Winning Ways With Dandelion Greens
We're pretty omnivorous, for the most part, but even we must confess to being bested by an ingredient now and then. Such is the case with dandelion greens: we've tried steaming, sautéing, soaking, blanching, brining, sweetening with various concoctions, even combining them with bacon fat, but nothing seems to mitigate the overwhelming bitterness. We're still open to new ideas—please send us your suggestions, if you have any. Meanwhile, the best notion we've seen yet comes from our friend Sherry, who shares our Boston Organics subscription, and is also a veteran of the dandelion green wars. She grew this accidental pumpkin, see—a volunteer descended from last Halloween's doorstep decorations—and after watching over it all summer, and rescuing it from the squirrels at the last possible moment, she decided to go sculptural on it. Here's the quintessential Spirit of Fall, mane of dandelion greens waving proudly, photographed on a bed of leaves in the pumpkin's birthplace, right next to Sherry's front door.
Despite his strange origins, we think this jack-o-lion harbors no bitterness.
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Helen Ray (via e-mail):
ReplyDelete"Last week I bought a beautiful bunch of white turnips at a farm stand. Looked like giant radishes with a beautiful head of greens. The gentleman selling them said that he often eats them like an apple or puts in a salad. Of course, you can even cook them.
I decided to saute apples, onions, garlic and small pieces of the white turnips. Added clean greens along with chicken broth to cover and simmered. I love Frank Thackery cajun seasoning for everything and added some along with a tablespoon of "real" maple syrup. It was great. That may work for dandelion greens also."
This sounds good, and I like turnip greens, but I wonder if anything can possibly improve on dandelion greens. Is anyone daring enough to try it?
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