recipe – How to Cook a Weed

Acorn Bread

December 2, 2015December 2, 2015 Mallory O'Donnell1 Comment

Acorn Bread

Perhaps the quintessential first dish to make using acorns, a simple acorn bread with a 50/50 ratio of acorn meal to white or wholemeal flour is a great way to really taste the flavor of the acorn meal. It doesn’t matter whether you use hot-leached or cold-leached acorn meal, just that it is very finely ground.

A light, moist, soft loaf with a very crispy almost cracker-y crust. If you’re feeling decadent you could turn it into a bread pudding, but I enjoy it as is, especially hot from the oven with just a dab of salted butter or jam made from wild berries. Hickory syrup and a touch of molasses really make the difference, both of those flavors combining well with the earthiness of acorns.

My method for hot-leaching acorns to obtain acorn meal is here.

Whisk together :

2 cups acorn meal
2 cups bread flour
4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk together :

1 egg or egg substitute
1/2 cup milk, whey or rice milk
1 tbs molasses
1/4 cup hickory or maple syrup
3 tbs olive oil

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir to combine, and pour into a greased loaf pan or cast iron skillet. Place the pan in a 400° oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

Pickled Blueberries

July 12, 2015July 12, 2015 Mallory O'DonnellLeave a comment

Fill a quart jar nearly to the top with freshly-picked, clean blueberries, wild or grown.

In a small saucepan, combine and heat until sugar and salt are dissolved :

1 cup seasoned rice vinegar

1 tbs. sugar or honey

1 tsp salt

Add one or more of the following :

1 sliced chile

Several crushed whole cloves of garlic or 2 tbs bulbils of field garlic

Lemon or orange peel or chunk of preserved lemon

1 tsp whole peppercorns, white or black or sichuan

1 small cinnamon stick or 1 tsp vietnamese cinnamon

several cloves or blades of mace

you get the idea.

Pour mixture over the blueberries, allow to cool, the refrigerate for 24 hours, open and serve either chilled or at room temperature. Great as a snack or garnish.

Mugwort Soup, Potage or Cream

May 6, 2015May 6, 2015 Mallory O'DonnellLeave a comment

This is a charming spring soup that can be prepared and served three different ways. It can be a rough country soup, a robust puree or a subtle and warming cream soup. Either way, it has a very unique flavor.

Blanch in boiling, salted water for one minute :

8 cups loosely packed mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) leaves, collected early to mid-spring

Drain, rinse immediately with cold water, then squeeze free of liquid and allow to dry.

Bring to a simmer :

8 cups chicken or strong (but not roasted) vegetable stock

2 fresh bay leaves (optional)

Add :

1 1/2 tsp ground coriander seed

1 tsp ground ginger or several thin slices of fresh ginger root

freshly ground white or black pepper to taste

4 oz celery, diced

Simmer for 5 minutes, then add :

12 oz potato, peeled (or not) and diced

Simmer for 20 minutes, then add :

The prepared mugwort, finely chopped

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat.

The soup can be served as is. If that is your plan, you may wish to make the chopping of the celery and potato more uniform. If I am serving it like this I will keep it more rustic, like a rough country soup made quickly at the end of the working day. In fact, that is exactly what this is, a soup that takes only an hour or so in total and most of that spent simmering.

Alternatively, you can puree it. Pureeing will give you a complex bright olive green soup that is an intriguing first course for a spring meal. It’s equally great as just plain eating, but it has a mysterious flavor that might have your local foodies scratching their beards to describe. I like to think of it as a mix between parsley and sage, but not quite that… although handling the plant itself also makes me think of those two herbs.

Another option would be to puree, then add :

2 tbs butter

1/2 cup light cream

This makes for an even more elusive tasting soup, which can be garnished very nicely with bright violet flowers and bittercress pods, if you like, or forsythia blossoms and chives. A perfect soup from early to mid-spring.

Japanese Knotweed Simple Syrup

April 26, 2015 Mallory O'Donnell2 Comments

Combine in a large saucepan :

8 oz. young japanese knotweed shoots, washed and roughly chopped

4 cups sugar

4 cups water

Bring to a boil, cut heat and simmer for 10 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to sit until cool.

Makes a great base for knotweed margaritas, knotweed mojitos, etc. Excellent made simply into a knotweed soda or knotweed and tonic, very refreshing going into the warm days of late spring and early summer. Can be frozen into knotweed granitas or sorbettos, or combined with other fruits, ices or creams for sweet and sour treats.

