Stinging Nettles Fiddlehead Ferns Coconut Broth

What is common with stinging nettles and fiddlehead ferns ? They show up at the same time in the Farmers market. Never seen in supermarkets. Here are the two with a dab of light, fragrant broth. Enjoy!

Special tools:

None

Ingredients

  • 6 oz Stinging nettles
  • 8 oz fiddlehead ferns, washed lightly
  • Aromatics: 1/4 onion diced + 3 crushed pods of garlic + 3 tbsps of diced lemongrass
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 2 tbsps cooking oil
  • Seasoning: salt
  • Garnish: 6-8 large Thai basil leaves

Method

Stinging nettles will sting– to avoid that I blanched that in about 3/4 cups water in the frying pan till all the water was cooked off. Rinse the pan. Heat a 1 tbsp cooking oil and saute the fiddlehead ferns for 4-5 minutes till tender. If your pan is big enough, push the ferns to the edges of the pan and heat 1 tbsp cooking oil in the center. Saute the aromatics till fragrant. Mix the ferns and nettles. Season with salt. Add the coconut milk. Let cook for few minutes. Turn off the heat and add the chiffonaded Thai basil.

Gently heat the sesame oil in a frying pan with the crushed garlic. Be careful not to burn the garlic.  Add the ferns, salt and toss till mixed. Be careful with the salt since your sauce would be salted as well. Add the Ponzu soy sauce and rapidly mix till the ferns are well dressed.  Turn off heat and serve warm.

Notes, hints, tips:
  1. The lemongrass-coconut broth is great for dunking bread or goes will served with grains.
  2. See https://purba.blog/2018/05/20/fiddlehead-ferns/ for an alternative treatment of the ferns.

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Asian Vegetable Salad

Kudos to spiralizer for converting meh veggies into gimme-more. Aromas of lemongrass, Thai basil; umami of fish sauce; crunch of peanuts elevate the salad to an astonishingly delectable level– you wont stop eating. Enjoy!

SPECIAL TOOLS:

Spiralizer.

INGREDIENTS

  • Spiralized vegetables (1 zucchini + 2 small beets + 3 medium carrot)
  • Dressing: 2 tbsp minced lemongrass + 2 tbsp fish sauce + 2 tbsp lemon juice + 2 tbsp rice vinegar (or white vinegar)
    + 1 tsp minced ginger + 1 garlic pod minced
    + 1 tsp sugar
    + 1 chili thinly sliced + 12 Thai Basil leaves chiffonaded
  • Crunch topping: 3 tbsp pounded (roasted) peanuts
  • Green topping: sunflower shoots or microgreens

METHOD

Macerate the salad in the dressing for about 20 mins. Mix in the peanuts and basil.

Serve (cold or at room temperature) with the topping. 

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. Adapted from multiple sources: https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Spicy-Lemongrass-Salad/ ; The Week’ Recipe of the week (April 5, 2024).
  2. Another great such salad is with green papaya, with the same treatment.
  3. Thinly sliced cabbage and other veggies of your choice can also be used.
  4. To add protein to the salad, you could use poached/roasted chicken, shredded.
  5. EVOO is pictured; I intended to use it but the salad was already so good that I skipped it.

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फ, ख: PHO, KHO Vietnamese broths

Devanagari consonants or delectable Vietnamese broths? Fish sauce, lemon grass, star anise, … and a host of other stars make this stew as flavorful as nourishing. Annatto gives the broth its fiery red looks, although its heat may be quite temperate. This stew is a great contender to become your go-to. Enjoy with noodles or slices of batard bread!

SPECIAL TOOLS:

Pressure cooker.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 lbs stew meat cut into 2 inch chunks, marinaded for few hours (or overnight)
    • in 3 cloves garlic+1 tbsp grated ginger+ 5 tbsp fish sauce + 2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder + 1.5 tsp brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp oil
  • Aromatics:
    • (alliums): 1 medium onion diced + 3 garlic cloves
    • 3 stalks lemongrass, minced fine
  • For flavor depth: 4 tbsp tomato paste
  • Spices
    • 2 star anise + 1 tsp annatto or turmeric
    • (heat) 1 tsp ground black pepper + 1 tsp chili powder + 1 tbsp paprika
  • Braising medium: 3 cups water + 2 cups coconut water (optional)
  • Seasoning: 1 tsp salt + 3 tbsp soy sauce + 3 tbsp chili oil
  • Vegetables: 6 carrots + 2 potatoes + 8 pods black garlic (optional) +10 shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • Wide rice or egg noodles, cooked as per packet instructions OR slices of batard bread
  • Topping/Garnish: 1/4 cup cilantro + 1/2 cup Thai basil + 1/4 cup spinach + 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion + lemon wedges

METHOD

Heat oil in the pressure cooker. Add the aromatics and cook till fragrant (few minutes). Add the tomato paste and stir for a few minutes till well mixed. Then add the marinaded meat and stir-fry for 5-7 minutes. Add the spices and mix. Add 3 cups water and pressure cook on medium/high for 12 minutes.

