Good, better, boerewors

It's not the prettiest picture (the smoke was very fragrant). But it was -6'C/21'F, plus some interesting wind chill, and I wasn't hanging around for longer than I had to. So,  Snap! and out of there to warm up inside.

This is the best - the best - batch of boerewors, yet, in my four years of tinkering with the recipe. First, it's amazing what a difference salt can make. I added some to my previous recipe. Also more coriander.

Then, almost by accident, I added a tablespoonful of baharat spice mix, because I had it left over from some killer meatballs whose Eastern Mediterranean flavour reminded me strongly and intriguingly of boerewors ('intriguingly' because it raises questions of provenance).

Most of the spices in baharat (and in the garam masala that I include, already) are identical to those in boerewors: coriander, black pepper, cloves, allspice, nutmeg; but their cardamom, cumin and cinnamon add new and entirely perfect twists. The next step for me, to simplify things, is to figure out exactly how much of each of those three is effectively being added, so that I can ditch those two mixes and just add the extra ingredients.

So, if you're as obsessed as we are (you can't be, I know) the recipe over at 66 Square Feet (the Food) has been updated. Again.

And there are some new pictures of nice butchers.

Killer sausages. The best, ever. Really.

Domestica - day in, day out

While mounds of snow stick like white limpets to the street edges, life inside goes on.

Drinks shaken with the flowers of last summer.

Dinners planned from a rack of spices.

Boules baked.

Broth boiled

Glasses washed.

Fish soup simmered.

Spicebush cordial cooked.

And always more hyacinths to stand guard against the dying of the light.

Spring in winter - opening the pickle jar

Last night we had some snacks. Except I called them zakuski, because the Russian sounds better with smoked fish, pickles, and clear, hard liquor. And because I had just written about them for Edible magazine. And because there is still snow in heaps on the ground.

With the pickled field garlic buds (lower right, and very good!) I also opened a jar of the long Japanese knotweed pickles I made last April. Their brine included a little allspice, and the flavour worked well. They were still very crunchy, which is why they make excellent pickles. They lose their fresh green colour in the pickling (and in any cooking), but I'm used to that, now.

Above, a sliced version left (with chile), and the tubes, right. 

Here they are, just emerging, in April. They are one of the first plants to show signs of life in the brown woods.

Above, a good example of which shoot is good to harvest: the fat one. The skinny one will be fibrous.
The width needs to be sturdy in relation to height.

I found good patches of Japanese knotweed - Polygonum cuspidatum - all over New York last year. I look for stands where the previous year's tall brown canes are still upright sticks. If they are missing the chances are good they were sprayed with glyphosates in the summer.

99.9% of the time knotweed is viewed only as a noxious invasive plant, which it is, in the US and Europe. But it's high time it was also recognized as an excellent vegetable. Viewing it as food would turn the expensive-to-control weed into an income booster for landowners and collectors, would spare the environment - that means the water we drink - the effects of mass glyphosate (Round-Up) use, and would also help to control the plant by creative mechanical means: harvesting the shoots repeatedly until the rhizome's energy source is depleted.

When they are very tender, I use the whole stem. Older stems I peel, and I discard the joints between each hollow section, as they can become tough. Raw, they are at their most sour. In heat they are far more mellow.

Easy Japanese knotweed soup (recipe in my book), with field garlic oil. The cooked flavour is reminscent of sorrel, and works very well with anything creamy, from dairy cream to coconut milk (see my lamb and knotweed curry) to the creamy texture of a pureed potatoes.

No books I've read mention eating the tips of the stems, once they are quite tall (4 feet). Last year I started using the tips where the leaves were still furled. Sauteed, they are a crunchy, tart vegetable with more texture than the young stems, that dissolve in heat. Good as a sside, dish, or in an omelette.

I think we'll still find knotweed in Inwood Hill Park on the walk I have scheduled for April 25th. So some along on that wild foods walk to see the beast in its habitat.

Have you eaten Japanese knotweed? Would you?

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Book a Botanical Spring Walk

Dove, mourning

Still cold.

Will be for a while.

But there is a crisper-drawer stuffed full of fall-dug lilies, there are ziplock bags of gloriosa tubers in the 55'F bedroom (ideal storage temperature!), there are stored seeds. Things waiting to happen.

And perhaps I should order more fava beans. The favas did well last year. The peas did not. In late spring an English author will come and photograph the Harlem terrace for her new book, and I should give her something to look at. Any ideas for late May blooms?

I went out walking

I headed out into the icy world to walk off some dark thoughts.

Snow, then rain, then a hard freeze had turned the world wonderful.

On Lenox Avenue, outside the Martin Luther King Houses, the street trees sparkled.

At the top of Central Park the snow was hard under the freeze.

The Harlem Meer was ice block solid.

The North Woods, so green in spring, stood frozen.

Some ski tracks, some boot prints, and nothing else to show passage.

I walked towards the light.

My heart was scrubbed in the silence.

I passed two people, both with cameras, and both smiled.

I passed tell-tale pokeweed, for spring.

And a tufted titmouse. Who said, There are worse things.

...

Like being called a titmouse. For example.

Crops in Pots Class

Spring will come!

I'll be giving an illustrated talk called Crops in Pots at the New York Botanic Garden, on April 20th.

Since my internal clock is wired to the growing seasons, I begin with spring crops and move through to the end of the year, covering the plants I think do best in containers, based on my own experience in full sun (Brooklyn) and what amounts to semi-shade (Harlem!). We talk about what, and how, along with common problems...

And bring your questions, too, as there will be plenty of time for Q & A.

Please register for Crops in Pots via the NYBG website.

The composter has landed

Here is the composter, at last. Jora JK125. Swedish composting brilliance. I had seen a composter like this on a client's terrace and was seduced by the beautiful compost it made: crumbly, dark, good-smelling. It took eight months to make up my mind, and here we are.

It arrived late at night in a great big box last week, after the snowstorm.

Mostly, assembly went well, if slowly, despite a severely furrowed brow and several expletives, mostly in the ...wtf...? vein: The instructions are not friendly. At the very end I had to take a piece of it apart again and turn the A frame legs around. I was not thrilled. That was around 7pm, having started unpacking the box at about 2pm. Somewhere inbetween, two sourdough loaves were baked and a supper of sorts was throw into (or perhaps at) the oven.

The last hour was a little tense, as Vince really wanted to help and I really wanted to finish it on my own. Which, at last, I did. With the help of the vermouth and cassis he delivered quietly, stepping like a mouse.

Phew.

Yesterday it was taken to a temporary spot on the terrace (till more snow melts) and given its first meal of chopped vegetable peelings. And a hot water bottle to help. The Swedes told me to do it! Once the first compartment is full (or almost) it will take about three weeks for compost. They say. I'll expect it to take longer because of the cold, but once the bacteria get going apparently things really cook. It is well insulated.

My steepest leaning curve? Operating two wrenches, at the same time, in opposite directions.

Greatest revelation? The right screwdriver  makes ALL the impossible possible. Left? Wrong. Right? Right! 

If Vince had not come home when he did and found the yellow for me I might have been booked into the funny farm by now.

                                         Night-night, vegetables. Sleep tight. 

Tell those bacteria to bite.