What's picking: Foraging 2010

I wrote a blog last fall about the fun and exercise of "foraging" around your home. Early summer foraging is probably my favorite. You can find all sorts of yummy things growing along the roadways, abandoned pastures, and even in front of your place of work!

I was blessed to grow up in the South with a Mother and Grandmothers who were familiar with the fun and benefits of "foraging".

If you are unfamiliar about what's edible and not in your surroundings, consult with a Foraging expert or blog, but always take caution with unfamiliar items, ESPECIALLY wild mushrooms!

Here in the Lowcountry, there are many wild varieties of berries and salad greens that are ready to be picked in late spring & early summer.

A few that I've enjoyed this past week are: (click on the links for nutrition information)

- Blackberries - Blueberries

- Loquats - Dandelion greens & flowers

The blackberries are just about to be in full swing. There are a few here an there now that are ripe, and they are very nice additions to fruit salad or just eating as you walk!

When you can't find many fruits or berries out in the public areas, look around your local farmer's market and ask the fruit vendors there where you can start.

On Thursday I went and picked my own strawberries cultivated on Barefoot Farms (St. Helena Island, SC), and the owner pointed me to a lady down the street who lets you pick your own blueberries!

Here is a recipe for a fruit salad that I like very much:

The Fruits of my Labor:

2-3 peeled, diced Kiwi fruit (grown in Ridgeland, South Carolina!--who would have known?)

5-6 large strawberries, washed and caps off (St. Helena Island, South Carolina)

handful of blueberries--washed first (St. Helena Island, South Carolina)

handful of blackberries--washed first (Hilton Head Island, South Carolina)

3 Loquat fruits--washed, quartered and seeded (Hilton Head Island, South Carolina)

- Toss together with 1 tablespoon of lemon or lime juice and a teaspoon of local honey if you want it a little sweeter!

- I enjoyed this mixture by itself with my breakfast, but makes a lovely topping for ice cream!

Loquats are an amazing find for me this last week. I discovered them growing in front of my clinic! They are also known as Japanese plums, and many yards on Hilton Head Island contain these "ornamental" sub-tropical plants. Rumour has it, Charleston was one of the first places in the U.S. these plums were brought to, due to it's climate and reputation for impressive ornamental gardens.

Loquats are very popular in China, Japan and India for eating raw or in preserves and chutney. My neighbor on Hilton Head has a very large, 12 year old Japanese plum tree that is LOADED with fruit this year. He was kind enough to share them with me now that they are ripe.

Loquats are the "perfect" dessert splurge for dieters, especially if you are cutting back on sugar. Not only are loquats loaded with NATURAL sugars, but are high in fiber, B-vitamins and Vitamin A. So the next time your trainer tells you to cut back on the sugar intake, put down the chocolate chip cookies and grab a few loquats! About 10 of these small snack-sized fruits contain ~100 calories.

Health Benefits of Loquats

Here is what this "exotic" fruit looks like:

Lowcountry Local Party Recipes

Thursday, April 22, 2010 was the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. I would have written an Earth Day blog the week of, but I was very busy getting ready for my wedding that Saturday.

However, I did get to celebrate and promote Earth Day in a truly unique way. Most of our family members were in Beaufort that day, so we decided to have everyone over to our house for a garden party.

The hors d'oeuvres were made from 90% local ingredients. I define "local" as produced within 100 miles of Beaufort. The few items that we used from the regular grocery store (beer, olive oil, phyllo dough, butter) were at least products of the U.S.A., and even fewer things were imported (sea salt, black pepper). Even the rum in the punch was produced 15 miles north of here, with locally-grown sugarcane.

I had spent hours planning only to discover that the best way to do it was to go to the farmer's market and see what's available.

Please enjoy the recipes that I used for this fun party--you should try it out on your friends the next Earth Day! Those of you who do not live in the Lowcountry, please follow our example and spend some time at your local farmer's market--the creations you can make from just a few ingredients will blow your mind!

Sweetgrass Dairy Green Hill en Croute
- recipe courtesy of the Sweetgrass Dairy, Thomasville, Georgia
Green Hill is a surface ripened, double-cream cow’s milk cheese. If not readily available, any brie or camembert style cheese would be a welcome substitute.
Ingredients:
1 piece Sweet Grass Dairy Green Hill, COLD
10 Sheets Phyllo Dough
Butter, melted

