Mushroom candy made with foraged wood ear mushrooms

A little while ago a stumbled across multiple huge flushes of some of the most perfectly formed, perfectly fresh, perfectly "ripe" wood ear mushrooms, Auricularia angiospermarum; also called jelly ear and tree ear mushrooms. If you want to learn how to identify these mushrooms, click here. 

They were so perfect that I was immediately inspired to try something I've wanted to do for some time: Wood ear mushroom candy.

Is this not the single most perfect wood ear mushroom you've ever seen?

I've been really interested in the idea of mushroom candy since I purchased my first (and still one of my favorite) edible mushroom identification book, Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America by David W. Fischer and Alan E. Bessette. In that book the authors introduce the jellytooth (Pseudohydnum gelatinosum) and apricot jelly (Phlogiotis helvelloides) mushrooms and mentions that while they lack a lot of flavor on their own, but act as a culinary novelty that can be turned into some truly unique foods, including desserts. Alan Bessette also includes a recipe for "glazed jellytooth." This dish is clearly a dessert with sugar, fruit-flavored liqueur, berries and apples. 

Both of those mushrooms fall into the large category of "jelly fungus." These two mushrooms are fairly uncommon and, when you do find them, rarely found in any abundance. But the wood ear mushroom is quite common throughout much of the continental U.S. and is often found quite abundantly. Interestingly, despite being abundant, easy to identify and having a long history as food in multiple cultures, the wood ear mushroom isn't mentioned in the book. 

I've also seen wood ear mushrooms used in desserts from foragers on blogs and on Instagram and the Central Texas Mycological Society posted one as well. So I really wanted to try my hand at my own. 

A note on orange liquor

This recipe, as is, does include alcohol. If you want to share with children or if you don't drink alcohol you can substitute with an orange syrup, orange extract or orange juice concentrate. You can also use the orange liquor but bring it and the orange juice to a boil and simmer for a few minutes to cook off the alcohol. 

These mushrooms have only a very small amount of alcohol in them though, they don't absorb much when they reconstitute.

Another note on dried mushrooms

Before you begin the recipe, you must first boil the mushrooms for at least 2 minutes. This is because you shouldn't eat wood ear mushrooms uncooked AND boiling wild mushrooms can help with any potential parasites.

The mushrooms must already be dehydrated for this recipe. This is because wood ear mushrooms pick up the flavor of whatever they are reconstituted in, and we want to infuse the mushrooms with flavor.

If you don't have a dehydrator you can dry in the oven. For oven drying, spread out on a baking sheet and bake on the lowest temperature your oven can produce, 140-170 degrees are ideal. If your oven can't go below 200 degrees, you should keep it cracked open. Check often, flip every hour, and remove mushrooms as they become dry--usually after 4-6 hours. 

After the mushrooms are truly dry you can wait as long as you like to begin. 

The dark area inside is the mushroom

Chocolate and orange wood ear mushrooms

Please note, this recipe does require a dehydrator or dehydrating mushrooms in the oven.

• 
  
  Around 3 cups of fresh wood ear mushrooms
• 7 oz of your preferred chocolate, I like a ~70% cacao dark chocolate
• 1 pint orange juice
• 1/4 cup orange or peach liquor, or whichever flavor you prefer
• Confectioners' sugar (optional)

1. For this recipe, you need to work with mushrooms that have been first boiled and then dehydrated. See above. 
2. Mix the orange juice and liquor in a large bowl. If you don't want these to have any alcohol at all, bring the mix to a boil for at least a minute and then let cool. 
3. Add the mushrooms in and set aside in the fridge for at least 2 hours to reconstitute. 
4. Spread parchment on a cooled baking sheet. Space the pieces of reconstituted mushroom out on the sheet. 
5. Melt the chocolate in either a double boiler or a microwave.
6. Drizzle with the orange juice/liquor and then the chocolate. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar if you wish.
7. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Then flip each piece and repeat the process. 
8. Enjoy, but they should be kept in the refrigerator and should either be consumed or frozen within 4-5 days or the mycelium will begin to re-consume the mushrooms, which isn't bad for you but does impact the texture. 

Healthy green marinara with sow thistle

Those of you who follow me on Instagram might remember seeing the image I shared of my green marinara sauce last March, when I promised a recipe to follow on my blog soon. 

And then I did not do that. 

