Category Archives: Food

Japanese knotweed, sweet sour yoghurt.

Food, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , ,

I so enjoyed harvesting, cooking and eating Japanese knotweed today, for the first time in my life.

I found several patches of the plant locally and harvested using a small knife, in much the same way as you would asparagus, except above the ground. The more mature stems were hollow, younger ones were very like asparagus within. Some had thin stems, some fat. I harvested young shoots, about 6 to 8 inches long, took them home, stripped away the leaves and thoroughly washed the stems before chopping them and boiling for 5 minutes in a little water.

The taste was very rhubarby; tart, sour and in need of some sweet. Once cooled a little, I mashed the soft stewed stems with a little banana, homemade yoghurt, a dab of honey and a good pinch each of ground ginger and cinnamon. When combined to my liking, I served in a small bowl and garnished with torn basil leaves.

The outside of the knotweed was more fibrous than I had expected so next time, I shall either push the stewed stems through a fine sieve or pulverize them with a blender, before mixing with the other ingredients. Stringiness aside, this is a delicious dessert! Maida Silverwood’s book proposes freezing stewed knotweed and I shall certainly have a go at that, when I find more of it. I will also keep an eye on how the cut stems repair at my harvesting spot.


Please be aware of harvesting from clean untreated places (not the location shown above), the rules for rhizome disposal for this plant in your locality. In some countries it is a criminal offense to allow spread of the plant by careless disposal of the roots.

The roots were apparently used in ancient Chinese medicine for menstrual and post partum problems. It is certainly very astringent to taste and thus must have a drying, constricting effect on the body, at least to some extent.

I’ll do some research into the similarities with rhubarb and more historic medicinal uses. It is truly delicious and if you are a rhubarb fan I am quite certain you could also come to love Japanese knotweed.

Wild rose

Rose petal butter – 3 methods

Food, Shrubs, , ,

Recently, I was interviewed for a Time Out article about city foraging. As the journalist and I discussed the merits and perils of city foraging, I mentioned how underused roses are. Very soon Amsterdam should be dripping with fragrant blooming roses. Most petals simply tumble to the ground and at times make a soggy rotting mess on pavements. I urge you to find roses in healthy locations, ask the owners if they would mind you harvesting very sparingly and get ready for lots of rose tinted recipes!

Many Roses will bloom by mid May and the season will hopefully last right throughout the summer months. Our rooftop Rambling Rector is not in good shape, following the late cold weather, so I’m on the hunt for local neglected roses.

Rose petal butter
Here are 3 methods, all make a fragrant, eye catching and somewhat romantic butter. The first method are very simple, the third method is traditional but well worth the extra effort.

Please note:
Roses from a florist are not to be eaten as they will surely have been sprayed with chemicals. Likewise, roses from sprayed gardens must be avoided, as should those from unknown, unclean or suspect sources or those with no scent. If you gather petals in the morning, just after the dew has evaporated, you will have petals of a higher oil content and these will make the best butter.

Method 1. Simply chop, or tear, upto a cup full of fragrant rose petals and mix throughout a block of softened butter. It can be mixed until the butter becomes creamy. Shape the butter – petal mix as you wish before refrigerating for about 2 hours prior to use. and leave in refridgerator for two hours, prior to use.

Method 2. Allow a block of butter to soften so that you can shape it as desired. Cover it with lots of petals and place it in a glass container. It should ideally be completely drowned in petals, beneath it, all around it – really packed in petals. Leave the container for a good 24 hours, to allow the fragrance to penetrate the butter. To use, remove the butter from most or all of the petals, use petals as mentioned in 3 below and refrigerate your butter if you wish.

Method 3. Over the bottom of a glass jar, spread a layer of softened butter then cover it with a layer of washed and blotted-dry whole rose petals. Place a cut to size sheet of baking parchment over the petal layer and cover that with another layer of butter and a subsequent layer of rose petals. Make several layers in this way before sealing. Store for several days, at room temperature or in a refrigerator. Finally, separate the paper, petals and butter. Reuse or recycle the paper, shape the butter as desired, set the petals aside to use a garnish or sandwich filling. Butter and petal quantities, required for this method, depend upon how much you would like to make or have access to.

Rose butter is versatile, you may like to try it on sandwiches, hot breads, crumpets or cakes.

I posted a Rose cupcakes recipe last year, more rose recipes to follow over the coming months.

(There are no photos for this posting as I didn’t take a photo, the last time I made rose butter. When the rose season arrives, I’ll add a few.)

