Lentil Soup with Lamb’s Quarters

This is a delicious soup thanks to Michael and Georgette at the Edible Plant Project's first cooking class. It's a fabulous meal in a bowl - with or without bread and cheese! It is packed with protein and nutrients. And of course deliciousness.

• 1 large vidalia onion
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large handfuls lamb’s quarters
• 1 lb of small whole green lentils *
• About 2 pints of water
• 1 large or 2 medium size zucchini
• Garlic powder (or fresh garlic)
• Cumin powder
• ginger powder
• tony chachere’s creole seasoning
• 1 lemon

Chop the onions and caramelize them in the olive oil (with chopped garlic if using fresh) in a large pot.
Pour in the lentils and water and bring to a boil.
Add the cumin and ginger and simmer for about half an hour.
Add more water depending on how thick or thin you want your soup.
Chop the zucchini into chunks and strip the lamb's quarters off the stems.
Add both to the pot and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
Add the creole seasoning to taste (salt can make lentils tough when cooked with them so save this add at the end) and stir well.
Turn off the heat and add the juice of 1 lemon.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of fresh herbs if you have some lying around - and a wedge of lemon on the side.

Trader Joe’s Whole Green Lentils get an A grade from fooducate

Learn more about Lamb's Quarters 
Buy Lamb's Quarters seeds here.

A Lamb's Quarters Branch

Ready for Stripping

Seasonings!

Okinawa Sweet Potato with Peaches and Cream

I had some of the mashed Okinawa Sweet Potatoes left over and a lot of peaches on the tree looking for a home. This is what came about. It serves 1-2 people.

Vegans can make it with soy cream and vegetarians with regular cream. It tastes just as unbelievably good as it looks.

Ingredients:

1 cup Mashed Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato
4 - 6 fresh peaches, peeled and quartered
1 cup Silk Soy Creamer (usually used for coffee) or Cream
1 tbsp Corn starch
1 tbsp Sugar (or more to taste)

Place the peeled and quartered peaches around the cooked mashed sweet potatoes in a pyrex bowl and cook them together in the microwave on high for about 5 minutes. As they cool a little mix the sugar and corn starch with the Silk Soy Creamer and boil that in the microwave until it thickens. Spoon the cream mix on top of the cooked peaches and sweet potato and serve.

Mine didn't get a chance to cool quite long enough. I burnt my mouth eating it still hot but it was worth it! This dessert would be stupendous with vanilla ice cream!

Campfire Dan

Mashed Okinawa Purple Sweet Potato

The Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato has a lovely purple flesh just full of those same antioxidants you find in blueberries. Freshly cut it is a light bluish-rose with white streaks. It darkens as it cooks to a deep purple. The flavor is delicately sweet with none of the carroty taste of orange sweet potatoes. It is a favorite at Hawaiian luaus so it is sometimes called "Hawaiian Sweet Potato". The plant grows rampant like most viney sweet potatoes (it is definitely not a "bush" type) so it is a nice ground cover.

This recipe is probably too simple to call a recipe. But then again, most everything I cook is rather simple or I wouldn't cook it. And it is vegetarian - or can be vegan if you prefer.

Ingredients:
One large Purple Sweet Potato or a few small ones
Vegan or other margarine or cheddar cheese or vegan cheese sauce.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into cubes.

Microwave with a bit of water in a covered microwave-safe glass bowl. You can also boil them but that loses some of the antioxidants in the cooking water. Mash and serve with vegan or regular margarine. For non-vegan vegetarians melted cheddar cheese is a remarkably tasty topping for this sweet potato. You can also make a quick vegan cheese sauce that goes well with this dish. Just add some vegetarian nutritional yeast (the stuff with B-12) to vegan margarine and heat in the microwave. Pour over the mashed potatoes when serving.

You can see from the picture of the final mashed product that this sweet potato is stupendous for coloring up the holiday table. Think mounds of orange and purple mashed sweet potato side by side with maybe a tad of deep red cranberry sauce on the plate as a garnish.

I have also made purple sweet potato chips from them (slice thin and deep fry). The possibilities are endless. There are all sorts of on-line recipes for this lovely tuber since it is so popular in Japan and Hawaii. Search for Hawaiian, Okinawan, Japanese or Purple Sweet Potato Recipes. There is even an ice cream recipe that uses this instead of the tropical yam "Ube." An interesting recipe I found recently is purple sweet potato pie with caramelized macadamia nuts at the online magazine Asiance: http://asiancemagazine.com/nov_2006/200611/ingredient_for_the_holidays_okinawan_purple_sweet_potatoes
Sounds incredible but way too complicated for my klutzy kitchen skills.

I grow these anywhere I want to smother weeds and they seem to grow fine here just north of Gainesville. If I leave them in the ground too long voles eat them and all I get when I dig are big succulent empty peels (curses, voled again!)

If you don't grow your own you can sometimes find this sweet potato locally at the Chun Ching market in Gainesville on NW 8th Avenue near NW 6th Street. It is also available by the crate from Mellissa's Produce (http://www.melissas.com/). But the ones from these sources I've tried are irradiated so you won't be able to get cuttings from then that will grow.

Some health food stores and Asian food stores offer purple sweet potato powder which is supposed to be good for the purple ice cream recipes but fresh is always better!

