Almond-Orange Cake

Sweet Cicely the Star of this Flour-less Cake

Gerarde (The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, 1597) writes about Sweet Cicely, "It hath leaves of a very good and pleasant smell and taste like unto Chervil and something hairy, which as caused us to call it Sweet Chervil. The leaves of the Sweet Chervil are exceedingly good, wholesome, and pleasant among other sallad herbs, giving he taste of anise seed unto the rest. The seeds, eaten as a salad while they are yet green, with oyle, vinegar and pepper exceed all other sallads by many degrees, both in pleasantness of taste and sweetness of smell and wholesomeness for the cold and feeble stomachs. The roots are likewise most excellent in a salad with oil and vinegar, being first boiled, which is very good for old people that are dull and without courage."

For more information on both the cultivated Sweet Cicely (M. odorata) and the native plant (O. chilensis), visit my guest blog on Cuisine Canada .

Almond-Orange Cake

8-inch springform pan, lined with parchment paper and lightly buttered

preheat oven to 375° F

Serves 6

1-1/4 cups blanched almonds

4 eggs, separated

1 cup caster sugar, divided

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sweet cicely

grated rind and juice of 3 oranges (about 1-1/4 cups juice and 3 tablespoons rind)

1 tablespoon Anisette or other anise-flavored liqueur, optional

1. Using a food processor, chop the almonds until they are coarse. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with ½ cup of the sugar until thick. With the motor running, add the yolk mixture through the opening in the lid, processing until the mixture is thick and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the orange rind. If the mixture is too thick, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the orange juice, until it is of batter consistency.

2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the sugar over and beat until the peaks hold their shape. Fold half of the meringue into the almond mixture until just evenly mixed. Fold the other half into the almond mixture, being careful not to over mix in order to keep the air in the whites.

3. Spoon the almond mixture into the prepared springform pan. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until set in the center and a light golden color. Cool and transfer to a serving plate.

4. Make orange sauce: In a saucepan, combine orange juice and remaining sugar. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Adjust heat and lightly boil for 10 minutes, or until thickened slightly. Remove from the heat and stir in the liqueur if using. Drizzle the orange sauce over the top of the cake and let sit for 20 minutes or longer before serving.

5. To garnish, lay fresh sweet cicely leaves over the cake and sprinkle icing sugar or cocoa over the leaves to impart a leaf pattern. Garnish the serving plate with fresh sweet cicely leaves.

Rubarb's Ready

Rhubarb is Rarin to Go

In Bashia's garden, from this taken on April 16, 2009

...to this, taken today!

stay tuned for rhubarb recipes.

Wild Leeks

Wild Leek Loaf

Green and garlicky and fresh, wild leeks are going to star in my potluck contribution to the Women's Culinary Network meeting in Toronto on Tuesday evening. I am looking forward to seeing my foodpals and smoozing.

This is not a potluck like any other potluck and I did angst over the dish that I would slide onto the groaning board. Would my humble loaf sidle up to that of a well-known daily paper editor? Or would it rub rims with the globetrotting best selling cookbook author/photographer's exotica from Thailand? Who knows. But for sure I wanted to bring something that would tell a little bit about me.

Where to start? Probably with my moniker: Culinary Herbalist. THAT sounds good. Even though I tell people I am from Toronto, which I am, I live in the country now: Bruce County, Ontario's beef country and the gateway to the Bruce Peninsula. 

So why not bring something that speaks to wild herbs: Wild Leek Loaf. Perfect. 

But like anything, there is a knack to cleaning these small bulbs. You can see the shovelful that we took at the top of the blog. 

To clean wild leeks:

Grasp the leek in one hand.

Pull the short, dirty outer layers of white skin back over the roots.

Snap off the root end along with most of the dirt.

Wash bulbs and leaves in running water, drain and dry. 

Here is my recipe for one of the most flavorful plants found at our feet.

Wild Leek Loaf

1/3 cup chopped wild leeks, save 6 whole, with leaves for garnishing the top

2 cups chicken stock

½ tsp salt

1-1/2 cups couscous

3 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 tbsp garam masala

2 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp red pepper flakes, optional

1 small zucchini, diced

8 oz/228 g mushrooms, chopped

½ cup chopped roasted red bell pepper

1. Line a 2 L (8 cup) loaf tin with plastic wrap, letting it overhang on the long sides. Lay 1 or 2 the wild leek(s) on the base of the tin, set aside in a cool place. Set aside remaining whole leeks for garnish later.

2. In a saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and stir in salt and couscous. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and transfer to a large bowl.

3. Meanwhile heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sauté the garlic and onion for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Add the garam masala, coriander and red pepper flakes if using. Cook, stirring frequently for 1 minute. Add the remaining oil and cook the zucchini and mushrooms for 7 minutes, or until soft. Let cool.

4. Add the onion-mushroom mixture and the red bell pepper to the couscous. Cover and chill for an hour. Press the mixture into the tin, pressing it in and around the leek on the bottom of the tin. Fold the plastic wrap over to cover. Weigh down with food tins and chill overnight.

Horsetail

Both Chuck and Simon know their horsetail. Perhaps because they are both farmers at heart and see it popping up in fields. 