While very often I like to use japanese knotweed as a savory vegetable, in simple syrup form it is an excellent addition to a sweet dish using fruit or cream. It has a sour but not puckery sour taste and sweetness from the knotweed as well as the sugar.

Tofu, Bok Choy & Fermented Corn Tacos

March 21, 2015 Mallory O'DonnellLeave a comment

These are exceedingly simple. Perhaps too simple to even need a recipe for. Nonetheless I will present it in the hopes that it will inspire other simple improvised tacos.

Heat over medium in a large skillet :

2 tbs. neutral vegetable or seed oil

Add :

5 oz. onion, diced

Sautée for three to four minutes, until softened, then add :

8 oz bok choy or baby bok choy, leaves chopped and stems diced

Sautée for two to three minutes, until softened, then add :

a few cloves of garlic, minced

one or two small red chiles, chopped into small dice

Sautée for another minute, then add :

1 tbs Shao Xing wine, cooking wine or sherry

a few dashes of Maggi or Golden Mountain seasoning

a few pinches of salt

1 tsp. of cumin powder

freshly ground black pepper, if desired

ground cayenne or hot chili powder, if desired

Stir and add :

1/2 lb firm tofu, cut into about six or eight pieces

Sautée for about two to three minutes, enough to warm the tofu through. Break the tofu into pieces of whatever consistency is preferred with a flat-ended wooden or silicone spatula. I usually like a little variety.

Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup of fermented corn. Regular corn can be substituted.

Serve on freshly-made or store (or better yet, taqueria) bought corn, flour or whole-wheat tortillas.

Accompany with three or more of the following :

Fresh cilantro leaves

Yogurt or sour cream (or vegan substitute)

Red salsa, fresh or cooked

Green salsa, tomato or tomatillo

Guacamole or chunked avocado

Finely shredded lettuce

Thinly sliced salted cucumber

Finely shredded raw cabbage

Pickled onions, sliced thin

Wedges of limes or lemons

Fermented tomatillo slices

Sweet hot pickled carrots

Finely chopped scallions

Spiced pickled daikon threads

&c.

Thai Black Rice Salad with Tuna and Kale

March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 Mallory O'Donnell1 Comment

Combine in a mixing bowl :

1 cup cooked thai black rice (recipe below)

a few pinches of salt

freshly ground black pepper (optional)

2 tsp furikake seasoning or 1 tbs sesame seeds (optional)

1 tbs flax seeds (optional)

2 oz thinly-sliced curly kale (or more if desired)

1 5 oz can of high quality tuna

5 oz celery, finely diced

4 spring onions, chopped (optional)

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp vinegar (seasoned rice, sherry or cider work best)

juice of 1/2 lime

Toss the ingredients together, taste and adjust for oil, vinegar and lime juice, salt and other seasonings. Serve immediately or within a few hours. If kept on the dry side and not overdressed with oil, it will last a several days.

Thai black rice is often labelled “sweet rice” or “sticky rice,” and while it is technically glutinous, it is a whole grain rice, so is not “sticky” in the textural sense. It isn’t sweet either–it tastes like a combination of brown rice and North American wild rice, with the texture of the latter or al dente orzo pasta. The best way to cook it is by steaming. Soak the rice for 8 hours or overnight in cool water, or for 2 hours in 120° water, drain and steam for 35 minutes. The grains are pretty large so you can use a wire mesh sieve. I prefer to wrap the rice in bamboo leaf, it keeps the rice perfectly moist and imparts a subtle, pleasing flavor.

Furikake is a popular Japanese seasoning mix for rice, usually with seaweed, sesame seeds, salt and sugar. It often contains bonito flakes and there are variations with salmon, miso powder, wasabi, egg, shiso, and even kimchi flavor! It can be made at home as well, and done so with fresh seaweed if one has access to a dehydrator. For the purposes of this recipe, sesame seeds or a mix of freshly broken-up seaweed and sesame seeds can be used to substitute.

This makes for a light, refreshing salad for the late winter and early spring. A great lunch on its’ own or as part of a series of mixed salads or snacks. I have deliberately left this salad a bit underseasoned – but one could easily add one or more complementary fresh herbs or dried spices, such as celery seed, anise seed, cilantro, parsley, dill, paprika, chile pepper or fresh chiles, cumin, and so on… Besides tasting wonderful, this is an extremely healthy dish with three nutritional power houses in black rice, kale and tuna. On the subject of tuna–make sure to use a high quality tuna for this dish, preferably one packed in oil or without any liquid (such as the excellent tuna processed by Wild Planet). Black rice and Furikake will be at any self-respecting Asian market and many of the more upscale all-purpose supermarkets.

