Recipe book idea

[contadina]

I have to add some that are popular in Italy but hardly anywhere else:

Cima di rapa a distant relative of the turnip but looks and tastes more like a mustardy sprouting broccoli - can be boiled, sauted or baked and tastes delicious.

Chicory - there are so many varieties that I've never seen anywhere else e.g., catalognia (a big fat bulb that can be eaten raw or cooked) wild chicory - has wonderful fat pointy bits that you can boil then saute (very important to change the water after a wee while else it will be too bitter).

Artichoke stems - can't wait for the heads to form then pick some of the tender young stems, peel them as you would an old celery. Boil slightly then either saute or cook in a frittata.

Friars beard - looks like a long and thick bunch of chives. It tastes like samphire when young and is more like spinach when old and then dressed with oil and lemon or sauted in oil and garlic.

Borage - either dipped in batter and fried or added to ricotta ravioli mix..

Which brings me nicely onto courgette flowers - great battered and fried either with or without cheesy filling or great chopped and added to frittatas and pastas.

Lampascioni - grape hyacincth bulbs - similar to small onions - lovely roasted and preserved in oil.

Scorzonera - black salsify - cooked like carrots

[RBG]

Yacon...I'm growing this again for the first time in years. I remember producing a tuber as long as my arm last time and not being too sure what to do with it.

I think kale might be a candidate for the uncommon vegetables list in NZ because so far every visitor to my garden has not known what it is

[farmerdrea]

Oh! What kind of kale are you growing? I had always grown it in the states, but I can't always find the seed here, so usually save my own. Last year, something ate all the seed before I could get any, and the old seeds from the year before never germinated.

Andrea
NZ

[marshlander]

Cavelo nero is my fav' Looks good too planted with pot marigolds.

[Amaranth]

Edible flowers
Garlic scapes
Watermelon radish
pak choy
White eggplants
Thin asian eggplants
Day lilies
Hosta
Cilantro
Edible chrysanthemum
Perilla
Mugwort
Winter melon
Grape leaves
Broccolini
Dandelion greens/flowers
Chicory
Flax seed
Peanuts
Seet potato greens
Rose hips or petals

[frozenthunderbolt]

Yacon, grown well is lovely. tastes somewhere betwenn a carrot and an apple - sweet and jucy. I lvoe them raw and chilled then peeled and eaten like an apple.

NZ spinich, Tetragonia (sp?) is GREAT i love it and it grows like a weed, rather bland, but that is all to the good in my opinion - means it can be added to nearly anything.

pipino pepino (sp?) are a nice wee fruit in the salanum family i believe and taste rather like rockmellon when well ripe - have the same ammelacetate flavour.

Choko's - grow madly and are best eated when converted into pork

[contadina]

Another Italian fave - romanesco (a funky spiral-refracted looking veg that tastes like a cross between a cauliflower and a broccoli (as the name suggests they were very popular with the Romans). Don't know about NZ, but these were just getting popular in the UK when we left. Taste divine when stir fried with some chilli and garlic and eaten with pasta and pecorino.

[hedgewitch]

Ummmm....Plantain is the only one I can think of that hasn't already been mentioned.
How about covering fruits as well?

[Karen_D]

Carlins are my fave! They used to be served regulalry in Elizabethan times, but fell from favour and became used as cattle feed. They are served in this area the second sunday before Easter in memory of the ship that crashed and the starving villagers were saved by eating its cargo of carlins. They are also called brown peas, maple peas or pigeon peas. They grow just like ordinary green peas but have lovely purple flowers. The pea itself has a "meatier" taste than its green cousin and they make lovely soup! We'll be planting this years crop very soon

Around here they are called "grey peas" and there is a local dish Grey Peas and Bacon which is popular. Good to know they grow well in the UK as I'm used to getting mine from the pet shop (really! it's a done thing around here because few human food shops sell them).

Wassail

Karen

[Nomada]

I know this is an old thread but how about achocha? It's a south american climber from the same family as the cucumber, I'm growing it for the first time this year thanks to the kindness of the lady who created the alternative kitchen garden podcast.

[MKG]

Definitely Fat Hen. I've no idea about it, but I've always loved the name.

Mike

[Millymollymandy]

This wild veg that Andy wrote about on the main site is the best one of all.

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/fat.htm

[MKG]

This wild veg that Andy wrote about on the main site is the best one of all.

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/fat.htm

Never seen that! My first thought is that there should be a sticky where people can write in with their tales of Fat Lad success or failure.

Mike

[citizentwiglet]

What about Rock Samphire? Acquired taste, but I love it.

[Millymollymandy]

This wild veg that Andy wrote about on the main site is the best one of all.

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/fat.htm

Never seen that! My first thought is that there should be a sticky where people can write in with their tales of Fat Lad success or failure.

Mike

It was one of Andy's better April Fools Day jokes, once upon a time he did them on the forum/main site every year. The next year he told us he was thinking of selling the site to AOL who had offered him half a million quid.