Dirty sticks and gnarly roots

Almost four months of veg boxes now, and I still get excited about opening the new box every Wednesday morning. And still almost every box has something in it that I’ve never cooked with before. This week, I had some red curly kale and surprise globe artichokes (as a replacement for leeks – nice deal!). Last week, there were dirty sticks and gnarly roots. And what do you know. They were delicious.

The dirty sticks turned out to be a vegetable more commonly known as black salsify. A first for me, but I’m hoping they will show up in my box again soon. The flavour of these couldn’t be more at odds with their appearance: they are delicate, mild, and definitely something special. Peeled and cooked the spears look like asparagus, and I think it was not just because of the visual resemblance that I thought they tasted like asparagus a bit as well. I had them with a piece of bavette steak I treated myself to, and the sticks had no problem holding their own against the grilled meat. Best meal of the week hands down.

The gnarly roots were Jerusalem artichokes. In the absence of smell as a guide you could easily mistake them for smooth-skinned ginger, but, much to my surprise, they actually did taste like artichokes, if rather less pronounced than their globe brothers. The most astonishing feat of these, though, was the hue they coloured the water over which I steamed them. One of the most stunning examples of that feeling that such a thing can surely not exist in nature. White flesh, no skin, and the water a bluish green of almost neon intensity. Fortunately the flavour was pretty out-of-this-world too.

Black salsify in a butter and lemon sauce

Inspired by a recipe in The Cranks Bible.

4–6 sticks of black salsify per person

some butter

juice of half a lemon

fresh flat-leaf parsley

First, peel the black salsify. This can be a bit tricky, since the roots tend to bleed a very sticky latex (only one of the dirty sticks gave me this treatment, but since I was stubborn and didn’t run the tap as I was peeling, it still took me five minutes to get the sticky residue off my fingers). Have a bowl of water with some lemon juice or vinegar ready, and immediately submerge every stick after peeling in order to stop it from going brown. Cut into 10cm pieces and boil or steam until tender but not bendy (5–10 minutes). Alternatively, if the sticks are thin, just give them a scrub, cut into pieces, boil or steam, then simply squeeze the root from its skin.

When the salsify is cooked, slowly melt a knob of butter with a bit of olive oil. Add the salsify, and a good squeeze of lemon, salt and black pepper to taste. Cook for a couple of minutes until the salsify is hot, then serve with the reduced sauce and some torn flat-leaf parsley sprinkled on top.

Super delicious with a mild smooth root veg mash and thinly sliced grilled steak.

Jerusalem artichoke salad with spinach and bacon

Jerusalem artichokes

a couple slices of bacon (back or streaky)

a generous salad bowl of spinach

a small handful of flat-leaf parsley

juice of half a lemon

Peel or wash the Jerusalem artichokes, then steam for about 10–12 minutes, until just tender. Crisp the bacon in a frying pan or on a griddle, an cut in slices while still warm (if you wait till they’re cool they’ll likely shatter). Wash the spinach and cut any very big leaves into smaller pieces. For the dressing, mix some olive or hazelnut oil, lemon juice, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. For an extra citrusy kick, grate in some of the lemon zest. Cut the Jerusalem artichokes into thick slices and grill until they’re crispy on the outside (resist the temptation to move the pieces around as they cook). Mix into the salad and top with the bacon. Eat straight from the bowl with a fork only.

- Naomi

the granola type

when we started this blog, I promised myself it wouldn’t become the kind of blog where every post begins with an apology: “sorry for the lack of posts!” “I’m a bad blogger, I know.” but it’s been three weeks. sorry for the lack of posts, friends!

I’ve been making good use of my time though, by making about six batches of this granola. not that that took up all of the three weeks, in fact, actually preparing it took very little time. and then it just needed to sit in the oven for a bit.

time was also spent reading about this idea/challenge, to halve the grocery budget for the month, while still eating well - eating whole foods, lots of fresh veg, all the good stuff. I haven’t set myself such a challenge (yet), but it was interesting to see what kind of tricks people used to spend less money on food. the number one thing that everybody named: make a menu plan for the week. that way, you don’t buy food on a whim, and you’ll end up with less veggies in the fridge dying a slow and useless death. we've been trying it for a couple of weeks now, and it really works. it feels good to waste less (I hate chucking out food, but somehow it always just seemed to happen - going through the fridge and finding another lifeless paprika. or worse.), and frankly, to not always have to think about what we’re going to eat at the last minute. I can imagine it won’t work that way for everybody, that it might feel boring and inflexible - and there have been a fair few times when there has been a change in The Plan here. but there’s something about the easiness of even having a plan that’s working for me, right now.

the subject of money and the money spent on food is complicated and touchy. let me just say one thing: what I loved about the way heather writes about this budget challenge is the way she approached it, from the point of a sense of abundance rather than from the viewpoint of deprivation. making this granola might not be the cheapest food ever. but I sure like spending that money at the healthfood store better than giving it to Kellogg’s.

chocolate granola

adapted from here

heat the oven up to 150 degrees celsius.

mix 300 gr oat flakes, 65 gr chopped almonds, 50 gr spelt puffs (or rice puffs, or millet puffs, whichever are easily available to you) and 65 gr pumpkin seeds. spread out onto a lined baking tray.

in a small pan, heat up 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup honey, 2 tablespoons soft brown sugar, 1 tablespoon butter or oil, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of real vanilla. let the butter and the sugar melt. then pour the mixture over the oat flakes, and stir to combine.

put in the oven for about 45 minutes. stir every once in a while, to make sure everything bakes evenly.

let cool completely, then decant into a glass container (or, in our house, in a huge old tupperware), and add 80 gr chopped dark chocolate and a handful of raisins.

this recipe is pretty adaptable. you can use 2/3 cup maple syrup instead of the water and honey, add some coconut flakes, experiment with the nuts or seeds you put in, maybe substitute dried cranberries for the raisins... enjoy!

- anne

Action to follow

Lots of things going on, but we haven’t forgotten about Anenna! Tomorrow two brand new posts. We can’t wait to be back!