Mushrooms & Leeks

March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 Mallory O'DonnellLeave a comment

Heat in a wok or large skillet over high heat :

2 tbs light oil such as sunflower, vegetable or shallot oil

When the oil is quite hot, add :

6 oz leeks, cut into 1/2″ slices

Stir-fry for about a minute, until leeks begin to soften. Add :

.5 oz garlic, minced

Stir-fry for thirty seconds, then add :

1 oz scallions, chopped

Stir-fry for thirty seconds, then add :

1-2 chiles, finely chopped

Stir-fry for thirty seconds, then add :

A splash of shao xing cooking wine or sherry

Stir the aromatics and cook for thirty seconds, then add :

1 lb. button mushrooms, cut lengthwise into 2, 3 or 4 pieces (as illustrated below)

Toss mushrooms and aromatics as best as possible for one minute, then add :

2 tbs shao xing wine or sherry

2 tbs stock of any kind

A few dashes of Maggi or Golden Mountain seasoning (or Worcestershire for non-vegetarians)

Continue to cook over high heat, covering for about two minutes, then uncovering again.

This will generate a lot of liquid and start to soften the mushrooms. Now you want to braise them, stirring frequently and keeping the cover off. By the time the liquids have been cooked away, the mushrooms should be close to tender. Take care not to overcook them, you want some texture in this dish. If too much liquid has escaped, add more stock or a mix of stock and shao xing or sherry. Keep stirring.

When all the liquid is absorbed and the mushrooms are tender but not soft, turn into a serving dish.

Garnish with :

Ground sumac and/or clove, freshly ground if possible.

Serve either hot or at room temperature. This is an excellent addition to a tapas or meze platter, or served as a side dish to accompany a more traditional main course. The end result can also be chopped once cooked into more of a tapenade, perhaps with a dash of added olive oil, accompanied with bread or fresh raw vegetables.

Naturally, wild mushrooms can be substituted for the cultivated ones. I would think a similar textured-mushroom like a blewit or field mushroom would be most adequate.

Mushroom cutting technique below. I know, right, so advanced. But if you make nice thick slices like this, they will retain a good texture even after being subjected to a braising like the above.

Tomato Masala Soup

March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 Mallory O'DonnellLeave a comment

A simple, deeply-satisfying soup for the end of winter, spiced with a freshly made masala mix. You can use this same basic mix in other masala recipes, but this one is designed specifically for this soup. First, make the spice mix. Then grind the mix. Then begin the soup.

Masala Mix :

Heat a dry skillet over medium to medium-low heat.

Add :

1 tbs cumin seed

1 tbs coriander seed

1 cinnamon stick or few pieces of cassia

seeds from 6 pods of green cardamom

1 tsp black peppercorns

4 cloves

Toast the dry spices together for a few minutes, until strong and aromatic but not browned.

Grind spices together in mortar and pestle or spice grinder until no longer coarse.

Heat a large saucepan or sauteuse over medium heat and add :

6 tbs butter or 4 tbs ghee or oil (you may substitute oil to make this dish vegan, otherwise butter is recommended)

Cook butter for one or two minutes and add :

Ground masala mix

Cook for one minute, then add :

9 oz onion, sliced thin

Cook for three minutes or until softened, then add :

4 oz shallots, sliced thin

Cook for three minutes or until softened, then add :

1/2 oz garlic, crushed and chopped fine

Cook for one minute then add :

3-4 oz carrot (about one medium carrot), grated

Cook for three minutes then reduce the heat to low.

Cook the vegetables for as long as possible over a low heat, uncovered, until they are mostly softened and succulent.

Add :

Tomatoes from one 28 oz. can of tomatoes

Break the tomatoes into the rest of the vegetables with a flat spatula or wooden spoon.

Bring the heat to medium.

Cook for a few minutes, breaking the tomatoes up as much as possible.

