Nettle, sorrel and mushroom soup

As a milestone birthday looms I’ve been reflecting on my life. Quite distinct from nostalgia, it’s more akin to curating a body of work, acknowledging the themes and reappraising lessons.

This process of review is even invading my cooking. There’s been no new discoveries, just old recipes revisited and reworked. Why toss out a recipe for being old school when it can be upcycled with a twist of ingredients?

For example I’ve crossed muffins with carnival cookies to make a vegan chocolate and cherry mini-muffin scented with mixed spice. This weekend saw a hybrid version of rice balls and soy bombs, flecked with seaweed. (I’ll blog the recipes later if you want them).

The nettle soup has evolved over the last few winters. A smaller crop this yet sent me searching for something in the garden to pad it out and sorrel fit the bill so perfectly, I don’t know why I never tried it before. If you’ve got neither, substitute another green like broccoli for a more than passable soup and add a squeeze of lemon before serving to recreate the citrus zing.

Nettle, sorrel and mushroom soup

1-2 tablespoons olive oil


1 medium onion, diced


2 cloves garlic, crushed


1 large potato, peeled and diced


1 (gloved) handful, nettles

1 handful, sorrel

150 grams mushrooms, sliced


1 litre good quality vegetable stock


Sea salt


Black pepper

Prep the vegetables. If using greens from the garden wash well and inspect for snails (they seem to love my sorrel). In a large, heavy based saucepan heat the olive oil and sauté the onions until translucent. Toss in the garlic and stir for a minute or two, then add the potatoes. Next add the mushrooms and let them sweat a little. Lastly throw in the nettles and sorrel, allowing the greens to wilt before covering with vegetable stock. Top up with water if necessary.

Turn the heat down so the soup can gently simmer for about 20 minutes. Remember to stir every now and then and check there is enough water. When the potatoes are soft, blend with a stick blender. I like a little texture in the soup, rather than homogeneously smooth. Return to the pot to reheat and season as desired with salt and pepper.

sunshine and soup

It's been an unexpectedly roller coaster-ish kind of week. There was an impromptu lunch at the pub with a glass of bubbly to toast a landmark moment in Australian politics, a last minute dinner with an old friend visiting from interstate and emergency coffee and popcorn making for a friend and her family going through a tough time. The winter solstice had encouraged me to hibernate while the Significant Eater was away but the universe seemed to have other ideas.

The weather has been bone chillingly damp and on Thursday I wasn't sure what excited me more, a new Prime Minister who reflects my demographic or the fact the sun shone long enough to get two loads of washing dried on the line.

Today the light returned, briefly. I donned my sunnies and checked out the Farmers' Market at the Showgrounds. A bit sparse at this time of year but between the two organic stores I managed to stock up on some extra fruit and vegetables. The cavalo nero looked stunning and was robust enough to survive a morning in the car while I wandered around the North Melbourne market full of lovely handmade goods. I loved the venue, the Lithuanian Club in Errol Street, so was pleased to have an excuse to explore some of the spaces in the building.

Home again, I was determined to do a little cooking before I ran out of steam. I got the rhubarb simmering on the stove and had another tweak at the cordial recipe (this time rhubarb, lemon and rose water) and a go at Jeroxie's nettle and mushroom soup. We've managed to weed the nettles in the garden to a manageable patch this year and I'm determined to trim back the tops to use while they are still young and tender. I've added freshly ground nutmeg and lashings of pepper and the soup smells wonderful. Can't wait for dinnertime.






Hope you got some time to play in the sun today too.

quickie - dining in the clouds

Dinner last night at Cumulus Inc. Finally. Don’t know what took me so long? Oh yes I do, all the charcuterie on the menu. Loved the slow cooked octopus with aioli (where about 1:4 morsels packed a powerful chilli hit) and the mackerel and artichoke barigoule. That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy the asparagus or the school prawns either. But the star of the meal was the baby carrots with almond cream and harissa. The sexiest carrot dish ever.

Best part of the night? The company. I have a ritual with one particularly busy friend. Twice a year we have a special dinner or lunch together for our birthdays. Friendship, ritual and connection always wins over the food and wine, though they come a close second.

