A New Heartsease...

Dande-Mocha-Frappuccino

 

Dande-Mocha-Frappuccino!

 

    Cooling, rich-tasting, caffeine-free, good for you, and satisfying! What's not to love?

    There's a couple of ways to make this beverage which I enjoy as my morning choice during the summer season. I make the hot version for cool autumn or cold winter mornings. 

    The simplest way to make this drink is by using a ground, roasted dandelion product called, Dandy Blend.

 

    I find Dandy Blend at most health food stores and on Amazon. It mixes easily and instantly with hot or cold water.

 

    Or, you can brew up a 3/4's cupful (leaving room for the frothed milk, of course) of Traditional Medicinal's Roasted Dandelion Root Tea. 

 

This tea has a rich coffee-like flavor and needs to steep for about 10 minutes for best results and flavor.

 

Or, you can gather, clean, chop, and roast your own dandelion roots as I used to do when I lived in my Utah farmhouse and allowed dandelions to grow in my garden beds for healthy chickens and a healthy me.

 

    However you choose to make this delicious, no-caffeine, healthful beverage it's good for you!

    Dandelion root has a cleansing action on the liver and gallbladder. It acts as a mild diuretic without flushing potassium from the body as do pharmaceutical diuretics. It is one of the most detoxifying herbs for the kidneys. It's helpful for detoxing from an over-consumption of alcohol. Hangover anyone?

    Dandelion roots are good for constipation, skin problems, arthritis, osteoarthritis (due to its high calcium content), and gout. Perhaps this is why at 72-years old I don't suffer from arthritis...or gout...or any of the other mentioned ailments?

    The recipe in this post uses Dandy Blend for a more instant beverage in the morning or in the afternoon as a healthful pick-me-up. But you won't get a coffee-type buzz. What you will get is a pleasurable, detoxifying and restorative drink!

 

A partial glass of Dandy Blend dissolved in water and some frothed almond milk.

 

Recipe: Dande-Mocha-Frappuccino (serves one)

1 heaping teaspoon of Dandy Blend

6 oz or 3/4's cup cold water

1/2 cup cold nut or dairy milk

6 drops of chocolate-flavored stevia, or to taste, optional

4 ice cubes

Sprinkle of cocoa powder or ground cinnamon as a garnish, if desired.

    Add the Dandy Blend to a glass. Pour in the water and stir to mix in the Dandy Blend. Add the stevia. Add the ice cubes. Pour 1/2 cup of cold milk into a measuring cup and using a wire whisk twirl/rub the handle rapidly between both palms to froth the milk.

    With a spoon holding back the froth, pour the remaining un-frothed milk into the Dandy mixture. Lastly, spoon the foam out of the cup onto the beverage. A sprinkle of cocoa powder or cinnamon makes a nice garnish. Sip and enjoy!

    Oh, and an almond, chocolate-dipped biscotti makes a nice "dunk" for this beverage.

 

 

 Notes:

For instructions on how to gather and prepare your own dandelion roots click on:

https://heartseasecottage.typepad.com/gails-garden-at-heartsea/2014/10/drink-your-morning-dandelions.html  

 

Not all nut milks will foam up. Pacific brand is one that does. Most "bistro" style nut or oat milks will do so, as well.

Dandy Blend is just that... a blend of the extracts of roasted barley, rye, chicory root, dandelion root and sugar beet. It is gluten free.

Barley has been used as a beverage for centuries. It acts to lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It is a good source of dietary fiber and aids in maintaining a healthy digestive system.

Rye is rich in B vitamins, contains some iron and potassium and fiber, has a low glycemic index, lowers cholesterol, is good for the digestion, has some antioxidant properties, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and the likelihood of gallstones.

Chicory root has similar health benefits as dandelion root and supports healthy digestion.

Beet root has a easing effect on high blood pressure and when highly processed is a source of white sugar. In the case of Dandy Blend it's not highly processed and doesn't confer any sweetness to the product that is detectable. It may act as another healthful ingredient that mellows the natural bitterness of the dandelion and chicory roots.

 

 

Sometimes I like it hot! Hot water, heated almond milk...frothed, Dandy Blend + a teaspoon of cocoa powder, plain stevia to sweeten. You'll definitely want a biscotti to dunk with this one! 

 

Tuna Steak In Wine-Reduction Topped With Shallots and Wood Sorrel Sauce

 

A Tuna Steak topped with a wine reduction sauce, shallots, and wood sorrel sauce with a side of green beans almondine.