Edible table planter – self seeding plants

Food, Growing herbs, Seed saving, , , ,


I guess you’d call this a table planter of edible herbs. It’s also a good way to rehome some self-seeded plants. I planted it out yesterday using some herb & salad seedlings, which had spread around other pots on my roof terrace. I filled the planter last year, using shop-bought seeds and although the plants didn’t have space to grow very large, they were really useful. This time I was able to relocate some seedlings of watercress, lettuce, and chamomile, which I added to the pot and supplemented with a sprinkling of old seeds.

Last year the planter provided a beautiful and tastes collection of plants which we would sit and pluck leaves from and eat directly with outdoor meals. I hope it will work well this year.

I also rehoused some self-seeded Welsh onions which had jumped ship to our neighbour’s gravel roof. They are now sitting pretty in one of the permapots.

Hairy bittercress – A free lunch

Annual herbs, Food, Foraging,

 

I did a spot of roof gardening this morning and was very pleased to find this herb growing in a neglected plant pot. It’s thought of as weed by most and yet it’s providing at least two services here; covering lots of surface soil thus acting as a green mulch and also it’s soon to be part of my food!  Hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) spreads readily by seed and is very successful at monopolising open ground. According to Wikipedia it can be quite a nuisance in lawns, in fact there are many articles on the internet dedicated to eradicating this plant. What a waste, it tastes so good and I’d prefer a useful mixed “weed” lawn to a monoculture of grass any day! It’s very welcome in my plant pots, I’d also say it’s non-invasive in this situation as it’s very easy to pull out completely when you need to.

Hairy bitter cress is part of the brassica/mustard family and is often confused with chickweed. Although it’s habit of growing out like a star from it’s base, it’s flowers and of course the hairs, are quite different from chickweed. Both are annuals. In any case, confusing it with chickweed may be a good way to get to know it. Both are useful and nutritious, full of vitamins and minerals, tasting peppery and great additions to salad.

I’ll let these come on for a few more days in the plant pot before harvesting the strongest plants and rehousing the others.

Ramsons are back on my plate!

Bulbs, Food, Foraging, Wild herbs, , , , ,

They’ve been looking verdant and smelling great for weeks now but today was my first little ramsons harvest of the year. Just two leaves, plucked from a huge swathe of wild garlic, will be enough to set this evening’s meal alight. So that’s all I picked. I urge anyone thinking of foraging any plants, to abide by foraging rules and pick very sparingly. Only harvest what you know you will be able to use straight away.

Today I saw several ramson patches, on the edge of the lime avenue in park Frankendael, which were clearly recovering from careless picking. Leaves were torn, twisted and looked generally damaged. It’s saddening to see but more importantly it shows that many individuals don’t know how to harvest correctly and responsibly.

That’s the main reason I lead occasional herb walks in town. If you’d like to join at any time then please get in touch with me via email. I passionately believe that far more people should know the herbs around them and understand how to harvest if appropriate and use them safely. But unfortunately some foragers cause harm and I’d really like to help limit that.

There are many others herbs, currently looking ripe and perfect for use, here in Amsterdam. Nettle is just perfect at present, the new tips will be my next target for harvesting, destined for some home made pasta and a nourishing infusion. More on that next week.

Kombucha – fermented tea drink

Exotic herbs, Fermenting herbs, Food, Indoor herbs, ,

Kombucha is something I’m being asked a lot about at the moment.  Here are some of my thoughts and experiences of it and also some links which you may find useful.  Please do let me know what you think of the drink, good or bad.  I’m including it in the Urban Herbology blog because tea (Camelia sinensis) is indeed a herb and Kombucha is another way to process and consume it…

My Kombucha
I make Kombucha in my airing cupboard.  I drink a small amount of Kombucha from a cute Marrocan tea glass most mornings, as I prepare breakfast for my family.  I like my Kombucha on the acidic side and I let some batches ferment so long that a strong vinegar is produced.  I then use the vinegar in cooking or to infuse fresh herbs, in place of apple cider vinegar.  I let my two year old drink a little diluted Kombucha now and then.  I feel it kick starts my system, particularly my digestive system, much as a glass of water with an ample squeeze of lemon juice does.  I don’t drink it close to eating starches as starch digestion occurs optimally in an alkaline environment. I give my Kombucha babies (or mothers or SCOBYs or what ever you like to call them) away periodically so that others can start their own brew. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.