Decided to google "barigoule". Let’s hope there was no bacon in it! (for some reason blogger doesn't want to encode the http://www.saffronrestauranttruro.co.uk/chef'_dictionary.htm)

The trick to snagging a table at Cumulus inc.? Skip lunch and meet at 5.30. Nursery dinner hours rule!

Still to post – a mild cauliflower curry I’ve been playing with. Made three versions so far, which one to post? It’s my new favourite vego meal at home.

Plus even more about Malaysia, including the blow-my-mouth-and-my-mind Thai meal in KL. But I figure you’re had enough of my holiday stories by now.

Am shocked by how much food is left in the fridge this week. Maybe I’d better read 50 Ways to Never Waste Food Again. Or perhaps eating at Ciccolina, Flor and Cumulus Inc all in the same week is a little too much.

The garden is thriving with the spring rain. Still have an outrageous crop of nettles, with self-seeded patches of green appearing everyday. Any Melbourne food friends want a bunch to experiment with? The upside is fresh nettle tea is great for hayfever, something both of us in this house have at the moment. Nature’s very clever sometimes.

Grapevine is bursting with leaves - must make dolmades next month!

a nettle delight that you won't find on masterchef

Masterchef is over and hopefully we won’t have to hear the word “journey” (unless it’s in conjunction with some mode of transport) for a very long time.

I neither loved nor loathed the series, was not so secretly pleased that the finale was duked out between two grown up women (rather than an over confident bloke or a darling young 20 year old) but was saddened to hear that it really hasn’t inspired a generation of children to cook. According to a tweet by Stephanie Alexander, a formidable authority on all things to do with healthy food and young people, kids were more inspired to cook by the ads than the show itself.

@GrowCookEat: Masterchef claim that kids turned onto real food. From a class of 22, 8 told me they cooked chocolate cupcakes inspired by Betty Crocker ad.

I would have liked to see more cutting edge cookery, especially in the last week. So I present for you the key ingredient I would have selected for a mystery box challenge – nettles! And lets add a twist; the dish needs to be vegan as well. Come on, it’s the final week lets up the ante a bit more – lets make sure its is gluten-free to boot.

This is my humble offering, harvesting my only current backyard crop of abundance. Having earmarked small footprint family’s intriguing nettle pate, I had a flashback to another herb and avocado spread that I had earlier concocted. What I whipped up is a hybrid of the pate and my detox parsley pesto.

Nettle, nut and avocado dip

5 cups (approx) fresh, or 2 cups steamed, nettles
1/2 cup pistachio nuts (soaked and dried if you want to release extra goodness)
1/2 cup walnuts (optionally soaked as above)
1 large avocado
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1/2-1 tsp coriander (cilantro) seeds, roasted and ground
1/2-1 tsp cumin seeds, roasted and ground
pinch of salt
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon young (shiro) miso

Carefully harvest your nettles, choosing the young tops if you can. Wash well and shake dry. Place in a large pot on low heat with no extra water. Keep lid on and shake every few minutes. It should take about 10 minutes to steam the nettles in this manner. Once cooked drain off any excess water.

Roast and grind the cumin and coriander seeds with a pinch of salt.

Pulse nuts in a food processor til semi crushed. If you go to far they will become nut butter. Add the garlic, ground spices, avocado, and lemon juice process some more. Now throw in the drained nettles and miso paste. Blend to the desired consistency, I like my nuts to still have some texture but its up to you. Season with additional salt and lemon juice, to taste if needed.

The dip goes well with crudités or rice crackers. There is a hint of the green grassy taste of nettles but be assured there is no sting.

Who knows, maybe next year nettles rather than tonka beans will be the must have herb of the season.



If you have no nettles consider using some steamed spinach, radiccio, rocket a bunch of your favourite fresh green herbs.

links, herbs and more stinging nettles

I’ve been a bit slow to catch Cheryls WHB round up, so it was a lovely surprise to see the goodies on offer. Anh’s sesame and tofu biscuits have really got my brain firing. I can’t wait til she experiments with savoury, seaweed crackers.

