People are always asking me for recipes. I rarely follow recipes as my ingredients vary so much and I just use what I have available. However, I do follow a number of basic, mostly lacto-vegetarian recipes which I’ve evolved to my liking over the years. For instance, last night I used a) Pea shoots (erteskudd), harvested about 25cm high (before they get too coarse to use; I don’t cut them right down to the soil as they will then resprout once or twice before giving up; to do this, they must be grown in a bucket or similar in deep soil); the peas were a mixture of about twenty home grown varieties, including several heirlooms such as Norwegian Jærert and Ringeriksert). b) Swiss chard / mangold (it’s been too cold for this to regrow in the cellar where it’s planted in soil) c) Chicory “Catalogna gigante di Chioggia” (sikkori) (this had resprouted in the cellar from the roots) d) Leeks / purre (also stored in soil in the cellar) e) Yacon (sliced tubers) f) Scorzonera / scorsonnerot (sliced tubers) g) Oca (oka) (Oxalis tuberosa) h) Garlic / hvitløk i) Chili / chili j) Bulb onions / kepaløk k) golpar (ground seed of various Heracleum species; bjørnekjeks / Tromsøpalme) The roots are stir-fried first (in olive oil), then the onions are added and at the end the greens for 5-10 minutes, finally mixing in chili, salt and pepper. Served either over whole grain spelt pasta or mixed as a risotto (I use barley normally for a barlotto) with strong cheese or parmesan.
Pea shoots
Pea shoots
From bottom: swiss chard, chicory, leeks, pea shoots
Stir-fry
The roots are stir-fried first (in olive oil), then the onions are added and at the end the greens for 5-10 minutes, finally mixing in chili, salt and pepper. Served either over whole grain spelt pasta or mixed as a risotto with strong cheese or parmesan.
Today I harvested the year’s first broad beans at the Væres Venner Community Garden where KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) are developing a garden:
I also harvested the first potatoes at home…and the year’s first falafels resulted with new potatoes for dinner. The falafels were flavoured with salt, pepper, shallots, chili and golpar (ground seed of any species of Heracleum or hogweed) which gives a delicious exotic flavour!
Heracleum sibiricum gives the local variant of golpar here…most people have a local variety of hogweed to harvest, even Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) or Tromso palm (H. persicum), the latter giving the most authentic Iranian golpar spice.
The first harvest at the KVANN vegetable sanctuary garden at Væres Venner was broad beans (bondebønner) from a mixed grex and this was turned into delicious falafels that almost melt in the mouth! The year’s first falafels or hummus is a real highlight of my gardening year…and did you know that the original falafels and hummus were made using broad (fava) beans, sadly replaced by inferior (in my opinion) chick peas….and we can experience this dish fresh even in cold areas where other beans won’t grow!
AND the colour is a natural beautiful green inside….they are often made with some leafy green vegetable added to supply the greeness of the “real” falafel!
NB! Falafel doesn’t have to be ball shaped and deep fried…these are pattie shaped and shallow fried..
Ready to harvest at Være
The first harvest!
Cooked and mixed with onion, garlic, cjhili, cumin (should have been golpar!), coriander, salt and pepper, with a little egg and einkorn flour!
Fava falafel: tastewise, it doesn’t get much better than this!
I’m still alive and well after last night’s noxious pizza. I’ll explain. I used pea shoots from the living room, onion, Allium cernuum shoots harvested from the garden (I forgot to include Hablitzia shoots), garlic and chili…on top of the pizza, I added seed of Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), one of the “worst” noxious (invasive) species…
Pea shoots grown in soil on the window sill in the living room
Allium cernuum leaves can be harvested year round even when it’s -10C in the middle of the day as it was yesterday!
Allium cernuum, Chicago onion, Nodding onion (Prærieløk)
I used a whole grain emmer, spelt, rye sourdough base to the pizza (much more tasty and nutritious than standard pizza dough)
A bit overdone…the oil rich brown noxious himalayan balsam (kjempespringfrø) can be seen on top.
..I forgot the Hablitzia shoots (also fun to harvest fro the garden when it’s very cold!)
Himalayan balsam (kjempespringfrø) was the noxious element of the pizza….the seeds were used. Here from July along the Monk’s Brook in my home town Eastleigh, Hampshire!
I contributed this quiche for the Thanksgiving dinner in Hurdal, you might be able to see the word “Takk” (Thanks) written in seeds; T – alpine bistort / harerug bulbils (brown) and AKK – dark poppy seeds; with 100% coarse whole grain emmer wheat / naked barley / rye pastry, with swiss chard, chicory, spring onions, onion, garlic, chantarelle, chili, blue cheese, 5 tomatoes, Begonia and common mallow flowers +++
Thanks to my visitors Berit Børte and Ane Mari Aakernes for this “lovely” omelette this evening….dandelion flower buds and fiddleheads, ramsons, chili and Heracleum persicum spice (golpar) in the omelette!
Mainly for my friend the Extreme Chili Guy, Chris Fowler, who reportedly maintains a collection of over 1,000 chilis in South Wales, here’s an album of pictures from a little exhibition showing off the diversity of chilis at Chelsea Physic Garden this autumn!
Explosive Ember
Gelbe Kirschen (Yellow cherries)
Spaghetti
Volcano
Purple Tiger
Fish (variegated leaves)
Elephant’s Trunk
Umbrella
Cherry Bomb
Jamaican Hot
Carolina Reaper (renowned as the world’s hottest in 2013)….and I used some of this in ny dinner two nights ago…but it was a bit disappointing. Do they lost a lot of their strength after drying and storing – mine was about 2 years old
