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!!

Devil's on Horseback

Here's a recipe my mother would make for parties. It's quick and delicious finger food. Children love everything about it - especially participating in the making of them! 

Ingredients 

The same number of prunes or dates and almonds and half the number of rashers of bacon!

 

Roast whole peeled almonds dry in the oven for 15 minutes at about 325 - until golden brown.
Stir or shake them from time to time so they brown all over.
Remove from oven and cool.

Turn the oven up to 400 degrees.
Pit the prunes or dates - if they are dry soak them in freshly boiled water for 30 minutes first.

Stuff each prune or date with an almond.

Wrap tightly with half a rasher of bacon so the fat is showing. *

Secure with a tooth pick.
Pack into a foil lined tray.

Bake for 15 minutes or until crispy

 

* Strong bacon is better - Canadian or English style. Some recipes stuff the prunes with mango chutney - i have never done that and don't like the idea of it!

Lemonade!

This is the easiest, most delicious and refreshing of all home-made drinks. Ring the changes and you will never tire of it. It's also good for you. About a million times gooder than any store bought soda which has 10-11 teaspoons of sugar per can.

Basic Syrup

• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Heat the water, dissolve the sugar in it and let it cool.
Add the lemon juice. Couldn't be easier!
Store in the fridge and add water (still or sparkling) and ice to taste.
Remember – all the ones and double up for larger quantities.

Now let’s make it more delicious.

Use soft brown sugar instead of white for a wonderful flavor or half brown/half white.

Cut strips of rind off one lemon (no white pith – just thin strips of rind) and add to the syrup hot water. Leave in the syrup – the flavors will intensify. Or take out after a day or two once it's just right for you - it can get a little bitter if left in for too long.

Make it with Limes or Meyers’ Lemons for a differently delicious limey or lemony flavor.

Mint Lemonade—Bright & Fresh
Add a handful of mint leaves to the hot water. Leave in the syrup – the flavors will intensify over time or take out when it's minty enough for you.

Strawberry Lemonade—Pretty in Pink
Take a pound of fresh strawberries, wash and hull them. Chop them roughly and simmer them in a cup of water for a few minutes.
Blend or mash (a potato masher works great)
Cool and sieve (you don’t want any seeds or pulp).
Let the juice sit for an hour so any pulp can sink to the bottom. You can add it all to the lemon syrup but it will make it cloudy.
Add a cup of clear strawberry juice for each cup of lemon juice.

Prickly Pear Lemonade—Psychedelic Purple
The taste of the prickly pear is more subtle—the color is absolutely spectacular, it's hard to believe it comes from nature. You can grow prickly pears yourself or buy them in Publix, your local wholefood or latin american food store.
Cut 4 or 5 prickly pears in half and scoop their innards out into a pan.
Add a cup or so of water and simmer until the fruit softens and breaks up.
Smash with a potato masher.
Sieve to get the juice but not the seeds.
Add a cup of prickly pear juice for each cup of lemon juice.
Prickly pear 'limeade' is not such a nice color. Green + purple = a muddy purple!
Prickly Pear Limeade is not such a nice color - the green turns it a muddy purple.

Sour Orange Pie

This is key lime pie without the bitter edge, without the ghastly after-taste of citric acid that comes in every bottle of key lime juice and/or without the time-consuming work of squeezing a bagful of slippery key limes.

This is a pie to die for - it is utterly, exquisitely, eye-rollingly delicious. The crust needs a little work - it is a pecan, shortbread crust that is pretty damn good but I would like it to be a little crisper - a little more cookie-like, so that the juxtaposition between the crisp base and the soft filling create a kind of edible symphony! I achieved this one time but didn't make a note of the proportions I used. Grrr. The lovely orange flavors ring through more clearly than with a sweet orange and the rind colors it as well. One time I tried to intensify the color of the filling using prickly pear juice - I forgot that purple + white (milk) = pink and I ended up with the most disgusting looking pie in the world - the color of pepto-bismol. We ate that one with our eyes closed.

Ingredients for one large (10” pie)

The Pecan Shortcrust Base
6 oz flour
4 oz ground pecans (or chopped and toasted if you want a crunchy base)
5 oz brown sugar
5 oz cold unsalted butter
Turn the oven to 375 degrees

~Process the flour and butter lightly (or cut then rub the butter into the flour)
~Fold in brown sugar and the nuts
~Add a little ice water to make it stick together
~Pat into a buttered/floured pan. Use the bottom of a flat glass to flatten it gently.
~Bake for 30 mins or until light brown and smelling heavenly.

