Pages

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Pokeweed scramble


It just kills me to cook a green three times. The death of  a vegetable. But I obeyed all the admonitions about pokeweed, later learning that many Southerners won't go overboard with the flash boiling. Next time. Also I could have kept some of the young greens.

I stuck to basics and tradition, employing pig and eggs in the skillet, and turned this onto pillowy slices of Wonderbread once the eggs were barely cooked. In my defense, I had bought the chemical loaf to satisfy an earlier craving for toasted cheese sandwiches...


After stripping the thin membrane from the young, all-green stalks I chopped them into two inch pieces, blanched them three times in changes of water, and cooked them about three minutes on the last boil. I nibbled some pieces, waiting for my throat to seize up and the death rattle to develop as I gasped instructions to Vince about feeding the cat. Nothing happened. So I cooked some pancetta, about four strips each, added two cups of pokeweed, stirred, squeezed a little lemon over, grated on some parmesan and cracked in an egg each. Stir, done, eat.


Not the prettiest food I ever cooked, but it tasted good, hm hm hm. Even the Frenchie approved, wolfing his, while trying hard not to think that I had foraged it from an old garbage dump.

Prettiest dump I ever saw.

3 comments:

  1. Poke salad (not salat in Tennessee) is one of those things that I grew up hearing about, but never actually knew anyone who ate it. I would have said that it was cooked a long time with pork, like other greens. [think collards or kale cooked to death.] Had no idea it was the stems that one eats!

    Don't think I will actually try it this year, but maybe next. The hard part is that to me it's a WEED. Not sure I can eat a weed....

    ReplyDelete
  2. fascinating. actually i thought it was poison. i love weeds and sometimes use them to make medicines and tinctures. pokeweed root can be used for a tincture but if you take too much it is poison.

    this is a new way to use it to me. i noticed plenty of pokeweed growing by the roadside on my last walk.

    ReplyDelete
  3. webb - I look forward to next year's stems. They really were worthwhile.

    suki - if it is red it is poisonous. Do not eat big red stems, mature leaves or the berries. Never eat it raw...

    ReplyDelete

Comments will appear after moderation. If you need to get in touch DM me on Instagram @marie_viljoen