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. If you are lucky enough to live where you have access to fresh phyllo dough, then congratulations! For the rest of us, bring phyllo to room temperature, unroll, and cover with a barely damp towel to prevent drying out.
3. Take first sheet, and brush lightly with butter. Repeat 5-10 times being careful not to let raw phyllo dry out in between layers.
4. Place Green Hill in center of phyllo, and cut dough into a rough square that is larger than Green Hill by 3” on all sides.
5. Begin to pull dough to center of Green Hill and continue in a circular fashion keeping dough as tight as possible to the cheese. When all dough has been wrapped around cheese, turn over onto sheet pan or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or foil.
6. Brush exterior with butter and place into oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the phyllo is just browned.
7. Remove from oven, let rest for 3-4 minutes.
8. We served it with fresh salad greens (from our backyard!), rice and flaxseed crackers, and honey (Beaufort, South Carolina)


Doug's yogurt dill dipping sauce for veggies:1/2 cup of Doug's homemade Greek-style yogurt (yeah that's another blog)
2 tablespoons of fresh minced dill (Bluffton, South Carolina)
1 garlic clove, minced (our backyard)
2-3 tablespoons of California extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (my Aunt Susan's backyard...Amelia Island, Florida)
drizzle of wildflower honey (Beaufort, South Carolina)
Whip together until smoothsalt and black pepper to taste

Raw Veggie Tray:
Green baby Vidalia onions (Lyons, Georgia)
Sweet salad turnips (Bluffton, South Carolina)
White and orange baby carrots (Bluffton, South Carolina)
Broccolini (Bluffton, South Carolina)
Red bell peppers (John's Island, South Carolina)
Cucumber (St. George, South Carolina)


Honey Cayenne Grilled local South Carolina Shrimp
This is the LARGE SCALE party recipe, for about 30 people

Combine in a large bowl together:
10 pounds of deveined, shell and head off medium sized shrimp (Beaufort, South Carolina)
1/2 cup of local wildflower honey (Beaufort, South Carolina)
1/4 cup of California extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of Charleston Hot Cayenne pepper (grown in our garden in 2009, dried, crushed)
Sautee in a large pan or place on wet bamboo skewers and grill for 3-4 mintues or until shrimp are pink and shaped like a "C"

*An old trick for cooking shrimp---if they're pink & shaped like a "C" they're cooked, if they're pink & shaped like an "O" they are OVERcooked!*

Dessert:
Strawberries - Fresh picked in Hampton County, South Carolina with
Homemade whipped cream and
Jerri Roth's homemade Pound Cake (Hilton Head Island, South Carolina)
(Jerri is a friend of mine who has 20+ years experience as a baker and in catering)

Strawberries and Champagne

Spring is turning to summer, and that means WEDDING SEASON in the Lowcountry!

Weddings have been on my mind lately, especially since Doug and I "tied the knot" (literally!) on April 24th.

The week leading up to the wedding was full of parties, gardening and trying new recipes. The weather was beautiful that week, but it rained the morning of the wedding.

The rain stopped just in time for the ceremony and outdoor reception. It is only fitting that it rain on our wedding day; a lot of agricultural cultures see this as a symbol of good luck and fertility.

There was lots of good French champagne left over from the nuptual celebrations, and I had to figure out what to do with it once the bottles were opened and the bubbles were all but gone.

Mimosas, after all, do not have the same sparkle when made with day-old champagne.

With me being frugal and not wanting to pour good champagne down the drain, had to come up with a way to harness whatever goodness was left.

We also had a lot of fresh-picked Hampton County strawberries that my Mom had bought on her way from Georgia that were leftover from Thursday's party (I'll blog those recipes later).....

....what is better than to put strawberries and champagne together?

Most people eat the strawberries fresh, drink the champange and enjoy how the flavors of each compliment and open up each other. It is very refreshing and delicious.

What I did to minimize my waste and enjoy the best of both worlds is this:

Strawberry Champagne Adult Fruit-roll-ups

NOTE: I would NOT attempt this recipe with strawberries that are not LOCAL and IN SEASON, it will NOT taste good!

Place 1 pound of fresh picked strawberries, (washed and caps off of course)

and 1 cup of Champagne (fresh or day-old) into a blender

add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice or orange juice (helps preserve color)

- Blend until liquid.

- Pour onto the flat rack in your food dehydrator, or onto a parchment paper-lined half sheet pan.

- The dehydrator should be set to 100-150 degrees F for 8-10 hours.

- You can do this in your oven, however, most ovens will cut themselves off if left on for this long, and it's not very energy efficient. That being said, get your oven as low as it will go and dehydrate the strawberry puree for 8-10 hours.

- Once firm and dry to the touch, remove from rack and cut into snack sized pieces, or roll up onto a piece of cling-wrap.

DELICIOUS!

I am going to take full credit for this recipe since I cannot find anything like it on the internet. Surely someone has done it before.

Some other good recipes for strawberry season:

www.ncstrawberry.org