Dandelion and Friends Pesto

Ok everyone, to me this is the weirdest time of year.  The weather is warm, the sun is shining, and things are starting to grow in the garden, but there is nothing ready to harvest yet!  Just look at those tiny garlic sprouts!  Sure I have some herbs, but a few chives and a sprig of mint hardly feel like an actual harvest of anything.  

HOWEVER

Don't forget the humble dandelion and his friends known collectively as false dandelions!  In my area none of them are flowering yet so this is the perfect time to eat the leaves as they are not too bitter yet.  If you've never been out foraging dandelions are the perfect thing to start with since they have no poisonous lookalikes.  If it looks like a dandelion you're good to go!  When you get home with your bounty of beautiful green leaves soak them in a combo of water and vinegar just in case a wandering animal used them as a toilet.  After that rinse them with plain water and they'll be ready to eat!  If you're still leery you can sometimes find dandelion greens in the grocery store, but why pay for something you can get for free for almost no effort!

Ok so you have your dandelion greens.  Now what?

Use them like any other green in your kitchen!  Make a salad!  Wilt them in with your scrambled eggs!  Purée them in a green smoothie or a soup!  Since in my family we love condiments I made pesto.

Isn't that a beautiful green?  In case you were wondering #nofilter.  In my recipe I guessed a bit on the amounts so scale them up or down a bit depending on how much of the greens you gathered.

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Dandelion Leaf Pesto

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups Dandelion Leaves
• 1/2 cup Pine Nuts or Walnuts
• 1/4 cup Olive Oil plus more to add at the end to get the consistency right
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
• Juice of One Lemon

Takes 15 min, serves 6.

Instructions

1. Gather and wash your dandelion leaves. If you are worried about the cleanliness of your foraged leaves add a little vinegar to your water and soak them for a couple minutes in that solution.
2. Toast the nuts in a pan on medium heat just until you can start to smell them. Do not multitask at this part because they will burn quickly.
3. Put ingredients - liquid first - in a high powered blender or food processor, and blend until the mixture reaches a paste-like consisency. Add more oil as needed until it reaches your desired thickness.

What to do with Leftover Trout

For some crazy reason we had leftovers from the other night's baked trout.  This isn't a normal situation for us and left us wondering what on earth to do with the leftovers.  The answer presented itself in the form of chowder.  This is a seriously easy and versatile recipe.  Try it out with any fish you have a small amount of and I bet it would be good.  This is the perfect way to stretch a small amount of fish to serve more people.

HOW TO MAKE THIS

1. Fry a bunch of bacon (cut into small chunks) in the bottom of a saucepan.

2. Dice half an onion and add it to the bacon.  Sauté until translucent.

3. Chop up some potatoes.  I did largish chunks.  It doesn't really matter how big, but keep in mind smaller ones cook faster.  Sauté for a bit with the onions and bacon.

4. Turn down the heat and wait a bit - alternatively take the pan off the heat for a bit and add milk to generously cover the other ingredients.  This is all your liquid so add more than you need for just this since you're still throwing in a couple more ingredients.

5. Gradually turn up the heat until milk is at a light boil.  Cook stirring often until potatoes are soft.

6. We had green beans as part of our meal so I chopped the leftovers of them up and threw them in.  I also added some frozen corn.  

7. Add the fish at the very end because you don’t want to overcook it. Let the soup come back up to temperature, and add salt and pepper as needed. 

First Harvest of the Season

Ok, that makes things sound a lot better than they are, but I had chives growing that I thought I had killed, so that's a reason to celebrate, right?  Those chives are about the only thing I have growing that is ready to use, but going out and picking anything from the garden feels really good right about now!  I threw them in with the potatoes and they were delicious!

The other thing that is awesome about this dinner is that we had some trout that Mr. Forager brought home last August left in the freezer.  We're out of fish just in time for fishing season to begin again soon.

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HOW TO MAKE THIS

Trout: Put prepared fish (gutted and cleaned etc) in a baking dish.  Stuff cavity with lemons and seasoning of choice.  This time we used Bow River Fish Blend from Silk Road Spice Merchants in Calgary, AB.  Bake at 350 degrees until nice and flaky.  We forgot to add a few pats of butter, but you shouldn't!  

Potatoes: These were kind of big so I cut them in largish chunks and boiled them.  When tender drain water and add butter and finely chopped chives.  Salt to taste.

Green beans: Sauté garlic in butter.  In a few minutes add the beans.  Sauté until done (find this out by tasting a bean - I like mine still crunchy so I don't cook them for very long).

Enjoy!

Apple Cider Days

It's still officially summer and the sunshine is still pretty warm, but where we are the air has some of that telltale fall crispness.  In our chilly basement suite we are swaddled up in comfy sweaters and we've already ditched our iced coffee for homemade pumpkin spice flavoured ones.  In our minds it's officialy fall. 

During the colder months we like to have a pot of something warm and spiced on our counter almost 24/7.  I find that it serves two purposes - one is that you have a nearly constant supply of something warm and delicious to drink, and the other is that it fills your home with a beautiful warm aroma.  My basic recipe varies quite a bit from day to day, but some green cardamom pods were the source of my inspiration lately.  Here's the recipe.

Cardamom Apple Cider

• 4 Litres of Apple Juice
• 5 or 6 Whole Cloves
• 2 Cinnamon Sticks
• 7 or 8 Green Cardamom Pods
• 4 or 5 Allspice Berries

1. Fill - exactly how much depends on how many people you are serving - your slow cooker (or a pot on the stove) with apple juice. I usually use a four litre jug (one gallon for my American friends).  We like to find organic and local juice if possible, but anything from the store will do if you're in a pinch.
2. Add spices and turn the cooker up to high for a while.  Once heated and steaming turn it to low.  Allow the spices to mingle with the juice for at least 30 minutes before drinking.  The longer you leave it the stronger the taste of the spices.

A New Home

Ok, so you might have noticed the new name and banner for this blog.  The main reason for that is: we no longer live in a big city so "Big City Kitchen Garden" no longer fits us very well.  We now live in the booming metropolis of Barnhartvale.  I know you're all wondering where that is.  Short answer - South East Kamloops, BC.

We have already begun to settle in to our new home.  Our senior citizen cat has been out and about exploring.  I know that looks like a painted backdrop, but let me assure you - it is that beautiful here.

So for me I realized as soon as we moved that my original blog title (Edit: originally I had a blog called "Big City Kitchen Garden" that is no longer active) was too narrow.  I have also developed a keen interest in foraging (either for food, or for items) as well as eating and using invasive plant species (read: I love free food).  Basically for me this is a new focus on my home in general, and is a way to include more of my interests.  Gardening will for sure be something that I still talk about, but so will my excursions around the neighbourhood to find wild apple trees and the like.  My family is starting to live a more hunter/gatherer lifestyle (mixed with some backyard farming) with our move out here.  Mr. Forager is promising me great things in the way of trout and deer so expect to see some of that in the near future as well.  I also count "foraging" to mean anything involving the use of found items.  I love to repurpose items and give them new life so I am glad to have a blog that I feel I can include those topics as well.

All in all I am extremely happy to live where I do and to be able to explore the interests I have and share them with you!  I hope you enjoy reading about my future adventures and endeavors as much as I enjoy doing them.