I love the simplicity of quinoa and Cheryl’s lemony mint version looks delicious. Then I noticed her chickpea crackers and marvelled at them too. The more gluten-free goodness the better!

And before we leave gorgeous grains, Lucy’s millet post is a timely reminding to excavate my pantry to make a millet pilaf.

I’ve not jumped on the agave bandwagon, wanting to find out more about the product first. It appears some of my suspicions are well founded. Dawn at Small Footprint Family has put her qualifications in holistic nutrition to good use to put together a well researched post on agave.

Our winter vegetable patch is much neglected. We are still harvesting fiery red chillies (and to be honest I’ve rather had enough of having my mouth and nether regions assaulted by the stuff) and the parsley has finely decided to grow to a decent size. But best of all, self-seeded nettles have taken over the remaining ground. They are young and tender and just crying out to be cooked. There will definitely be more nettle tortillas , possibly a soup with potatoes and using it as a substitute for spinach. Anyone got any more ideas?

Update: Just found this recipe for nettle pate at Small Footprint Family - excited as it is vegan and gluten-free.

thanks

A quick thank you to all those wonderful Melbourne Bloggers who ventured out to the rather chilly Slow Food Market and Lentil As Anything for a lively gathering yesterday.

There was a massive turnout, I forgot to do a head count but we had commandeered 4 tables in the end. While I was a little disappointed the LAA had changed since my last visit, throwing away the fine little menu with tofu burgers and the like, replacing them with a selection of help yourself dishes – the vegan delights were deliciously warming. Conversation flowed easily and whenever I looked down the table I saw smiles and animated discussions.

Once the plates had been finished a dozen or more of us headed over to Handsome Steve’s for some fortification to ward of the chills. The amicable Steve provided much needed warmth and beverages, that kept some diehards entertained for a further couple of hours.

Good to see you all. Hope that it has broken down a few barriers and created further connections in this corner of the blogging world.


Slow Food Market at The Convent: Nettle season - nothing like a little rubifacient on a winter's day

WHB #95 - tortilla with a sting

Nettles: I asked and you told me - ‘use it like spinach’ and soon I discovered that this herb with a sting is easily tamed into a sweet bunch of greens.

The darling Mrs Grieve gives many culinary uses for nettles. The nettle pudding – a mix of nettles, green vegetables and rice, boiled in salty water in a muslin bag sounded interesting. Maybe later. But for my nettle initiation I decided to go back to first principles of exploring new flavours by cooking them with eggs. At first I decided to blanch some young nettle tops and add them to a tortilla Español. A little bit of greens would go well with some potato and olives I reckoned. While I started slowly cooking the spuds and onions, I dunked the nettles into hot water. About 30 seconds later I took them out to drain.

Then I did a stupid thing - I tasted them!

No, my throat didn’t swell from the nettles sting. I just fell in love with its sweet flavour, not a whisper of a barb. One minute I was squeezing out the water by rolling the blanched nettles in a clean tea towel and the next, without thinking, I had chopped the log into rounds, dressing them with a little sesame oil – and finished the lot.

Round two, the next day I was determined to marry the eggs and herbs. Simpler this time, I slowly cooked some onion and a little garlic in olive oil. To the garden, well gloved, once more I cut a whole bowlful of green tops then carefully chopped, the same rough cut I would do with parsley. With the onions well sweated I tossed in the nettles a bit at a time, with some semidried tomatoes. When all the nettles had cooked through, in came a couple of fresh, beaten eggs with just a smidge of salt and pepper. Call it an omelette, frittata or tortilla – I prefer to cook it the Spanish way – over low heat with a lid on, til cooked.



The verdict. Though packed with greens, the herby taste was barely noticeable. This is a sneaky way to up the nutrient content of a humble dish. But I think I need a few more hits of the sweet nettles, blanched and simply dressed before the season ends


WHB #95 is being hosted by Melissa from Cooking Diva. Don't forget to check out all the other herbal and vegetable creations that will be up on her site in a couple of days.


(Hmmm it's now friday - let's hope Melissa gets home from her trip and puts WHB up soon!)