But better late than never, as they say. A warmer than usual February has triggered the earliest spring plants to sprout, including one of my annual favorites, prickly sow thistle. 

Early spring prickly sow thistle, picked last Friday

That vivid green color is all natural

I really, really love this recipe. Unlike a pesto, this is completely vegan (unless you add cheese on top). It's also low in fat, since oil isn't a key ingredient. And each serving is also a full serving of leafy vegetables! That last point is especially important since sow thistle is incredibly nutritious, rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium and a number of important vitamins. 

It's really surprising how creamy this sauce is, considering that it has no cream, milk, coconut milk or cheese. 

Chanterelle no kneed, dutch oven bread, made with dried foraged wild mushrooms

Making bread never really interested me much. It seemed like it tied you at home in the kitchen, waiting for yeast to fart just so you could periodically punch it back down. My weekends are very precious and loosing hours that could better be spent outside in the woods, swimming, hanging out or even doing chores has never appealed to me, even though homemade bread is crazy delicious. 

So needless to say, I was intrigued when I started hearing about dutch oven breads, which had as little as 15 minutes of prep time, can rise in the refrigerator for hours or days, so you can get to them when you get to them, and who only need about 40 mins in the oven. 

Mushrooms infuse the bread 3 ways:
powdered mushrooms in the flour,  mushroom
reconstitution liquid and mushrooms baked on top

This manner of bread-making produces a small, dense, oval loaf with a crispy crust that becomes more like a sourdough if you leave it for a longer period in the fridge. 

These loaves are often baked simply, perhaps with some poppy seeds, or olive oil and fresh herbs, but I speculated there was no reason not to infuse the bread with other ingredients and flavors, and so I did. Having just come back from another foraging trip, our larder is rich with chanterelles, especially Cantharellus texensis. 

A pepper-tasting Texas red chanterelle

Unlike the fruity classic golden chanterelle, C. cibarius, the Texas chanterelle is mostly peppery in taste, with the fruitiness fading into the background, and I felt like that flavor would work well in a savory, crusty loaf. 

Plus, chanterelles and their closely related cousins, are often famously ground into powders and used as seasonings. Since they are very thin-fleshed, they dehydrate and grind easily, but their strong flavors mean even a small amount go a long way in terms of taste. So I decided to basically make an infused flour with ground cinnabar chanterelles. 

The darker color and speckled texture looks like whole wheat, 
but actually the color comes from specs of ground-up mushrooms 

The flavor of this bread is excellent, very, very umami and a bit peppery, with a hint of fruit-like sweetness on the very tail end of the palette. Traditional yellow chanterelles would probably make a sweeter loaf.

Scallion pancake with garlic scapes - Chinese restaurant style

If you're like me, sometimes you say to yourself, "Sure, everyone loves Chinese restaurant scallion pancakes, but how do I ward off vampire attacks?"

Well friends, today I have a recipe for you: make scallion pancakes, but substitute garlic scapes for the scallions. And wild garlic scapes are going crazy in north Texas right now. 

What are garlic scapes?

Garlic is a member of the Allium genus, along with onions, scallions, shallots, chives, and others. The garlic we buy in the store is a bulb, and, if planted, will grow a round-stalked green plant that eventually forms another bulb on top. This bulb is actually a cluster of "bulbettes" each of which will eventually form a flower. These bulbettes can break off the main cluster, fall to the ground, and grow a new garlic plant; it's the primary way garlic reproduces. 

In commercial garlic farming, farmers will pick the green plant before it can form this top bulb. You see, if the plant focuses energy on reproduction, it will drain the garlic bulb below the ground for energy. Garlic farmers don't want that, as they want to keep that bulb big and heavy to sell. Picking the green plant will force the bulb (the garlic) to retain it's energy and stay large. 

Recently, people have realized that the picked green plant, called a garlic scape, is a wonderful vegetable in it's own right: with a mild garlic flavor, a texture similar to leeks or scallions, and a zesty green freshness. Though only available in the early spring, you can find garlic scapes at farmers' markets and higher-end grocery stores, where they easily command prices of $10 a pound. Or you can also forage them on your own, for free. 

About the dish

Unlike many of my recipes, this dish requires a lot of time and effort, but it's well worth it. Just like in the best restaurants, these pancakes come out with an incredible balance of flavors and textures. They are crispy on the outside, flakey throughout, and super dense and a little chewy inside. The taste is predominantly garlic, as you would imagine, paired with warm spices and that delicious greasy flavor you can only get from fried foods. 