The picture to the left was taken last Sunday and already it is over a foot high. You can see where it is muscling out everything in its path.

Here's what Chuck has to say about the species of horsetail growing near him:

Your mystery plant is what I have always known as horsetail, an Equisetum species I believe. The horsetail I know has vertical ridges on the stems, and is very abrasive, I think due to its high silica content. Sometimes it is called "scouring rush" for this property. It's what Jim Long uses in his foot soak for toenail fungus, too. It grows along ditchbanks here like the "gone wild" photo you sent, usually on the shady side of the ditch or in slightly moist sites, where more aggressive grasses predominate. For all I know, there may be hundreds of species of Equisetum. The trouble with common names is that they aren't usually that uniform across geography.

Chuck sent this link for more interesting information on both Eleocharis and Equisetum (horsetail and other interesting common names).

 

Wild Leeks

Foraging for Wild Food- All in one day

Here it was the first really really beautiful day of spring for us here in Bruce County and TheBigGuy and I were out along the trails. We happened to be in the right place at the right time, because there were so many things blooming. 

I was especially tickled to see the wild ginger (Asarum canadense) in bloom because that single burgundy bugle is hard to see growing as it does from the base of the 2 heart-shaped leaves. And it lasts for a very short time. We gather the rizomes of the wild ginger that creep along the top of the forest floor. It can be used in teas and dried for winter blends.

Too early for the leeks to bloom, and once they do, it is so hard to find them because the leaves have died back, but right now is the perfect time to dig. Of course we made sure we only took one shovel full from the largest patch, leaving 90% of the patch to keep growing for future years. I plan to use them in a bread stuffing for a fresh roasted chicken tonight.

Of course, always growing right near the leeks, and always in deciduous forest, is Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), the medicinal and helpful plant especially for women's ailments. We caught it at that perfect time when the yellow bloom is at its peak and you can see the small blue berries that grow larger as the season progresses.

Bloodroot, that plant that stays wrapped up in its own leaves until the afternoon sun warms it and it unfolds into the delicate white flower we saw today. Native peoples used the blood red root as a skin and fabric dye.

Guest Blog

I'll be at the Herb Companion every month with a new post.

Visit the Herb Companion and view my Green Garlic post with a Roasted Chicken and Green Garlic recipe.

Check out the Name That Herb Contest today. This herb is used in some cosmetics and old English texts tell of its use as a pot scrubber. It is a very old form of plant life. WIN a Kasbah or Oregano or Pelargonium herb handbook by correctly naming this herb. 

Name That Herb Winner

Congratulations to Jamie

Thank you Jamie for correctly identifying this week's Mystery Herb. A copy of my oregano handbook is winging its way to you.

Because I love the unique flavor of anise, I love this herb. This week's mystery herb is Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata). A perennial herb, it pops up in the garden very early in the spring.

This picture was taken last week in Simon's garden and already it is well on its way to full growth. In his garden it grows at least a couple of feet tall- it must be very happy in his garden, I never could get it to raise that high.

I use the fresh leaves in spring salads and cooked with other greens like Swiss chard, beet tops and kale, to add a note of  sweetness to balance their bitterness. It can be chopped and added to both sweet and savory breads and cakes and cookies. 

I dry and team it with other herbs for a rich tea blend. In fact, I almost always include Sweet Cicely with all my tea blends because it adds just a note of vanilla, anise and sweetness..

In the fall, this herb will be featured again because there are some wonderful things you can do with the seeds.

 Tune in Friday for next week's NAME that HERB- Friday May 1

Name That Herb Winner

Congrats to Simon de Boer- who correctly identified last week's mystery herb:  Rhubarb.

It's still all wrapped up in itself, but the brainy leaves are bursting through and in places, you can see the beginning of the stalks.

I took some photographs around Owen Sound and further south around me, at Neustadt, ON. Both gardens seemed to be at the same point despite the hour difference.

Here you can see the beginning of the stalk.

It's actually a vegetable, not the fruit of the plant, but because we use it mainly as a fruit, most people just think of it as such.

Rhubarb is high in potassium and contains a fair amount of iron. The amount of calcium in 1 cup cooked rhubarb is twice that found in milk.

The action of rhubarb on the body is as a laxative, as most youngsters have at one point learned the hard way.

But that is what makes it such a great Spring plant: it acts to cleanse the system and make it ready for the green fresh vegetables and herbs to come.

Cooking mellows the tart taste and softens the laxative effect. 

Caution: Never use the leaves of rhubarb, which are toxic and inedible due to the high concentration of oxalic acid in them.

Watch for some incredible fresh rhubarb recipes once those stalks get longer.

Next Name That Herb: Friday April 24

garlic greens

This just in from Simon:- I guess the garlic is really poking through..

I  picked  a whole bag of   garlic  green from my  perennial garlic patch  and am  drying them down .It makes  the most  wonderful  garlic  powder you can imagine .  I have Indian  friend who make  great chutneys from  green  garlic  , truly an  under used  aspect  of the garlic industry . Indians  use  garlic as soon as it emerges in the spring as I see you do .

Daffodils almost up