Things I love Thursday: Dandelions

If you haven't figured it out by now, I love dandelions. I eat them and make them into things on a regular basis. Okay, on a springly basis. They're also very lovely to look at. And when they become little puff balls? ZOMG are they fun. I will spread those seeds like nobody's business.

Make a wish!

One thing we always do when dandelions come out is make wine of the petals. Mmm, by always I mean we have every year since we've lived in New Hampshire. (Dandelions don't really grow as abundantly in the lower parts of Florida).

Wine production of years past

In the four years we've been making it, and in the couple years before John moved to FL that he made it, we haven't yet found a perfect recipe. Mostly because we never remembered what we did the year before. We've tried at least 4 different recipes now. This year we decided to really buckle down and figure this out. Wine takes too long to to be so nonchalant about throwing it together. And while dandelion wine is relatively simple and since the main ingredient free, it's not an expensive wine,  it does take some work. After all, we have to pull all those tiny petals out of the bitter green calyx part. That takes time, baby!

Thems are some hot, manly hands... Oh! I mean, see what hard work that is?

Note the addition of tea cups to the process...

Especially when you consider how much of those petals you need.

This year, we made two separate batches, and I very carefully recorded all that we did for each one. One recipe called for six cups of dandelion petals, and one four cups. I'm pretty excited to taste and compare them.

But wine isn't all we make of dandelions. I've told you about pesto and fritters, which I repeated a few times again this year.

 There's also dandelion petal ice cream. The heavenly, light creamy confection that one friend of mine declared "tastes happy." It's true. This ice cream is happiness infused.

Unfortunately, I can't find where I wrote down the recipe, but I can gather from these two photos that I infused the petals into the milk and then pureed it all together. If you're adventurous, try it out. Make it up as you go or follow a vanilla bean ice cream and adapt.

 I think I may have strained it then, but I don't know. This one I haven't yet made this year because my freezer is currently too full to freeze the icecream maker bowl. If I do get a chance to make it, I'll post the recipe for sure.

You can also make a nice tea loaf out of the petals as I did one year.

I don't have the recipe I used way back then, but this one looks very similar. Try it out and be delighted by making something from your yard!

Dandelion potato soup is also a nice treat. Just follow a recipe for potato spinach soup (or even just potato soup) and put dandelions in instead of spinach. Puree and enjoy.

(If you haven't caught on to this yet, I'm using up as many past photos as I can find in relation to this topic. I meant to post most of these as their own thing, but as as per facts 4 and 5, this never happened.)

Two new things I've tried this year are dandelion tincture (extract) and dandelion vinegar.

Dandelion infused vodka, essentially

 Since I just started them a few weeks ago, and these things take a fair amount of time, I don't know how they turned out yet. But I'm excited. I may be able to add a lovely dandelion flavour to my desserts and dishes any time during the year!

So next time you think of trying to eradicate the dandelions in your yard, why not try eating them instead?

What ELSE can you do with a dandelion? Dandelion Fritters.

Yep! Dandelion fritters. I can't take credit for this idea or the recipe. I saw it first and followed the recipe from the Learning Herbs website. They have all kinds of cool information on herbalism and natural medicine, and I enjoy browsing the site every now and then. I followed the recipe they have there with slight tweaks of adding a bit of salt to the batter, and using a half all purpose and half whole wheat combo for the flour. (They don't specify any kind of flour, so I'm thinking it's cooks choice in this matter.) I didn't count, but I made quite a few fritters and still had a bit of batter left after I used up all my dandelions. This little bit of batter went a pretty long way; I'm guessing I made somewhere around 30.
Here's the recipe:
Dandelion Fritters
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
a basket full of freshly picked wide open dandelion blossoms
cooking oil

In a medium skillet heat an inch or so of oil. Mix up the batter well and dip dandelions petal-down, holding the green part, swirl it a bit to get it covered in batter and place in heated oil. Once in starts browning, flip it over and let the underside get cooked. Transfer to paper-towels to drain. You can cook several at once, just make sure you keep an eye on the ones that went in first to prevent burning.

I served a few dandelion fritters along side my dandelion leaf pesto (I thought they were kind of cute, like meatball-replacers) but the rest of them we ate with a honey-mustard dipping sauce, which I think suited them better. They were really quite tasty: tender with a slight sweetness that was set off by the bitter stem/sepal part. John and I ate all the ones I made and were quite satisfied at the end. I had been a little worried that the meal wasn't going to be substantial enough but we both came away pretty full.

This would make a great afternoon snack, and didn't require any more effort than your average fried style recipe, excepting the the gathering part...Which was actually very fun. I bet kids would get a kick out of this!

What can you do with a dandelion? Dandelion Pesto.

Dandelions, as I've said before, are amazing. The whole plant really. Beyond their simple joyful colour and the happiness blowing their seeds can bring, they also can be food and medicine. Tea made from the leaves and roots is detoxifying, and liver-cleansing. Tea made from the flowers can cure a headache. If you gather the leaves before the blossoms bloom, they make a tasty addition to salad (you can still eat the leaves after they blossom, they'll just be more bitter.)

I happen to actually enjoy the bitterness of dandelion leaves (which is also very good for digestion) and collected about 2 cups worth from around my neighbourhood and made dandelion pesto with them. It was rather good, though I may have gone a little extreme with the garlic. Here's my basic recipe:

Dandelion Pesto
 2 cups loosely packed dandelion leaves
2 or 3 garlic cloves (I think I ended up using 5 - too much!)
a handful of walnuts
1/3 cup olive oil (approximately)
salt to taste
a dash of honey
a splash of balsamic-vinegar

 Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend until relatively smooth. Taste, add more oil if it seems to thick to you, more honey if it's too bitter, more salt if you think it needs it, more garlic if you're crazy...
Serve over pasta. Enjoy!

yum.

Dandelion update

Well, it's dandelion season and I've been all of a flutter gathering them and making all sorts of delicious things; from ice cream to pesto. Dandelions are one of the most amazing and useful herbs I've ever met. They really don't get the respect they deserve. I think I'm going to do a little series this coming week on the many things you can do with dandelions, leaves and blossoms. I know the roots are packed with all kinds of good stuff too but I haven't actually done anything with those yet.

Anyway, the weather is blissful and I can't keep my mind on a thing except that I want to be outside. Reading, eating, sleeping, sewing....anything I can do outside these days I try to. I also have some really good refashion bits to update, but since I'm not on my computer I can nary do a thing because I haven't got any photos on here.

I'll get my computer back up and running soon and be on top of this blog again. Right now, I need to go and bask in a grassy meadow while I eat and finish reading The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kitteredge. It has a great storyline. So fascinating and original that I can forgive the sloppy writing and poor character development....Plus, it's steampunk and that in itself is enthralling.
Anyone else out there a fan of steampunk?