Though these take a lot of work, you can make extra and freeze them at about 3/4 of the way through the prep work, saving you a bunch of time in the long run. 

Garlic scape Chinese restaurant style pancakes

Makes 4 large (serves 6) or 6 medium (serves 4) appetizer-sized pancakes. Can be halved or quartered. Dish can be prepared up until frying and frozen for later. 

4 cups of all-purpose flour, plus 1 cup

2 large handfuls of garlic scapes

4 scallions, optional

Frying oil of your choice

2 tbs. sesame oil

1 tbs. salt

1 tsp. sugar

Chinese five spice powder

White pepper, optional but suggested if not included in your 5 spice mix 

Sichuan peppercorns, optional

Hot water, as hot as you can touch with your hands

For the dipping sauce

Dark soy sauce (or regular if you don't have dark)

Rice vinegar

Chili oil and/or chili garlic sauce or paste, optional

Sesame seeds, optional

Sesame oil

1. Mix 4 cups of flour, the salt and the sugar in a large bowl with just enough hot water for the flour to come together into a sticky dough ball, about 1.5 - 2 cups. Mix it in a little at a time.
2. Scrape the dough ball out onto a floured surface and to kneed until it comes together and firm up a bit. If you don't work with dough enough to get a feel for it, try 7 minutes of vigorous kneeding. Add more flour to your hands or the work surface, if needed, but try not to add too much or the dough won't be flakey. 
3. Return the dough ball to the bowl and let rest for at least 30 minutes, while you prepare next steps. 
4. Separate the heads of the garlic scapes from the stalks and leaves. Halve or quarter the heads, based on size, and mince the stalks and leaves.
   
   
   
   
   
5. The garlic, while flavorful, tends to get a bit soft when cooked. I like to finely chop a few scallions in, for crispness. If you are using scallions slice them into thin coins and add to the chopped garlic.
6. Add 3/4 of a cup of frying oil and a generous glug of sesame oil to a sauté pan and heat to medium high. Add in some of the garlic scape heads/bulbs, for extra flavor, and stir till fragrant.
   
   
   
7. Whisk in about 1/3  a cup of flour and reduce heat. Continue to whisk until the flour is complete emulsified with the oil, and both are a warm tawny color. Remove from heat.
8. Prepare the dipping sauce: mix equal parts dark soy sauce with rice vinegar. Mix in a drizzle of sesame oil and chili to your taste, if using. Optional: Sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or minced garlic and sliced scallions. 
9. Once your dough ball has sat for 30 minutes, divide it into 4 or 6 pieces. If you divide into 4, each pancake will be about 9in in diameter; if you divide into 6, each pancake will be about 6in in diameter. 
10. Roll out the portion of dough into a rounded rectangle about 1/8 in thick, is ok if it gets a little thin in the middle, it's even ok if it gets a small hole or two. 
11. Using a pastery brush, thinly spread the dough sheet with the flour and oil mixture over the surface of the sheet. It should go close to the edge, but not drip off.
12. Sprinkle with Chinese 5 spice powder, white pepper and ground Sichuan pepper, if using. 
    
    
    
    
    
13. Generously cover the sheet of dough with the garlic and scallions.
14. Working from the long side, start to roll up your sheet of dough into a tube. Don't worry if your roll isn't tight, or if some garlic pokes through, or if some air gets trapped inside. 
    
    
    
    
    
15. Grab each end of the tube and raise in the air. GENTLY bounce up and down like a jump rope, pulling slightly on each edge, to stretch the tube.
16. Lay the tube of dough to rest, and brush the top side with more oil/four mix. Roll the tube into a spiral, like a cinnamon bun, keeping the oil side inside the coil. Set your "bun" aside to rest. Repeat the process with each chunk of dough. 
    
    
    
    
    
17. Sprinkle flour over your rolling surface and with your first spiral of dough and garlic. Use a rolling pin to roll out the spiral to about 1/4 inch thick. You don't really have to worry about runaway garlic, but if you want to, you can remove any that poke through. 
18. Repeat for each spiral. At this point, if you don't plan on eating each pancake right away, you can separate them with freezer paper and freeze in a zip-lock bag.
19.  Heat plain cooking oil a large sauté or cast-iron pan to medium high. Add the flattened spiral pancake to the oil and fry for about 2 minutes. Flip the pancake, and fry for another 2 minutes. Repeat the process for 1-2 minutes more per side, till golden brown and cooked thorough. Repeat for as many pancakes as you like, allow each to cool slightly on paper towels, cut and serve right away with or without the dipping sauce. 