 

    This recipe is more process than recipe!

To start, you'll need a tuna steak...and to set your oven to the "keep warm" or lowest setting. Add serving plate/s to warm.

 

Recipe/Process (serves one, but may be increased)

    

Thinly sliced shallot, about 10 slices, or as desired

One tuna steak, raw

1/4-cup Sauvignon blanc wine

Prepared sorrel sauce, warmed (see previous post, or URL below)

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon butter

lemon slice or wedge as garnish

Salt & pepper

    In a seasoned or non-stick, 8-inch skillet (or larger for more steaks), saute the sliced shallots on medium heat until just starting to turn golden. Set aside using a slotted spoon to retain as much oil in the pan as possible. Set the shallots on a folded paper towel to drain. 

    Salt and pepper one side of a tuna steak. If you need to add a bit more olive oil to the pan do so and allow it to heat up. Turn the tuna seasoned side down into the still hot oil of the skillet.

     Salt and pepper the upper side of the tuna. Sear on medium-high until golden. Turn and sear the other side until golden. Turn off the burner and allow the pan to cool for about five minutes leaving the tuna in the cooling pan. Add the wine to the skillet and turn heat to a medium-low simmer to poach. When the wine starts to simmer cover the pan tightly with a lid.

    Poach the tuna for 7 to 10 minutes (7 for desired inner pinkness, 10 minutes for less pinkness). Remove the tuna to the warmed plate and keep warm in the oven while making the wine reduction sauce.

    If needed, simmer the wine until it has reduced by half and slightly thickens. Add butter and stir into the wine to silken the sauce. Taste and add a dash of salt, if needed.

    Drizzle the sauce on top of the tuna, add the cooked shallots, a generous dollop of sorrel sauce, and a wedge of lemon for garnish.

    The tuna goes nicely with a side of green beans almondine or baked asparagus. If desired, squeeze a bit of the lemon garnish on the vegetables. Enjoy!

   

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Notes:

Ideally, tuna steaks are served a bit pink in the center.

If you don't want your tuna pink in the center, you may cook it for 12 to 14 minutes. It will be firmer and less moist, but still tasty.

Of course you'll need to increase the ingredients for each additional tuna steak you prepare i.e. four tuna steaks would require one cup of wine, and so on.

Click the link below to access the wood sorrel sauce post which also includes another link to a post containing a variation on the sorrel sauce.

 

 https://heartseasecottage.typepad.com/gails-garden-at-heartsea/2022/08/micro-harvest-wood-sorrel.html

 

Micro-Harvest: Creamy Wood Sorrel Sauce

 

A "micro-photo" for a micro-harvest!

 

   Because I know that many people don't have time to do much reading through a blog to get to a recipe at the end...and simply want to cut-to-the-chase...here's the recipe for creamy wood sorrel sauce that goes great on fish and egg dishes.

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Recipe: Creamy Sorrel Sauce (serves two)

1-cup of wood sorrel leaves stems removed, and rinsed

1-1/2 to 2 tsp. melted butter

Scant dash of salt

Cream for thinning to desired consistency

Wedged or thinly sliced lemons for a garnish.

    Melt the butter in a non-stick or seasoned skillet. Add the sorrel leaves. On medium-low heat, cook and stir the leaves until they attain an olive green color and "melt" down into a thick sauce.

    Add a splash, or several, of cream to create the sauce consistency you desire for fish, chicken, or egg dishes. Garnish with sauteed shallot slices and lemon slices or wedges, if desired. 

 

Seared and poached tuna steak with Sauvignon blanc reduction sauce, sauteed shallot slices, wood sorrel sauce with a side of green beans almondine. See my next post - in a few days - for the process of making this dish.

 

* * * * *

    Wood sorrel goes by several names...sour grass, creeping wood sorrel, lemon clover, pickle plant, and oxalis...yes, you read me right. OXALIS! Yes, that common lawn "weed" that is so hard to kill. But why would anyone want to?

    Wood sorrel is beautiful (and cute from a clovery and miniscule standpoint), tasty, and useful. I say, what's not to love!

    Botanically, it's known as Oxalis stricta. And, it has so many wonderful properties - both edible and medicinal (see Notes below for its medicinal uses).

    Today, we're going to explore my favorite way to prepare and eat this so-called "weed".