Set aside to cool for an hour or two. This helps with the final texture of the base – if you add the filling when it's freshly cooked the base will be softer.

While you are waiting for it to cool you can separate the egg yolks from the whites and make a batch of Pecan Meringue Kisses!!!

The Sour Orange Filling
5 large egg yolks
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup of sour orange juice
grated rind of 2 oranges
Turn the oven to 350 degrees

Blend all ingredients for 20 seconds or whisk like crazy for a good minute.
Pour into the cake pan and bake for 15 mins (to set the pie and kill the salmonella!)

Finishing Touches
Top it with some berries - in an untidy, uneven pile, or arranged carefully around the edge so every slice gets one (or more!)
A sprinkling of flowers from the garden are lovely
A mandala of small edible leaves (mint, lemon balm or cranberry hibiscus are perfect)!

Eat It!
This pie is delectable warm, delicious cold, even better the next day.
Serve it with cream and/or a raspberry coulis (fresh sauce), or chopped strawberries.
It lasts a good week in the fridge (not mine!) but remember that the crust becomes softer over time.

Working Notes!
If you prefer your pies more tart than sweet then add the juice of one lemon to ‘brighten’ it.
There’s no way around the tin of condensed milk – it’s a strange ingredient for a whole food nut but it works like nothing else.
Switch out the pecans for walnuts or hazelnuts.
The rind adds color and deepens the orange flavors in the tart. You can omit it if you like or replace the orange with lemon rind.
If you use lemon juice or rind try a Meyer’s lemon (my personal favorite) which has a slight tangerine tang to it.
Use a 'rasp' to grate the rind - it's super quick and easy and you only get the aromatic outside i.e. none of the white at all.
Use a pan with a removable side if you can – we Brits call these spring-form – I’m not sure what they are called in the US.

Pecan Kisses

When I first arrived in Gainesville I became obsessed with sour oranges. My new friend Corky had a sour orange tree in her garden - a good orange tree turned 'native' after a hurricane. Her tree was full of oranges. She had been letting them fall to the ground and rot for many years. I experimented with sour oranges - cooking nearly everything that asked for key limes - and finding Sour Orange Pie (with a pecan shortbread crust) to be a hands-down winner. I couldn't get enough oranges. She stripped her tree and I filled my freezer with one cup portions of juice and grated rind so I wouldn't get withdrawals when the sour orange season was over. Here's the problem - I made so many dishes that involved egg yolks my fridge became literally overrun with egg whites. I don't particularly like meringues so I searched for a way to make a 'cookie' that uses up the exact number of egg whites that are left over after making a fruit curd or a sour orange pie!

Here they are! Divine little dairy-and-wheat/gluten free, meringue-like cookies. They use less than half the sugar of other similar recipes. Depending on how long you cook them they are crisp and crunchy (better than biscotti!), or soft and chewy! It is impossible to eat one of them. I have known grown men to eat 10 or more in one sitting!

This recipe makes about 40 tablespoon size cookies or about 60-80 small ones and is really quick and easy to cook up!

Ingredients
5 eggs (about a cup of egg whites) at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 cup soft brown sugar
2 cups of ground pecans (or 1 cup ground and 1 cup roughly chopped)

Turn the oven on to 250 degrees
Whisk the egg whites & salt till they form soft peaks.
Add the sugar gradually and carry on whisking until the peaks are stiffer (it's possible to get stiff whites with confectioner's sugar but the flavor isn't the same).
Fold in the pecans.
Line 3 cookie sheets or pans with lightly greased parchment. *
Drop even sized spoonfuls with half inch gaps (they shouldn't spread much).

Cook for 45 minutes (for chewy cookies)
Cook for one hour or a bit longer (for crisper cookies).

* Use a flavorless oil like safflower or sunflower or canola. I often don't bother greasing the parchment - once they are cool I peel off the paper carefully so as not to leave any on the cookies!

Welcome!

Welcome to the My Recipe Blog - inspired by the Edible Plant Project in Gainesville, Florida.
I shall post my favorite recipes here - and also those I am trying out so you can help me make them better.
There'll be photos and videos and other fun stuff.
Thanks for passing by - come back soon!
Miranda