I don’t think that Kombucha is a panacea for all ills, an elixir of life that will prevent all manner of disorders.  I also don’t think one should drink too much of the stuff, an absence of scientific research doesn’t mean there is anything amiss with Kombucha but I don’t feel that a single food stuff should be consumed copiously.  But I do like it and will continue to brew it, to use it and to share the babies as and when there is interest.

So what is Kombucha?
It’s the drink made when a jelly like bacteria/yeast symbiosis ferments sweet tea.
If you like, you can read more about the specific microbes which have been isolated from kombucha cultures via the links below.

How to make Kombucha?
You will need…
1 large glass or plastic container (2 litre Italian, rubber seal pickling jar from Blokker is perfect)
Kombucha mother/baby/scoby/tea mushroom/ tea monster (or a part of one)
Some good quality loose tea*
Some sugar**
Water, filtered preferably
Rubber band (to fit top of jar)
Very clean teatowel or muslin

*Any tea can be used, black, green, oorlong etc but not what we would call “herb teas” (e.g. rooibos, mint or chamomile).  I use green tea flower bombs, provided periodically by freinds who live in China. I’ve never been a regular tea drinker so green tea gives me the least classic tea taste and I like the result.

**I use organic white or “halfwit” sugar.  I have not experimented with other types of sugar because the guidance I have read from many sources states overwhelmingly that brown/ golden/dark etc sugar gives very inconsistant results.  So I keep a bag of white in stock specifically for my Kombucha.

You’ll find different recipes around and there are whole books on the subject but here’s the way I make it…

1. Boil 1 to 1.5 litre filtered water
2. Fill a large tea pot with the water and add 2 (Numi brand style) tea flowers/bombs.
3. Leave to brew until the water is warm enough to dissolve sugar but cool enough to have a good strong tea inside, and be easy to handle.
4. Pour the tea through a strainer into the large glass jar.
5. Stir about 16 tablespoons of sugar into the strained tea.  It needs to dissolve.  If it doesn’t then heat the water a little or add some freshly boiled water.
6. Leave to cool to body temperature.  I close the lid properly for this part.
7. When cooled, so you don’t cook your live culture, slip in your mother/scoby/baby/tea mushroom/monster and the Kombucha vinegar that it arrived with. It doesn’t matter if the SCOBY floats or sinks, so long as it is in the sweet, tepid tea, it will have what it needs to grow.
8. Place a clean tea towel or similar over the top so the ferment can breathe and secure that with a clean rubber band.  Do not close the jar properly as Kombucha is made aerobically, not anaerobically.
9. Take to a clean, dark and moderately warm environment (my boiler room/airing cupboard works a treat) and leave it for 7 days to 3 weeks.
10.  Check your jar periodically for signs of unwelcome mould growth.
11. The longer you leave it to ferment, the more acidic the Kombucha will become.  So taste the liquid now and then, especially when you are getting familiar with the process.  Find out what you like and make a note of the time required to produce that (although things change).
12. When you are ready to harvest the ferment, get a couple of super clean glass jars ready. Reserve your scoby in about a cup of the ferment  – to start your next batch  – and pour the rest into your bottle for refrigeration and use.  I like to store in used tomato passata bottles – they take up less fridge door space.
13.  The reserved liquid and scoby can be refrigerated for quite some time, the more acidic the liquid, the longer it will keep.
14. After the first ferment or two you will probably see a baby scoby being formed beneath the mother.  It will in time peel off.  This is your symbiotic colonie multiplying so much that it is seeking out a new home.  You can store these babies in acidic/vinegar kombucha for yourself, compost them or give them to an interested friend – with 1/2 cup of Kombucha vinegar.

So that’s how I make it.  If you don’t feel good or confident about the taste then don’t drink it or offer it to others.

Now why do people want to drink it?

Claims about Kombucha
Please be aware that most claims about Kombucha are annecdotal. I’m not aware of any good scientific research about it’s effects or any side effects.  It seems that any problems have resulted from contamination at some stage in production.