    Remember a weed is simply a plant growing in what we have deemed the "wrong place". I might also add, that a weed is a plant we have not allowed ourselves to appreciate - rather like the unmet stranger with the potential to become a dear friend or strong ally. 

    When I think of wood sorrel, French garden sorrel with its large, arrow-shaped, lemony-flavored leaves comes to mind. So tasty as a sauce, as a base for soup, an ingredient in soups and salads or pasta dishes, and my favorite...sorrel sauce. And wood sorrel has the same flavor as French sorrel!

    Sorrel sauce goes wonderfully with eggs and fish, also chicken. French Sorrel grew in my Utah garden but went mostly dormant during the summer heat, coming back robustly as cooler temperatures returned. It grew in an honored spot at the back steps near the kitchen door.

    A smaller wilder version grows here in Idaho. It's called "sheep sorrel". It has small arrow-shaped leaves, the same lemony flavor, and may be gathered from late Spring until Fall.

    Today we'll explore another sorrel, wood sorrel. It has the same flavor as the other sorrels, grows everywhere - the woods, in garden beds, and, of course, lawns. It's easy to find and harvest, but a little tedious to prepare.

 

Wood sorrel harvested from garden beds and borders around my condo. It differs from the clover family of plants because it has heart-shaped leaves.

 

    Now comes the "tedious" part, but I make it enjoyable instead.

    After all, it comes down to how we think about a thing or event that determines our enjoyment and level of inner peace. So, I fix myself a dande-mocha-frappuccino (will share this recipe in an upcoming post), park myself at the bistro table on my front porch and begin to process the wood sorrel.

    The fibrous stems must be removed from the tender leaves. I pinch the stems off at the base of each leaf. Processed leaves go into one bowl and the stems in another for discarding.

 

    

A metal bowl for the de-stemmed leaves, my harvest bowl in the center, on the right a bowl for the discarded stems. Near the Mason jar candle is the remains of my dande-mocha-frappuccino. Yum!

 

    I try, and most often succeed, in elevating seemingly tedious tasks by adding enjoyable elements to the process or giving myself some sort of reward upon completion.

    This morning while processing the sorrel leaves I relished the view across the condo common to the woods beyond, sipped my beverage, and enjoyed the coolness of a lovely Summer's morning soon to turn way too hot. My heart was buoyed by gratitude that I'm retired and have the luxury of time to spend on wee, and not so wee, tasks and chores, for the place where I live, and that in this moment - all things and beings in my world are well.

 

After separating the leaves from their stems, a gentle rinse is needed.

 

    After rinsing I allowed excess water to drain from the leaves for about 10 minutes. 

 

My leaf harvest resulted in about one cup of leaves. To a pan I added about 1-1/2 teaspoons of butter to a skillet to melt before adding the sorrel leaves.

 

As the leaves soften they change from bright green to olive green and "melt" into a saucy consistency.

 

All cooked down. The sauce is now ready to use as is, or after adding a splash of cream to thin and create the proper saucy consistency for your needs. Or, at this stage - prior to adding the cream - it may be frozen for up to three months.

 

    The finished sauce - sans cream - has a bright citrus taste, plus a hint of artichoke heart-dipped-in-butter flavor. Once cream is added the sauce lightens in color and maintains a mild lemony/citron flavor.

     If I need just a bit of sauce for only one or two servings I'll harvest the wood sorrel from the condo gardens. If I desire more servings, with only a minimum of processing, I'll go a few miles farther afield to a nearby forested park where sheep sorrel grows in abundance.

    My purpose for this micro-harvest of wood sorrel is to make myself a tuna steak with sorrel sauce for lunch today (see photo near the top of this post) and a poached egg "Florentine" using sorrel sauce instead of spinach for my breakfast/brunch on Sunday morning.  

 

Notes:

Sorrel is rich is oxalic acid and therefore shouldn't be eaten in great quantities by those with kidney failure or who are pregnant. I eat it several times a year in small quantities as a sauce or flavoring ingredient in soups.

 Sorrell soothes the stomach, cools the skin, treats scurvy (Vit. C content), fever, urinary tract infections, swollen gums, sore throats, nausea, and mouth sores. It is said to cleanse the blood and benefit the liver. and may aid in cancer cases. However, sheep sorrel - Rumex acetosella - displays even more of these attributes.

For another version of my Sorrel Sauce visit:

https://heartseasecottage.typepad.com/gails-garden-at-heartsea/2017/08/creamy-tangy-wood-sorrel-sauce.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Saucy" Oregon Grape Experiment and Tasting

 

Oregon Grape Sauce on cream cheese-smeared Ritz crackers

 

    Sometimes I'm an urban forager!

