everywhere.  How ample all our lands are, with a little guidance from tradition, from the figurative Greek grandma.

lardons

The secret to this recipe is the sauce, which Lu’s grand-aunt called “stone sauce”, so good it could make even stones seem appetizing. (A much lovelier qualifier than the currently popular “crack”, in my humble opinion).

It really is good.  It makes a more bitter green like dandelion just plain delicious, no matter where you fall on the bitter-appreciation spectrum.  The addition of lardons (small cubes of cured pork belly, not dissimilar to bacon) and soft-boiled eggs is optional, but highly recommended.

The dandelion is a gentle introduction to foraging.  It’s easy to identify and, as it grows in so many regions, is easy to find during this mid-Spring season.  Just make sure to forage away from major roads or dog-walking paths and, as always, to take only what you need.

Happy foraging and happy feasting!

dandelionsaladLardon, Egg + Dandelion Green Salad

Stone Sauce:

  • 1 teaspoon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon cenovis (marmite could be used in its place or it could be omitted altogether)
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 shallot, minced
  • 4 sprigs parsley, minced
  • pinch salt
  1. Add ingredients to a glass jar.  Cover with lid and shake until emulsified.

Salad:

  • two handfuls dandelion greens
  • 50gs lardons
  • 2 eggs from pasture-fed hens
  1. Add greens to big bowl.  Cover with cold water and splash of vinegar.  Let sit.
  2. Meanwhile, put eggs in a small, lidded pot.  Cover with cold water and put on stove to boil.  Once boiling, turn off heat and cover with lid.  Let sit for 3-4 minutes.  Spoon eggs out immediately into small bowl of cold water.
  3. Add lardons to cast-iron pan.  Cook on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until crisp.
  4. Swish greens around and drain water.  Refill and swish and drain until water runs clear.  Use a salad spinner, or pat to dry.  Add to salad bowl.
  5. Add lardons to salad bowl.
  6. Take eggs from small bowl and peel.  Arrange on top of lardons and greens.
  7. Pour over dressing, mix and serve.

Papa Olive’s Pot-au-Feu

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veggiepile It’s March.  Hooray?

March may be home to the official start of Spring but, despite those handfuls of gorgeous, blue-skied days, it still gets cold, bitterly so (especially for those in the arctic zone formerly known as the Northern United States) and it certainly isn’t a month without its hardships.

I think this French proverb captures the mood of our current month best:
En Mars, quand il fait beau, prends ton manteau.
(In March, when it’s beautiful out, take your coat.)

Take. Your. Coat.

It’s a transitional month and one that can be confusing for mind, body, spirit and, as illustrated above, wardrobe.

carrotstixcloveonion

Perhaps these are the founding qualities behind Fun-a-Day, a March tradition created by the members of a sweet community in northern Michigan.  You choose a project for the month–haiku-writing, beer-brewing, bread-baking–that you do every day and at the end of the month you meet with the other participants and share your results.

I learned about this tradition in the summer, and, while I didn’t get to participate, I got to see some results of a few projects, and the sentiment behind this tradition–a way of combining personal new or challenging experiences with community and shared experience to cope with a month that can be trying–has stuck.

So much so that I’m declaring March a collaboration celebration on this here blog.  Every week, I’ll post an entry from a friend as well as my own weekly entries featuring a recipe from, or inspired by, a family member.

This weekend keep your eyes peeled for the first collaboration, an entry that celebrates the approaching arrival of Spring.

For now, I’m taking my coat and posting a last winter recipe for these last winter days: Pot-au-Feu, the traditional, broth-y, vegetable-brimming version.  It’s a simple recipe, one from Lulu’s father–Marco, or Papa Olive for those whom he gifts olive oil and honey to on the regular–, a wool-blanket-around-the-shoulders kind of meal, deeply nourishing and satisfying without a lot of fuss.

potatopeelin

Peel Yr Potatoes

In fact, the only fuss in this recipe is the peeling of a few potatoes.

While it may seem like an anathema to some holistically-minded folk, yes, I peel my potatoes.  Potatoes contain toxic compounds called glycoalkaloids, which function as a kind of natural pesticide, or protection, for the potato and are the reason why some folks avoid foods from the nightshade family (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) altogether.

Glycoalkaloids are especially concentrated in the potato’s skin.  You’ve probably been told to avoid green-hued potatoes, or ones that have started to sprout.  This is because the glycoalkaloid content is very high.

Glycoalkaloids are why potatoes can be said to be inflammatory and I often wonder if those who report symptoms (like headaches, bloating, swelling) would find the experience of a peeled potato better.  (Anyone out there who can speak to this?)

potatopeels

In any case, I hope this recipe lends some brightness to you during these oft-rough first weeks of March.

Merci Papa Olive!

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Papa Olive's Pot-au-Feu

Ingredients

  • 1 pound beef shoulder
  • few marrow bones
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 leeks
  • 2 onions
  • 2 parsnips
  • 4 potatoes, peeled
  • 1 celeriac, de-bearded and peeled
  • 2 turnips
  • 1 rutabaga
  • 2 teaspoons cloves
  • 4 bay leaves

Directions

  1. Slice beef shoulder into big chunks. Add meat and marrow bones to large stockpot and fill w/ cold water. Put on high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, take off heat, drain water and remove meat and bones from pot. Wipe pot clean.
  2. While meat and boils are boiling, cut all the vegetables, except the onions, into big chunks -- you want them to be roughly the same, big size (remember, they're going to cook for a few hours). Peel your onions and stick the cloves in the skin (the onion is your pincushion, the cloves are your needles).
  3. Add vegetables, meat and bones into stock-pot. Cover with cold water. Place on stove and heat on high until comes to a rolling boiling. Skim surface for impurities, then lower. Cover with a lid and simmer for 2-3 hours, checking every so often to see if your meat is tender. Once tender, serve!

Serve with lacto-fermented pickles, grainy mustard, course salt and a chunk of sourdough bread.

It will keep in the fridge for 4 days, if well-sealed. Otherwise, it freezes well.

 

potaufeu