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Local Food
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Written by Carolyn Goodwin
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Thursday, 25 February 2010 11:08 |
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Are you getting tired of squash and kale yet? After a long winter without anything fresh and green to eat, the first things to push up through last fall’s leaves are nettles. Handled with care they make a perfect spring tonic for body and mind.
There is a prolific nettle patch across the road from my house, and I have been keeping an eye on it for weeks. Last weekend the nettles reached the perfect height of about 8 inches. I grabbed the thick orange rubber gloves that I keep for just this occasion, along with my pruners and a big paper bag, then tread carefully through the nettle patch, beheading the fledgling plants and using the pruners to drop them in the bag. Be careful not to brush up against them – even young are diabolical in their ability to penetrate through jeans and socks and just about anything but thick rubber.
I carry my harvest back to the house, and (with gloves still on!) pick the leaves off and either blanch them or steam them for a couple of minutes. The heat completely neutralizes their sting. Once you have carefully disposed of the sack and the remaining stalks, you can treat your nettles just like spinach or chard or any other tender green.
This year I wanted to try a recipe for nettle pesto that Langdon Cook, Northwest forager extraordinaire, posted in his Fat of the Land blog. It only took a few minutes, and resulted in a vibrantly green and flavorful paste that I’ve been mixing on pasta and smearing on salmon ever since. He also shows how to freeze little nettle-pesto-pops in ice cube trays that can be bagged up to pull out all year long when you need a bit o’ the green.
There are many, many more nettle recipes available on the web. Cook has several others on his site, for nettle soup, nettle gnocchi, and more. My favorite all time nettle recipe is a soup with lovage and mussels created by chef Jerry Tranufeld (of Herbfarm and Poppy). Or try a simpler nettle soup with just potatoes and cream.
In addition to their bright green flavor, nettles are attributed with a long list of health benefits. It has long been know as a blood purifier and tonic. Anemia, arthritis, rheumatism, and eczema appear frequently in lists of afflictions that have traditionally been treated with nettle juice, tea or tinctures. It is important to use just the young upper leaves of plants in the spring, before they go to seed. Old leaves contain particles called cystoliths that, in addition to being rather nasty to eat can act as an irritant to the kidneys.
So grab those gloves, grasp the nettle, and wash those winter blues right out of yourself.
Stinging Nettle Pesto
from Langdon Cook's Fat ot the Land blog
2 cups stinging nettles, blanched and chopped (figure 6 cups raw)
1/2 cup Parmesan
1/2 cup pine nuts, roasted
4-5 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper, to taste
Blanche nettles for a minute in boiling water. Remove to a salad spinner and shake off excess water, then ball up your nettles and give one good squeeze to wring out more water. It's tough to watch all that dark green, nutrient-laden liquid vanish down the drain, but you'll want olive oil lubricating your pesto, not water. Now dump in the food processor, along with roasted pine nuts (or walnuts, if you prefer), grated Parm, garlic cloves, lemon juice, and seasoning. Pour half of the olive oil in and...Whirrrr. Pour the rest of the oil in. Whir again, until your preferred consistency.
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