Campfire Dan

Sour Orange Ice Cream

It was a friend's birthday potluck today, coincidentally it was Ellen's actually birthday yesterday so it was lovely to celebrate with cake and friends - in the sun - with a plethora of delicious dishes. I decided to make an ice cream to accompany the birthday cake. 

I started wondering about adapting the Sour Orange Pie filling to make into an ice cream. I looked on line for ice cream recipes that used condensed milk and eggs but none involved cooking the eggs. I didn't like the idea of making ice cream with raw eggs so decided to make a quick 'custard' with the milks and yolks and to use that as my base.

I thawed a couple of sour orange blocks from the freezer and mixed them in. It could not have been easier - or more delicious. 

Ingredients:
6 large egg yolks
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
pinch of salt
1 cup half and half
1 cup whole milk
2 cups sour orange juice
1/4 cup orange zest  

Put the half & half, milk, condensed milk, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat.
While it is heating whisk the egg yolks in a ceramic or glass mixing bowl and then pay attention to the pan, stirring fairly frequently to make sure it doesn't stick or burn.
When bubbles start to form around the edges, remove from the heat.
Pour 1/2 of the warm milk mixture onto the yolks in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly.
Pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan and whisk again.
Heat the mixture over a low heat, and barely simmer, stirring constantly, until it thickens - or until it registers 165°F (about 5 minutes).
Strain the mixture into a large (ceramic or glass) mixing bowl and cool in the fridge for several hours or overnight.
Cover it once it has cooled down otherwise the condensation will drip back into the custard and add 'water' to it.
Add two cups of sour orange juice and at least 1/4 cup of very finely grated zest (use a microplane, NOT a traditional grater).
Then freeze it of course - I use a machine that I pack with salt and ice - it works great but is a pain in the butt, fiddly, messy and incredibly noisy. If you do not have a machine then pour it into a tray and take it out of the freezer every hour or two at least 3 or even 4 times, whisking it like crazy each time otherwise it will freeze into a horrid, icy block. 

The proof of the ice cream was in the eating and it proved to be a good one. Really good! So good that a friend suggested I open an ice cream parlor. I can see it now: Miranda's Lemonade & Ice Cream Stand. It would open when I had freshly made ice cream in stock and close when I'd run out. I would make it from locally grown, organic produce (including organic milk/cream and eggs!) People would bring me fruit from their garden and they would get a pot of ice cream in return. I have checked out the small professional ice cream makers already! ....

Notes:
I am sure you could make it with all milk or all half and half or you could even make it with cream. It will be lighter and more refreshing with milk and get richer and creamier the more half and half and/or cream you use. 

Pindo Palm Puree

Wash the fruit in lots of water.
Swish about to make sure no ants or other creepy crawlies end up in your dessert!
Drain.
Cut fruit from seeds, place in a pan and cover with water.
Bring to the boil and simmer until fruit is soft (15-20 mins).
Blend or process until smooth.
Push though a sieve with a wooden spoon (a cup or two at a time) to remove the fiber.

Simple Syrup

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water

Heat until sugar is dissolved. That's it!
I like to make a big jar of it and keep it in the fridge to have on hand for lemonade or for spontaneous sorbet making sessions! I tend to use white/cane sugar or half white and half soft brown as brown sugar can cause the bright colors of some fruits to become dull.

Pindo Palm Sorbet

The Butia Capitata Palm – also know as the Pindo or Jelly Palm - grows all over Gainesville. It bears several large bracts of fruit which produce 3-5 lbs of fruit each. Refreshingly tart and sweet all at the same time - the Pindo Palm fruit tastes of pineapple and apricot in equal measures with a citrusy 'finish.' The flesh is a bit fibrous which means you have spit out the fiber after you’ve chewed the fruit, but is excellent for baking – for making jelly, fruit curds and pies! It makes an incredible, tropical tasting sorbet.

Here are my top 3 favorite Pindo Palm Sorbet Recipes of this (my first) Season!

Pindo Palm Sorbet # 1
This is the one that tastes most strongly of the pindo palm fruit

2 cups cooked and strained Pindo palm puree/juice
1/2 cup sour orange or lemon juice
2 cups simple syrup (or more to taste)

Pindo Palm Sorbet # 2
This is more generally tropical tasting

2 cups cooked and strained Pindo palm puree/juice
1 cup chopped fresh pineapple **
1 cup chopped fresh mango
1/2 cup sour orange or lemon juice
3 cups simple syrup (or more to taste)

Pindo Palm Sorbet # 3
This one has a more dominant mango flavor

2 cups cooked and strained Pindo palm puree/juice
2 cups chopped fresh mango (or the best canned mango pulp *)
1/2 cup sour orange or lemon juice
3 cups simple syrup (or more to taste)

Blend and freeze!

* Indian stores have the best mango pulp in tins. My local Indian store has Alfonso pulp in big tins. Alfonsos are the King of mangos and the fruit is startlingly intense in both color and flavor.

** The pineapple we used was one we grew ourselves. The miracle of pineapples is that you pop the cut off top of a pineapple into the ground and hey presto! a couple of years later it grows into a whole new pineapple! Amazing!!