Thanks to Inga Lam's video on scallion pancakes, which I borrowed heavily from when creating this dish. 

This one was my favorite because it came out looking like a certain famous spaceship we all know
but can't legally use the name of :D

Garlicy bastard cabbage flower buds and stalks - Italian style

Ok spring in Texas has been quite delayed this year due to reoccurring cold spells throughout the mid-to-late winter. December was comfortably mild, but January and February saw short but deep chills every week or two. As a result, we are about three weeks behind where we usually are in the foraging season. And it's been quite frustrating for me. 

Usually at this time I would have an abundance of pokeweed, wild garlics, cleavers, chickweed, dock, thistles. mustards, and more. Henbit and deadnettle, often found in February, are just now starting to peak.

The perfect stage for harvesting flower stalks and buds,
Make sure to break the stalk at a natural snapping point.

But if there is one good thing about the delayed season, it's that its forcing me to look outside of my comfort zone to find plants to forage. Bastard cabbage, Rapistrum rugosum, is a highly invasive mustard species which is found in abundance in Texas, though often sprayed and therefor not safe for consumption. 

While generally not highly regarded as a food source, I've found it to be utterly delicious when properly prepared. The secret is in the hairs all over the plant, which can be unpleasant in texture, but are softened by blanching. Blanching also brings out a mellow sweetness, and overall R. rugosum is perhaps my favorite wild mustard, with a flavor combining brocollini, sweet corn and asparagus with a very mild mustard spiciness. It's truly delicious. 

Though I've cooked extensively with the mature leaves of the bastard cabbage plant, this week was my first stab at using the tender young flower stalks and flower buds. Foraging author Sam Thayer describes this as his favorite part of the garlic mustard plant (Alliaria petiolata), also in the mustard family. I've tried garlic mustard that way, and was not impressed. But bastard cabbage was another story. 

From my husband, "This is one of the best wild plants we've tried." And I have to agree with him. 

Right now R. rugosum looks pretty much like the picture above, leaves are smallish, and generally the plants aren't flowering, though they have formed buds. You are going for the central and side stalks, with the very smallest leaves attached and the flower buds at the ends. You want to feel down the stalks until you find the area where it breaks off easily. If it doesn't break easily, and only bends, then that stalk is too mature and will be woody. Generally speaking, once most of the buds are in flower, they will be too tough and woody. 

Once the buds have flowered, the stalks are generally
tough and woody

Once picked, the buds and stalks strongly resemble rapini/broccoli rabe or broccolini/baby broccoli. Broccoli rabe is a favorite in Mediterranean and Italian cuisine, and broccolini is most often eaten in Japan and other Eastern countries. Both are usually given simple seasoning and then sautéed or stir-fried briefly, over very high heat. 

I decided to try a classic Italian preparation here, modified with the addition of a quick blanch, and ended up with an excellent, 3-ingredient side dish that took only around 10 minutes to prepare. 

Italian-style garlicy bastard cabbage flower buds and stalks

Serves 2-3 as a side dish

2 cups of bastard cabbage buds and stalks

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

3 tablespoons high-heat olive or avocado oil

Sea salt to taste

1. Bring enough water to cover the bastard cabbage buds to a rolling boil. Add in the bastard cabbage and blanch for around 2 minutes, or until the green color brightens. Drain and rinse with cold water. Shake the greens in the colander, leaving them a little damp.
2. In a large sauté pan or wok (preferred) bring the oil to high heat. Add the bastard cabbage to the pan, and sauté on high, moving the greens and the pan constantly for about 2 minutes, until the color becomes a very vivid green. 
3. Add the garlic to the pan and continue to sauté/stir-fry, moving constantly until the garlic is soft and very fragrant, about 3-4 more minutes. Remove from heat and serve immediately. 
4. 
   

This side dish is very diet restriction friendly. It's low in fat, carbohydrates and sugars, gluten-free, Keto diet-approved (mustard greens being very low in net carbs), vegetarian, vegan, and Paleo, depending on the oil you choose. 

