Thursday, December 30, 2010

Sandwich on cast iron and a weed on the broccoli

I have been reading this book about this couple who lived in the Canadian wilderness from the 40's-60's. They talked some about the wild foods they ate. This wasn't one of them that they talked about eating but it inspired me to get back outside and see what food I could find to eat. I noticed in the fall that we had garlic mustard plants growing in the side yard so I went back to see if they survived the snow we had this week. They did! There's not much left but it's still there so I grabbed a handful.

Garlic mustard plant has a garlicky flavor/smell to it though it's much more mild than garlic. I really could have used more than I got but I didn't want to use it all at once. I'll get back to that in a second.

On Christmas, Lanette told me about this cast iron griddle/grill that they had for years but they weren't sure where it came from. They never used it so were getting rid of it. I said, "Oh, give it to me!" So she handed it over thankful to have it out of her house...and I'm thankful to have it in mine! I made use of it today for my sandwich which I have named "ham & cheese pannini with a twist". The is the grill side, the other side is smooth but you've got to have the marks for a pannini. I would have liked to have had a bacon or steak press to squish this sandwich down but I don't have one so I left it its original size.

So, back to the garlic mustard...or is mustard garlic....I can't quite remember. Anyway, back to the plant. I cut it up into thin strips and threw it in a pan with a little bit of butter. After a few minutes, I threw in some cooked broccoli. I let that cook for a few minutes while the cheese was finishing up melting on my pannini.

The twist on the sandwich is that it has apple butter and sliced apples in it. I've had it before with the apples but never with the apple butter. I really liked both the sandwich and the broccoli. I was a little worried about the garlic mustard because the wild greens I've tried so far are extremely bitter but this wasn't at all. I'll definitely be using it again. But I probably only have enough for one more dish. Then I'll have to wait until spring/summer for more to grow.

4 comments:

Valerie said...

Glad you liked it. You are so daring to try weeds. :) Congrats on the new grill. Free stuff is the best!

Heather and Thomas Mann said...

I was totally going to use the word daring to describe you too! good for you... trying new foods that you find growing. glad you liked your creation!

Michael Mercer said...

Hey you'll want to try that plant with 3 leaves. sometimes it has white berries...it's great!

Tiff :o) said...

Not that daring...I know they're not poisonous before I try them.

Mike, you're description sounds like you're trying to kill me by giving me internal poison ivy!

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