Bring the heat to medium-high and add :

Juice from one 28 oz. can of tomatoes

1 quart rich stock of any kind or water

Simmer slowly for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This should cook down to make a little over a quart of really rich soup. You may also wish to add less liquid to save on cooking time, although some at least should be retained or what we have is a sauce, not a soup. As it stands, this is a nicely rich soup for winter or early spring, and can be mellowed out / lengthened with a little bit of fresh yogurt, stirred in just so. There is plenty heat for most in the pepper and spices, but for those who must always add chile, dried chiles can be added to the spice mix. You may also wish to add fresh herbs – though I am always a fan of that, I feel it tends to spoil some of the warm simplicity of the soup. A better direction to go in would be to stir in cooked lentils or rice or small pasta and make it more of a stew.

I’ll keep taking it as is. Okay, maybe some yogurt…

Key : The key to this recipe is to take it slow, man.

Crispy Mac & Cheese With Artichokes, Fried Shallots & Panko

February 21, 2015February 21, 2015 Mallory O'DonnellLeave a comment

Macaroni and cheese is an iconic dish, indelibly associated in most peoples’ minds with American Southern or comfort cooking. Like many classic American dishes, its’ origins lie elsewhere–in this case Italy and France, via England. Leaving aside powdered and boxed versions, the idea of binding cooked pasta with a Mornay sauce (essentially a Bechamel with cheese) and baking it in the oven is at least a couple hundred years old.

To my mind there are exactly two kinds of macaroni and cheese : crispy and creamy. Endless additions and variations on these themes are all well and good as long as the results play out as either something crusty and crunchy and cheesy and dry or something thick and creamy and cheesy and soft. Inbetween measures are to be despised, as are most attempts to capture the best of both worlds by having a crusty top and soft interior. In my experience, such efforts are either doomed to end in failure or dissatisfaction.

There are no shortcuts to a proper mac & cheese of either variety. Here we have the crusty, crispy kind. The kind that, when reheated, is dry (but in a good way) and chewy (but in a good way), bound with just enough sauce to keep everything toothsome but not to detract from the tactile pleasures of a proper crunchy mac.

The first thing to do is cook your pasta. You will want to make a pound of pasta, boiled until al dente or perhaps slightly stiffer than that. As for choice of pasta, I like to use a long pasta like thin ziti or cavatappi or penne in this type of mac & cheese. For the creamy variety, I would choose traditional elbows or small shells or orecchiette. These considerations have more to do with surface area than anything else. Boil the pasta, drain it and cool by washing it with cold running water. Then toss the pasta with :

2 tbs butter or 1 tbs butter and 1 tbs shallot oil

This is the only step that can reliably be done ahead of time in my mind. Some may disagree, but I find that a cooked and cooled bechamel or mornay becomes a bit stodgy and doesn’t integrate with the pasta very well. You can use pre-cooked pasta but from this point on the results will be most delectable if everything is composed and integrated at once. This mac and cheese is truly superior when first pulled from the oven, but also makes an excellent dish to be reheated and served again.

Next you will want to make the mornay sauce, and get the oven preheated to 425°. An excellent creamy mac can be made on a stovetop, but for this variety a nicely hot oven is required.

For the Mornay sauce :

Warm in a small saucepan :

2 cups milk, whole preferred

Melt in a medium saucepan :

2 tbs butter

Add to the butter :

2 tbs all purpose flour

Cook, stirring or whisking, for two minutes or more (this goes a long way towards removing the raw flour taste)

Slowly incorporate the warm milk into the sauce, a quarter cup at a time. You may whisk if you like, I usually use a flat-ended wooden spoon and then move to a whisk once about half of the milk has been added.

Once all the milk has been added, cook the sauce over a low heat for about 15 or 20 minutes. This will remove the rest of the floury taste from the sauce, as well as thickening it a bit.

Add, stirring :

4 oz. medium sharp cheddar cheese, grated

2 tsp hot paprika (smoked if possible) (optional)

2 tsp sweet paprika (optional)

2 tsp dry mustard powder (optional)

salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste (optional)

Once all these ingredients are incorporated, toss with the cooked pasta, and add :

1 cup of cooked artichoke hearts or drained marinated artichoke hearts, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fried shallots, roughly chopped

Toss until well combined.

In a small skillet, heat :

1 tbs butter or shallot oil

Add :

1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs

Toast, stirring, for a few minutes.

Place the cooked, sauced pasta in an oven-safe casserole dish. I like to use a natural stoneware dish for this.

