All posts tagged: forage

Forage something and cook with it

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There is loads of onion weed in the garden again and a recent post on Alessandra Zecchini’s blog reminded me of the onion weed dumplings I made last year. I’m loving daylight savings time and it’s nice to be able to cook and photograph in natural light after work. I made these potato cakes for a pre-dinner snack but I think it will be easy to find another reason to eat these. I used the bottom 10cm of the plant which is the white/green base. It’s crisp rather than stringy. Thoroughly wash the onion weed and don’t use any that may have been sprayed with yucky chemicals. Otherwise, happy foraging! Onion Weed Potato Cakes Makes 8 Ingredients 2 large potatoes 1 egg, beaten 1/2 cup chopped onion weed 3/4 cup grated cheese salt (garlic salt optional)  black pepper Oil 8 onion weed flowers for garnish  Preparation Preheat oven to 180°C. Peel the potatoes and remove the skin. Continue peeling the potatoes until it gets too hard to grip. Reserve for another use – about a …

Onion Weed Dumplings

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Maybe you have a ton of onion weed in your backyard like we do. It’s chive smell can be experienced every time we or a neighbour mows the lawn. Onion weed is actually quite pretty with it’s fairyland looking flowers. It’s hard to imagine that it is so offensive to some people (being a noxious weed and all). If you are unsure, don’t eat it. Otherwise, happy foraging! Tofu the bunny doesn’t pay onion weed any attention. Since our neighbour mentioned they eat onion weed in dumplings, I’ve been dying to try it out. So here’s a recipe I fudged together. Enjoy! Onion Weed Dumplings Makes about 50 dumplings Ingredients 500 grams (1 pound) pork mince 10 leaves onion weed 7 onion weed flower tops (about 5 flowers each) 12 dried shitaake mushrooms 1 tablespoon black vinegar Salt 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 teaspoon chili seasoning 1 teaspoon minced ginger 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 cup of water 1 packet of dumpling wrappers Preparation Soak the mushrooms in 1 cup of hot water for a 5 minutes. …

Eating noxious weeds

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Onion weed grows everywhere in New Zealand and is considered a noxious weed. Why  it hasn’t become a national ingredient is beyond me. We have a lot of onion weed in our backyard and I found out a little while ago that it was edible, but I hadn’t decided how to use it in my cooking. Our neighbour came around to our house last week – he and his baby daughter like to visit Tofu in the garden every now and then. My neighbour’s wife is Mongolian and he mentioned that Mongolians eat onion weed. His wife uses the leaves and flowers in dumplings. I often use spring onion or chives in pork dumplings, so onion weed would be an easy substitute. My first attempt to cook with onion weed was nothing fancy, just some scrambled eggs. My bouquet of onion weed, sage and coriander just before I chopped it up and added it to my scrambled eggs. Onion weed scrambled eggs with an onion weed flower as a garnish. The flowers have a much milder …

Kai to Pie and World on your Plate: Maori

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Kai to Pie “Kai to Pie — Pie to Chai — Nosh to Posh. Whatever way you slice it, Auckland’s stories can be told through food: from the extraordinary wealth of people and cultures, to its fertile abundance of land, sun and sea, come up to the Museum for a serving of Auckland on your plate.” If you haven’t already been, check out the Kai to Pie exhibition at the Auckland Museum. There’s still 3 weeks until it ends and it’s free to all Aucklanders. 12 June – 25 October 2010 Special Exhibitions Hall Auckland Museum Free entry Here are some of my photos from the exhibition. World On Your Plate: Maori Running in conjunction with this exhibition is World On Your Plate – Saturday demonstrations of cuisine from around the world. I attended the Maori food demonstration by Charles Royal and his family in July. Charles is “a fierce advocate of sustainable local cuisine, indigenous produce”. Sadly, Maori dishes and native ingredients don’t feature in the day to day cuisine of the majority of New Zealanders. …