The following list, summarises many of the claims to be found on the internet.  You will see many are very attractive and some far fetched.  The list is taken directly from a website called KombuchaKamp.com
*Probiotics – healthy bacteria
*Alkalize the body – balances internal pH
*Detoxify the liver – happy liver = happy mood
*Increase metabolism – rev your internal engine
*Improve digestion – keep your system moving
*Rebuild connective tissue – helps with arthritis, gout, asthma, rheumatism
*Cancer prevention
*Alleviate constipation
*Boost energy – helps with chronic fatigue
*Reduce blood pressure
*Relieve headaches & migraines
*Reduce kidney stones
*High in antioxidants – destroy free-radicals that cause cancer
*High in polyphenols
*Improve eyesight
*Heal excema – can be applied topically to soften the skin
*Prevent artheriosclerosis
*Speed healing of ulcers – kills h.pylori on contact
*Help clear up candida & yeast infections
*Aid healthy cell regeneration
*Reduce gray hair
*Lower glucose levels – prevents spiking from eating

Getting a Kombucha culture
One of the links below has a worldwide list of Kombucha brewers who are often happy to pass on their excess scobies. My kombucha builds up spare SCOBY very regularly – It is an amazing creature!

Join my Kombucha list if you would like one and you live in Amsterdam. I’ll send you an email when I have one spare. I’ll swap SCOBY for a small organic herb plant, organic seeds or a little organic chocolate. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you! I just can’t manage the emails otherwise.

Kombucha Links
http://www.naturalpedia.com/Kombucha.html–  informative  and referenced quotes about Kombucha, by natural health / natural lifestyle authors.

www.kombu.de – exchange list, some charge a small fee, others not, some will post the scoby to you, some ask you to collect it in person.

www.wildfermentation.com – I love this website!  The man who runs it (Sandor Ellix Katz), has made learning and teaching about traditional fermentation his life’s work.  He has also published a really wonderful book called Wild Fermentation and has another coming out in the summer (Update: It’s called The Art of Fermentation and is fabulous!). Everything from kefir to fermented rice to kombucha to sour dough containg left over cooked oats… he’s a fermentation activist!

Sprouting Chayote

Food, Perennial herbs, , ,

I’m coming out of hibernation to ask if anyone has experience of growing a vegetable called Chayote, in Northern Europe or a similar climate.

I was given a plentiful supply of Chayote whilst on holiday in Tenerife recently.  They are a member of the cucumber/squash family and in Tenerife most small holdings and vegetable plots have a large permanent frame erected purely for this plant.  Chayote are apparently quite medicinal and are used widely in the Canary islands in everyday cooking and as a tonic for children.  They are popular in many tropical and subtropical cultures, including Mexico where they apparently form a staple part of the diet.

Since returning from holiday with half a dozen chayote, I haven’t been able to find much information about their medicinal properties but I have found information about how to grow them. I am going to have a go at growing them here in Amsterdam; two are sprouting healthily in my fruit bowl and according to the instructions linked here in a 1980 article from Mother Earth News, they may even produce a crop!  Chayote don’t form hard dry seeds, instead they sprout directly from the centre of the fruit and when the sprout is about 6 inches long, the whole thing can be planted in a pot.

So I am really keen to know if anyone has experience of growing this medicinal tropical perennial vegetable in a climate such as this.  Please email me directly if you have…

Yoghurt Pastry

Food, ,

This pastry recipe is used in several foods which I often make – quiche, pasties, pies etc.  There are no herbs in the pastry but you could easily add a teaspoon of finely chopped fresh or dried herbs at the start to add extra flavour.  The recipe is based upon one in a favourite cookbook of mine – Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon.

Yoghurt Pastry Dough
1 cup plan whole yoghurt
1 cup (whole block – 250g) butter, softened
3 1/2 cups spelt flour (or wholewheat)
2 teaspoons quality rock salt or sea salt

This recipe makes enough for two quiches or a quiche and 12 muffin sized pies. I find it delicious, and hard to resist, even uncooked…

  1. Cream yoghurt and butter together
  2. Blend in flour and salt (and herbs if using)
  3. Knead a little to form a tidy (albeit sticky) large ball of pastry dough
  4. Place in a bowl and cover with a clean tea towel or similar
  5. Place in a clean, warm place for 12 – 24 hours, this allows the yoghurt time to work on the flour and make it more easily digestible
  6. Split the dough in two and roll out with a flour dusted rolling pin, on a floured cold surface or pastry cloth.
  7. If using it to make a quiche or tart base then it is advisable to prebake it, shaped.  Place in a cold oven and set it to 180 degrees C. Bake in this warning oven for 30 minutes.

Herbs and breastfeeding

Food, , ,

Many herbs impact upon breast health, milk production and the health of babies.  Women who are pregnant or nursing should become aware of how herbs can impact upon themselves and their child.  Some herbs can reduce or stop milk flow (such as Sage); useful at the end of nursing or to reduce engorgement, less useful if you want a good milk flow!  Other herbs can increase milk flow (galactogogues).  Others can remedy problems such as blocked ducts, mastitis (such as Echinacea applied as a compress) and colic.