    I'm lucky enough to live on the edge of town and have access to forest trails a block from my condo for my daily walk. 

   During various seasons I find wild herbs and edibles, and now as summer is half over I decided to harvest some Oregon grape berries and experiment with them.

    These plants are native to many Northwestern states and are also a popular landscape plant bearing bright yellow, fragrant flowers in Spring. They come in both a tall shrub version (Mahonia aquifolium) and a smaller prostrate type (Mahonia nervosa). Both grow abundantly near where I live in Northern Idaho.

    Their bright yellow roots have antibiotic properties due to their berberine content. Roots are easiest gathered from the smaller, prostrate variety.

    Their leaves look like holly and are just as prickly!

 

Holly-like leaves turn burgundy in the fall but don't fall off. New growth leaves are red.

 

    I know the berries are edible but have never gathered them. So, I decided to experiment with them as they're now ripe and grow in numerous places along the forest trails where I walk.

 

On today's walk I noticed that the lush grasses from copious Spring rains are just  beginning to droop and turn yellow as summer heads towards Autumn.

 

    So let's walk on up the path and around the corner. I know there's some Oregon grape up ahead!

 

This medium-size bush has some ripe berries! Some bushes grow up to eight feet tall.

 

    Using a small pair of pruners I carry when I walk so I can gather whatever is ripe and useful, and being careful of the thorny leaves, I harvested a few bunches off of several plants. I'm careful not to harvest everything off of a single bush, but take several bunches before moving on to the next one...good forager stewardship benefits the plants, the animals, and people, too!

 

My research indicated that after the first frost some of the natural tartness is mitigated and natural sugars are more abundant, but they're edible all season long after they ripen in late June.

 

    Did I say "edible"? Did I mention "tartness" and "natural sugars"? 

    It must be noted that while the berries may be eaten fresh off the bush - birds and animals do - for humans the berries are usually way too tart! Therefore, sugar or honey is added to the berries before they're made into sauce, jelly, or wine because to be palatable to us bi-peds they need to/must be sweetened!

 

I gathered about a cup of berries - just enough to experiment with - and plucked them from their stems. Notice that they have a grayish bloom - similar to that found on grapes and some varieties of wild elderberries.

 

   
One cup of rinsed berries with 1/2-cup of sugar added.

 

After a few minutes of simmering the berries are beginning to soften, burst, and release their juice and seeds.

 

Next I separated the juice from the seeds and mashed everything with a wooden spoon to extract all the juice and some pulp.

 

The strained juice and a bit of the pulp that came through the strainer is heated to a low boil. The berries are said to contain their own pectin so in the future I'll try cooking them down sufficiently to form a jelly. Today, I simply wanted a thick sauce.

 

I ended up with a smooth, glossy, slightly-thickened sauce. The pulp seemed to have emulsified into the sauce.

 

    I dipped a spoon into the sauce and lightly licked it. Wow! The sauce was very "berryishly" tasty!

    There was only about two tablespoons of sauce so I decided to spread some herbed cream cheese onto some Ritz crackers and top the cheese with the sauce. Yummy!!! So yummy I ate the remaining sauce straight up with a spoon!

    I'll experiment again by gathering more berries for making a few small jars of jelly in the near future, then again after the first frost, to see if there's a noticeable difference in taste and sweetness.

    Perhaps at a future time I'll also experiment with making a honey mead or some wine! The berries are rich in Vitamin C.

    Most of the berberine and medicinal qualities of the plants are found in the roots and bark from which tea and tincture may be made.

 

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Notes:

As with most wild plants, use moderately, consuming only a small amount to see if there are any allergic or other reactions.

Herbalists recommend no more than three cups of root tea per day - boil one to one-and-a-half teaspoons of chopped roots in one cup of water for 15 minutes, cool and strain.

Root cream is used topically to treat moderate psoriasis and is commercially available.

Oregon grape - Mahonia Aquifolium is sometimes listed as Berberis aquifolium.

The roots of Oregon Grape are often substituted for Goldenseal - a  now very endangered species.

Oregon grape roots - in tea and tincture forms - may be used for other ailments such as fever, jaundice, diarrhea (from E. coli), infections - throat, urinary tract, intestinal; and arthritis, as well.

Babies and pregnant women should not be given or use Oregon grape in any form.