For a very Texas meal, serve as a side to steak

Mushroom bacon with foraged wild oysters. Vegan, keto and oven-fried.

Super short but oh-so-delicious post for you today. 

Oyster. Mushroom. Bacon.

It's salty. It's savory. It's blackened, but not smoked.  It's both crisp and chewy. 

Oven roasting or grilling oyster mushrooms has long been my favorite way to prepare them fresh. They just get so super umami over high heat.

The middle of the caps are the most meaty in terms of texture, and really showcase the best mushroom flavor, but the most delectible bits are always the outer edges. Those edges, thin fleshed and naturally drier, get crispy brown or blackened, almost like deep fried. 

I came upon this decent-sized haul of winter oyster mushrooms yesterday, while hunting for pecans. The caps were enormous, 6 to 12 inches across, and very thick in the middle. In the summer, oysters at this level of maturity would be fully infested with bugs, but because this is the winter they were flawless  inside, very fresh, and exceedingly dense: full of moisture. 

That said, mature oyster mushrooms that have already dropped their spores tend to be a little less flavorful than when they are younger and still have in-rolled edges. 

With that in mind, I was thinking about ways to make the entire mushroom more like the crispy/oven fried bits, with less of the chewy/meatiness. I decided to salt them and let them sit and drain for a while, desiccating the mushrooms somewhat, so that the whole thing would crisp up and get caramelized. This added to the total prep time, but as I had plenty else to do -- and the mushrooms were just kinda sitting around--it worked out great. 

Keto, vegan oyster mushroom bacon

2 lbs oyster mushrooms, caps whole or nearly so
1/2 cup olive oil or high-heat oil of your choice
1 tbs. kosher salt
3 tbs. smoked paprika
2 tbs. garlic powder
1 tbs. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. ground celery seed

1. Rinse your mushrooms, cleaning off any debris, and lightly pat dry -- leaving them still slightly damp. 
2. Sprinkle the mushrooms with salt, paprika, garlic powder, celery seed and black pepper and set in a colander or on layers of paper towel to drain. The salt will help draw the moisture out of the mushrooms, encouraging them to really crisp up in the oven. Let sit for 40-60 minutes. 
3. When the mushrooms are ready (they should be about 3/4 the size they were before, with a lot of water having been drawn out of them, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
4. Arrange the mushroom caps on a foil-coated baking sheet, they shouldn't touch or overlap each other. 
5. Drizzle with olive oil, flip and drizzle the other side as well. Brush both sides to coat. 
6. Bake at 400 for 30-60 mins, depending on the cap thickness. After that, check and see if your caps are crispy fried. If your caps are thick, you will need to flip them and keep them in for another 15-30 minutes. 
7. Enjoy however you would bacon!

These mushrooms are low-carb, low-fat, keto, vegan and vegetarian, and paleo. They can be served as a side dish, snack or main course. The only real thing to watch out for are high amounts of salt. 

Unrelated note, here are some of the things I foraged yesterday: 

Medicinal golden ginkgo leaf tea. Vegan, paleo, gluten-free natural medicine

November is autumn in Texas and the leaves are finally starting to turn -- some of them anyway. Many varieties of Southern trees will just go directly from green to brown and fall without ever hitting any of the vibrant shades of yellow, gold, orange, red and crimson that one will see in the North. 

But the ginkgo puts on a stunning display every year, regardless of climate. The fall leaves range from cheery lemon yellow to luscious gold, and stand out in vibrant contrast to the intense blue of the November sky. 

Now is the perfect time of year to harvest the leaves for medicinal herbal teas. Though ginkgo is most often harvested green (because you get a greater yield if you do so), it is generally considered that the medicinal qualities are concentrated and enhanced once the leaves turn. 

Furthermore, when the leaves go golden, they have lost most of their chlorophyl, and are no longer benefiting the tree by making sugars to store in the roots for winter. 

So by waiting to harvest till fall, you get a more concentrated herb, and the tree maximizes its survival and growth. A win-win for everyone!

Oh and by the way, if you would like to learn more about ginkgo, including it's history, how to identify it, and how to use the "nuts" please check out my post here!

Always pluck leaves from the tree, don't harvest from the ground. 

How to harvest ginkgo leaves -- DON'T pick them off the ground 

You do want to take the golden leaves from the tree, not fallen from the ground. Once they fall, there is a greater chance of them becoming contaminated with potentially dangerous terrestrial molds that shouldn't be ingested. Cooking/boiling doesn't always remove the dangers these molds can pose. 