The best information I have found on the subject comes from Susun Weed.  Her book about herbs and the childbearing year contains lots of excellent information related to pregnancy, birth, postnatal recovery and nursing.  I highly recommend it if you want to be empowered with knowledge about how to be safe with herbs and babies.  There is a link to that book and others on these linked articles:

Susun Weed on Breastfeeding  part 1
Susun Weed on Breastfeeding part 2

There is also an interesting free e-book available from the Earth Mama Angel Baby website. It is a compilation of information about herbs and breastfeeding.  The information covers topics such as herbs which can boost milk supply, herbs which may help babies in certain ways and herbs which should be avoided.  The e-book is free to download and may be interesting to some of you so here’s a link photo:

Butternut Squash & Sage Pies

Bulbs, Evergreen herbs, Food, , , , , , , ,

Pies remind me of home.  Here is a recipe for very tasty muffin sized pies which uses purple sage to enhance the flavours of butternut squash, sweetcorn and chicken.  They taste great hot or cold and make a handy packed lunch food.

I use homemade yoghurt pastry dough for my pies and quiches, I will post the recipe for that later.  Alternatively you could use an all butter short crust pastry or puff pastry for the crust.  The recipe includes a very small amount of fresh chicken,  I just added some leftovers to my pie filling, but this can easily be omitted for vegetarians.  You may also like to add a little chopped fennel to the filling.  Pies are a good way to use up fresh left overs as from a little filling you can create a lot of tasty little pies!

Butternut Squash & Sage Pies – makes 12 (muffin size)

Ingredients
Pastry (see above) –  enough for a quiche base
Knob of butter, ghee or olive oil
5cm slice Butter nut squash, peeled, deseeded and finely cubed
1/2 small can of sweetcorn or a handful of frozen kernels
1 medium-large onion, finely chopped
1 chicken or vegetable stock cube, or 1 dessert spoon of bouillon powder or 1/2 cup fresh stock
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
6 large fresh  purple sage leaves, finely chopped (or 1/2 tsp chopped dried sage)
1 dessert spoon creme fraiche
1 dessert spoon finely chopped lean fresh chicken
Handful grated goats’ cheese or cheddar type cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
12 hole non stick muffin tray, greased with butter or ghee

  1. Preheat oven to 190° C (375° F) and prepare muffin tray.
  2. In a pan with well fitting lid, heat the ghee/butter or oil and gently cook onion, with lid on pan, until sweet and clear.
  3. Add the garlic and sage to the onions and cook for a further minute, stirring all the while to prevent the garlic from burning.
  4. Add the cubed butternut squash, chicken and sweetcorn and quickly mix into the oily onion/herb mixture.
  5. Add about 1/2 cup of water and the stock cube or fresh stock and bring to the boil.
  6. Cover with a tightly fitting lid and simmer for about 7 minutes, until the pumpkin is tender.  Check now and then that the water has not evaporated or been soaked up completely.  You should end up with a well cooked mixture which is moist but not sloppy.  If the mixture is too wet, cook a little longer with the lid off.
  7. Remove from heat, add the cheese and creme fraiche.
  8. Stir into the mixture, adjust seasoning to taste and set aside to cool whilst you line the muffin holes with pastry
  9. Roll out pastry quite thinly (probably about 1/5cm thickness).
  10. Use a round pastry cutter or similar to cut out 12 circles, large enough to just line each muffin hole.  Push the pastry into the holes carefully so that the filling will not break through it when added.
  11. Add a desert spoonful of filling to each hole.  It should come close to the top of the pastry lining but not above it.
  12. Cut 12 smaller circles of pastry, just large enough to top each pie.
  13. Gently press the edge of each pastry top into the pastry which lines each hole.  You don’t need to be too exact with this but if you are too rough your pie contents may bubble out.
  14. Cook at 190° C (375° F) for about 25 – 30 minutes.  Keep an eye on your pies to ensure they don’t burn.
  15. Remove muffin tray from oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, until the pies can be easily extracted.  You may need to loosen them carefully with a knife.  Check they can spin in the muffin hole before removing.
  16. Eet smakelijk!These pies can be frozen BEFORE they are cooked in the oven.  I much prefer to cook the whole batch, eat half hot on the day I make them, store the rest in the refridgerator and eat those cold the next day.