On top of the pasta, spread out thinly :

2 oz grated cheese of your choice (parmesan, a sharper cheddar or cheese with jalapenos or habaneros are all good choices. You may use the same variety used in the mornay sauce, but I find it is more interesting to add some variety here.)

A further 1/4 cup or so of fried shallots

The toasted panko

Place the dish in the oven. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes, then remove the pan and lightly press down on the surface of the mac & cheese with a wooden spoon, allowing air to escape from the dish, which should be bubbling and hot. Return the pan to the oven and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the surface is crispy and browned. You may wish to add a tablespoon or two of butter, thinly sliced and dotted on the surface of the dish.

Once the dish is browned to your satisfaction, remove it from the oven and serve.

This dish will reheat well, but you will most likely want to cover it with foil during most of the reheating process, only removing the foil for a few minutes of baking. Otherwise the mac & cheese will become too dry.

Key : The key to this recipe is in the texture, the crispy and crusty tactile taste of panko and thick, heavy-cut macaroni tossed with just enough sauce to bind the ingredients. The artichokes and shallots are added primarily for sweetness and texture.

Fermented Sriracha (Tuong Ot Sriracha)

February 19, 2015February 19, 2015 Mallory O'DonnellLeave a comment

Making a homemade version of the popular sriracha hot sauce couldn’t be any easier : a simple fermented version can be made that is far more flavorful than any commercially available one. You could also make this sauce fresh, simply omitting the fermentation stage, but I think you will find that the extra time really adds a strong depth of flavor not present in the fresh version. For such a simple preparation, this sauce has a zesty, complex taste that far outstrips the somewhat one-note heat of Huy Fong and other store-bought brands.

I like to make two versions of this sauce : one red, one green. They have quite different characteristics from each other, the red one possessing a much deeper, more complex heat and the green one a sharp, fresh heat. Neither is really superior to the other, and both are worth trying. I use the green one more often with salads and raw preparations, the red in soups and hot noodle dishes. Both are outstanding in cold noodle bowls, with the green getting the nod if I am using a lot of raw vegetables and herbs and the red if the majority of accompaniments are pickled or preserved. Fish? Green. Pork? Red. Tofu dishes? Both harmonize quite capably.

First, you will need to choose appropriate chiles. I would avoid extremely fire-y chiles like Thai bird or habanero chiles, as they tend to be somewhat overpowering in a sriracha. Remember, this sauce is almost entirely chiles with only a smattering of other seasonings. What is wanted here is a deep, resonant, complex heat, not a pain-inducing power sauce. For a green sauce, jalapenos are completely appropriate. With red, look for either fresno chiles (sometimes erroneously called red jalapenos) or hot red cherry peppers. Cherries are my favorite, they have a perfect balance of hot and sweet that shines in both this sauce and the related chile-garlic sauce known as tuong ot toi. In fact, I have grown these chiles in the past couple of years explicitly for the purpose of making these particular sauces. You will want to experiment with this recipe, using the chiles you can grow or buy locally and that suit your particular taste. My only word of advice would be to avoid being overly macho the first time you make this. Use jalapenos or medium-heat red chiles and see how you like it before stepping up the heat.

Roughly chop :

1 lb medium-hot chiles, green or red (but NOT a mix of the two), de-stemmed and NOT de-seeded

.5 oz crushed, peeled garlic (a few cloves)

Combine in a food processor with :

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1.5 oz palm sugar (regular white sugar can be substituted but the taste is inferior as well as less authentic)

Pulse until well-chopped but not liquified.

Place into a glass or plastic container, cover with a towel and allow to sit at room temperature for several days.

When the sauce begins to take on a fermented smell and begins to bubble ever so slightly (you may find this is easier to SMELL and HEAR than SEE), usually about 3 or 4 days (less in hot weather, perhaps more in cold), place in a saucepan with :

1/3 cup vinegar (I use Korean brewing vinegar for this, but white vinegar is also good. Seasoned rice vinegar and apple cider vinegar CAN be used but they impart more sweetness to the finished product.)

Bring to a low simmer and cook for five minutes or so.

Puree in a blender or food processor. If the mixture seems to thick add a spoonful or two of water, but be conservative.

Strain through a wire mesh sieve into a squeeze bottle or jar.

Use with, on and in everything.

N.B. : You may find that you have quite a lot of seeds and pulp that will not fit through the strainer. I strongly encourage you to make a fermented salsa or sambal from this remainder, you will not find that it lacks heat or flavor.