It's perfectly safe to use the leaves on the ground for soaps, salves and crafts.  

Regardless of how you plan to use the leaves, make sure to inspect them for signs of fungal infection and insect larva or eggs.

Always inspect your leaves for signs of insect or fungal contamination

As a natural medicine

Ginkgo leaves are even more important to natural medicines than the ginkgo nut. Ginkgo extracts are actually made from the leaves, not the nuts, particularly the golden leaves in autumn.

Historically a very important herb in Eastern medicine, gingko biloba has been shown in Western clinical trials increase blood flow, which may be the key reason it is reported to help with memory and brain health. In addition, it may help prevent blog clots and stroke.

(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15549661)

Unfortunately, clinical trails to see if ginkgo helps with memory, dementia, and/or Alzheimer's have been mixed or conflicted in results. 

In addition to memory and brain health, Eastern medicine has used the extract of ginkgo for centuries. There, it's advocated for a wide range of ailments, including:

• Anxiety and depression, including seasonal affective disorder. 
• Vision health, including diabetes-related vision problems
• PMS symtoms
• Libido problems and sexual disfunction, at least in men. Use of ginkgo as a treatment for sexual issues in women remains controversial. 
• Respiratory ailments, including asthma
• Immune health and recovery of chemotherapy patients
• Circulatory health - which also may help with leg an extremity pain and/or tingling
• Brain health and memory function
• Reducing the symptoms of Schizophrenia
• Free-radical fighting antioxident
• Energy enhancement and stimulant (without caffeine)

A note of caution:

Because ginkgo can increase blood flow, it's advised that you avoid ginkgo if you have a bleeding disorder, are pregnant or looking to become pregnant, or are on blood thinning medicines.

There are other medicines that may interact, if you are on any medication or have health issues, check with your doctor before you try ginkgo.

Avoid taking ginkgo when you are breastfeeding, as it may pass into your milk and trigger an allergic reaction for the baby.

The first time you try ginkgo tea, have only a little bit to make sure you're not allergic. 

How I use ginkgo tea

I have personally found ginkgo tea to be effective against headaches, especially tension headaches, "vision-based headaches (like looking at a screen too long), and ophthalmic migraines (but sadly not full migraines).

I also find it to be a very mild stimulant, like a weaker version of ginseng. 

And honestly, it does wonders against mensural cramps, equal in it's effectiveness at reducing pain to a couple of extra-strength ibuprofen. However, I don't find the effects to last as long as over the counter medicines. In my experience, the tea's effectiveness starts to wear off after about 40-60 minutes after I drink it. 

Since ginkgo tea isn't something you should be drinking constantly, I don't find it to be something I can 

The gorgeous yellow color of the dried tea is almost too vibrant to be believed

How to make golden ginkgo leaf tea 

The most common way to benefit from the natural health benefits of gingko biloba is to use the golden autumnal leaves as a tea. This is best done with dried leaves. Depending on the size of the holes in your infuser, you might want to remove the stems before you dry the ginkgo. If the holes are large enough in size, the stems can come out into the tea. They are easier to remove when the leave is fresh. 

You definitely want to increase the surface area, so the water absorbs all of the benefit of the leaves. For dried leaves, this is best done by breaking up the leaf, either by hand, or with a mortar and pestle. If you're feeling really ambitious, dried leaves can be ground in a coffee or spice grinder, this will maximize your yield. 

I generally use about a teaspoon in my infuser and let it steep in very hot water, just under boiling, for about a minute to a minute and a half. 

Steeped on it's own, gingko leaf tea is a pale yellow color with green undertones.  The flavor is mellow, mild and faintly floral.  I would best describe it as tasting like marshmallows (the candy, not the plant) without any sugar. That's a hard thing to picture, I know, because sweet is the overwhelming flavor we associate with marshmallows. But if you try this tea you'll see what I mean. 

You can also mix it in with green tea, or with herbal tea blends. Some that I recommend giving a try: hibiscus, rose hip, any mint tea, ginger. Most any flavor will work, but the flavor of the ginkgo tends to get masked. If you really like the ginkgo flavor, just drink it on it's own.

Greek style greenbriar with tomatoes, potatoes and lemon (lathera)

Greenbriar. I know, I said it was an early to mid-spring forage, since you only want to eat the tender new growth. 