Release the pressure slowly and the add the vegetables and seasoning and pressure cook for another 6 minutes on medium high.

Serve with noodles/bread, broth and toppings.

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. This is adapted from TheWoksOfLife. Using the pressure cooker drastically reduces the cooking time without sacrificing taste. Also added a host of other vegetables and greens to make it even more complete.
  2. To make a thinner broth (say, as with noodles), double the water to 6 cups.
  3. I hesitate to cook with coconut water; I would rather add the coconut water to the broth at the end.
  4. An attractive alternative to noodles is Batard bread slices for this broth (a la Yangrou Paomuo, a signature dish of Xi’an, China).

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Chaayran: chaas or ayran?

Last time I was in Istanbul, I made acquaintance with the Turkish yogurt drink, ayran. It was reminiscent of the Indian yogurt drink chaas. Here is my version drawing form both with an African touch- baobab. Enjoy.

SPECIAL TOOLS:

Blender with whipping disk.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2.

  • 1 cup yogurt + 1 cup water with
    • 1 tsp baobab powder + juice of 1/2 lime
    • 1/2 tsp grated ginger (optional)
    • 1/2 tsp black salt powder + dash of regular salt
  • Garnish (optional): lime zest

METHOD

Run all ingredients except garnish in a blender with a whipping disk, for a minute. Pour into serving glass and garnish.

Serve with meals.

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. Ayran is usually served with grilled meat and chaas is usually a summer drink with meals.
  2. The ratio of 3/4 cup yogurt to 1 1/2 cup water also works out well.
  3. You could add spices like cumin powder, chilli powder and herbs such as cilantro, mint.

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Koginut Mochi Waffle

Winter farmers market (TASH) ingredients in action! Koginut and mochi pancake mix. Koginut is a cross between a kabocha and butternut squash. It’s natural sweetness and butteriness is amazing and makes a fantastic mochi waffle. Enjoy!

SPECIAL TOOLS:

Food processor; Waffle maker.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 koginut squash yielding 2 cups pulp
  • 2 cups mochi waffle/pancake flour
  • 2 tbsp EVOO
  • about 1 cup milk

METHOD

Halve and scoop out the seeds. Brush a little EVOO and bake the koginut at 350 F for about an hour. Do not peel and run in food processor, with a little milk, if required. Let cool.

Mix 2 cups of mochi pancake flour with the squash pulp and add enough milk to make thick batter. Mix in the EVOO.

Use 1/2 cup batter per waffle. Follow instructions on your waffle maker. Makes 7-8.

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. I did not use the ube extract in the mochi ube pancake/waffle packet (https://sitsirya.square.site/) since I was using koginut squash.
  2. The koginut squash is sweet enough, that you may not even need maple syrup to go with your waffle.

Sweet potato ube mochi waffle: Steam a large sweet potato (approx 1 lb) in microwave until done (approx 5+3 mins). Peel and mash and proceed as for the squash waffle.

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Atole

Tejate is also a masa based drink, a specialty of Oaxaca (see also my Insta post) but atole appears to be a friendlier drink in terms of producing it from scratch, right in your very own kitchen. Lightly thickened by masa, with all the aroma heavy-hitters (cinnamon, vanilla), this drink is amazingly comforting. Enjoy hot on a cold winter day.

SPECIAL TOOLS:

None.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 1 solo drink.

  • 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 cup water with
    • Flavor: 1 large stick of cinnamon
    • Sweetener: 1-2 tbsp brown sugar
    • Flavor enhancer: a dash of salt
  • Slurry: 1 tsp masa harina mixed with about 2 oz water
  • Extra flavor: 2 drops of vanilla essence
  • Garnish: dust of cinnamon powder

METHOD

In a thick-bottomed pot, bring the liquid base with its fortifying ingredients to a slow simmer. Then remove the cinnamon stick. Mix in the slurry and the vanilla essence. Simmer on low, while stirring so that lumps don’t form nor stick to the bottom. When it is thick enough (coats the back of a spoon). Pour into a serving latte cup and dust with cinnamon powder.

NOTES, HINTS, TIPS:

  1. The drink is adapted from https://www.isabeleats.com/mexican-atole/.
  2. I leave the cinnamon stick (if it does not break) till the very end.
  3. Atole is reminiscent of Turkish Salep, both in texture and a flavor array. The star in Salep is an orchid tuber (see wiki) and the flavors are orange blossom/ rose water with pistachio dustings. In my last trip to Istanbul, I brought back a box of Salep drink, but was disappointed to find that it had no tuber but substitutes like corn starch. A lesson learnt: read ingredients list very carefully.

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