Here's the thing, if you cut it back, it will continue to put out new growth throughout the spring and even into the dog days of summer, where in Texas the heat gets over 105. Which is great because not a whole lot else grows in these conditions. 

Best of all, I don't even have to be the one to cut it back, the city of Plano does it for me. Since greenbriar (Smilax species) are troublesome, weedy vines that grow like wildfire and have thorns, the local cities and towns cut them back from parks and trails all season long, creating new growth every couple of weeks. 

Now, in the spring when this stuff is growing in its natural season, I can usually pull 2 backpacks full out of local nature preserves every week. This growth is a lot less abundant, since it only comes from where the plants have been cut. Still its a nice meal's worth every month or so, when little else is growing. And anyway, greenbriar is one of my favorite foods to forage, I find it very versatile. 

Once blanched, I find that the flavor of greenbriar most closely resembles fresh, young green beans. I don't really like to eat it without first blanching, as it has an unpleasant, sour "swamp water" taste that I don't enjoy. For this reason I've never been able to roast it to my satisfaction. In any other way, I will prepare it as I prepare green beans, though for whatever reason my mind leans heavily towards mediterranean flavors for greenbriar. 

Today's dish is a foraged take on Lathera, a healthy vegan casserole (vegetarian if you add feta cheese) of tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, onion, lemon, fresh herbs and lots of garlic. It comes together very quickly, and all in one pot for easy clean-up. Served with rice, couscous, quinoa, pita or crusty bread it can be a main course,  and you can add meat if you like (I like it with ground turkey), though I've chosen not to here. You could also use it as a side for a meat main. 

Traditionally, this dish should be swimming in olive oil, but if you are trying to cut back on fats it tastes great with significantly less. I've chosen to substitute most of the olive oil for stock instead. 

Greek style greenbriar lathera

Serves 4 as a main course, 6 as a side dish

3 cups chopped greenbriar

3 cups potatoes chopped into bite-sized pieces

4 cups tomatoes chopped into bite-sized pieces, or mini tomatoes

1 cup of diced onion

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 lemon, zested and juiced

1/2 cup of roughly chopped parsley

1/2 cup of vegetarian broth or stock*

1/2 cup of kalamata olives, optional

Olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sugar, optional

Feta cheese, quinoa, couscous, rice or pita bread for serving, optional

1. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil and add in chopped potatoes. Boil until you can just stick a fork into them. Add in the greenbriar and blanch for a 30 seconds to a minute. Drain and run over with cold water to stop the cooking process. 
2. Add olive oil to a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add in the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add in the garlic and cook until fragrant. 
3. Add in the tomatoes, olives, stock/broth, and the lemon juice and zest and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste-test. If it's too acidic, you may want to add some sugar--I didn't think mine needed it. If needed, add salt and black pepper. 
4. Stir in the parsley, then add in the greenbriar and potatoes. Reduce to a low simmer. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until potatoes are fully cooked. 
5. Optional: sprinkle with feta cheese, and serve with quinoa, couscous, rice or bread. 

* I used my favorite "Better than Bouillon" for my stock. I chose the roasted garlic flavor. If you use a homemade stock, you might need to add extra salt to the dish. 

Pickled wood ear mushroom relish and how to use it. From foraged wild mushrooms.

My pickled wood ear mushroom relish on grilled Polish sausage with 2 kinds of mustard, grilled peppers and caramelized onions. It tastes as good as it looks!

Wood ear mushrooms are generally regulated exclusively to Asian cuisine, where they are revered as both food and medicine. A Google search will reveal recipes for hot and sour soup, spicy Sichuan salad and the occasional stir-fry.

All great recipes (I've shared my version of hot and sour and Sichuan salad before), but I had to wonder: is there a way for this easy-to-identify wild mushroom to enter main-stream American cuisine?

Wood ear mushroom (also known as tree ear, jelly ear and Latin name: Auricularia auricula), faces a couple of huge challenges.

First, it looks like this:

Despite their unappetizing appearance, wood ear mushrooms have
no flavor, and absorb the taste of whatever you cook them with. 

And second, it has a weird, gelatinous, crunchy texture.

But taste? It doesn't taste bad, in fact, it doesn't really taste like anything. Which is what gave me the idea to pickle it and create a relish.

After all, a good relish is crunchy (wood ear: check) and absorbs the flavors of the vinegar and spices (wood ear: check). Why a relish over a traditional snack pickle? I'm not sure, except I was bored with just pickling things, and I also felt the thin flesh of the wood ear wouldn't hold up as well as a snack food.

The important thing is that they came out great!

Easy 30 minute greenbriar ratatouille. Vegan, paleo, low carb, gluten-free, and low fat.

So clearly I've been on a Mediterranean kick lately, with a cleavers pesto last week (I've been enjoying the left-overs since), and a thistle Greek salad the other day. So when I was looking at an ENORMOUS haul of greenbriar shoots, it's really no surprise that my mind turned to ratatouille.

Ratatouille is a French dish, usually served in the summer because it's loaded with summer veggies: summer squash (zucchini/yellow squash), eggplant, and tomatoes. But it comes from the Provonce region, on the Mediterranean, where the cities of Marseille and Nice are located. It's a hearty, rustic stew, that just happens to be vegan, low carb, low calorie, low fat, dairy free, gluten-free and paleo; though it's often served with bread, you could also eat it as a side dish for meat, or over polenta or pasta.

The spirit of ratatouille is to make a healthy meal out of what's seasonally available, and while tomatoes aren't exactly in season, I did have a ton of spring greenbriar, so I decided to go for it. This dish involves caramelizing the onions, and since I enjoyed the greenbriar caramelized as a pizza topping last year, I thought this would be a slam dunk! It was fantastic, even my husband liked it, and he doesn't like REGULAR ratatouille! Best of all, the greenbriar cooks a lot faster than the traditional eggplant, turning an hour-long prep into a meal on your table in 30 minutes!

Thick and juicy, but still tender and bendable,
these greenbriars are at the perfect stage for eating.

Greenbriars, aka Similax species, are only edible in the early to mid-spring, because it's the young, new growth you eat. The shoots and young leaves are quite tasty, and because of some sugars in them, they also caramelize beautifully. They are fairly easy to ID, I wouldn't quite say beginner level, but definitely for a slightly experienced novice. Please check out my post on how to ID greenbriars.

You CAN eat thistles! Plus a vegan, paleo Greek salad recipe

Thistles. Covered in spikes, bane of young children playing outside, hated by homeowners who want a perfect yard, and loathed by ranchers who fear the weed will take over the grasslands needed by their cattle. Thistles are also edible, at least in parts.

The problem, of course, is the nasty spines. They completely cover the thick, juicy stalks, and the ruffled edges of each leaf. But if you can get beyond them, the inner core of the stem, and the "mid rib" of the leaf (the light green/whitish part), are both edible, and have a texture very similar to celery. There is one downside: thistles, especially the leaf mid rib, tend to be on the bitter side.

Foraging dandelion stem, gluten-free, keto, paleo "noodles" -- for free!

Hello! Do you ever pin something on Pinterest, 100% intending to try it, when the time is right/you have the materials/the plant you need is in season, but by the time you actually can try it, you've completely forgotten about it? I'm ashamed to say that dandelion stem "noodles" are one of those for me. 

I first saw the idea over over at Wild Food Girl, and it seemed totally interesting, but my dandelions were always short-stemmed, and growing sparsely. It didn't seem worth bending over and picking for hours for piddly little 4" noodles. 

But on Sunday, I encountered a field full of densely growing dandelion patches, where I could find 6-10 stalks in every square foot, and those stalks were long! Some were over 12". Fortunately, my mind remembered the post and I decided to experiment.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but many of the stems were a foot or so long!

And oh. my. goodness. What an experiment it was! These might be my new favorite way to eat dandelions. They become perfectly soft, almost exactly the texture of top-quality ramen noodles from your favorite restaurant. The flavor is mild and fresh, very slightly bitter, and tastes incredibly wholesome.  

And why pay for trendy, low calorie noodles, when you can get these for free? They've got nearly 0 calories, low carb, no sugar, no fat, and are gluten-free, keto and paleo!

Best of all, they extend the dandelion harvest even farther! I picked these from dandelion heads that had already gone to seed, long after the greens are good, and even after the flowers. Harvesting these stems extends dandelion season by a week or two; totally awesome, when you consider how nutritious dandelions are for you!

Dandelion stem "noodle" recipe:

Bring dandelion stems to boil in a pot of lightly salted water. Boil for about 7 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and serve as you would any other kind of noodle. Enjoy!