Nettles, yes! One of those greens that are so essential in springtime when our blood is weakened by weeks and weeks of mostly stored food (or that's the way it used to be). Nettles, like dandelion greens, are full of minerals and antioxidants that boost us out of winter doldrums almost as surely as cherry blossoms do. You are far advanced in spring over there in Toronto. I spent the weekend in Magog, south of Montreal (I think) and the buds on the trees were still hesitant, timid, awaiting some sunshine before they would fully open. But it was a good trip, despite the chilly weather, and so good to get out of the Benighted States.
In answer to your leftover question: I always want them. Tonight for dinner Paul ate Saturday’s meatballs and I had Friday’s Farro with asparagus. Mostly leftovers mean lunch food, or breakfast, but sometimes dinner, and it’s always better than ordering in when we’re not cooking. Cooking is love and effort, might as well spread the bounty out.
That's absolutely how I feel about leftovers. We had the leftover lamb this evening, lovely pan juices too. But mostly I eat leftover grains and greens for breakfast. The best. With an egg or two on top, natch
I always want leftovers! I most often cook for myself and by having a main course already cooked, I save time. That’s how I survived when I was working: I
cooked on Saturdays—something that would be good on subsequent days or would freeze well. Coming home after work, I only had to make a salad and a vegetable and dinner was ready. If I am cooking a meal for friends, I still aim for leftovers because I know I will enjoy the leftovers free of the pressure of seeing to guests.
I first discovered nettles here in Germany. The first time I had it was up north and I came across nettle soup—a rich, cream-based soup. Later in Orvieto, I was served a nettle pesto with a filet of beef. After I settled in Germany, I spent a spring weekend in a small Bavarian town nestled on a lake learning to identify and cook wild plants. The teacher, up in years at the time, had written numerous books on healing and culinary wild plants and was a regular guest on the Bavarian radio broadcaster.
The first day of the program, we went into the fields and she pointed out this and that. She came to a clump of nettles—a prolific weed here. After landing in a nettle patch when climbing over a wall, I had great respect for the plant and did my best to keep my distance. She, on the other hand, plunged her bare hand into the nettles and harvested what she needed. I watched with horror, expecting her to react with pain, but she laughed and said the reason she didn’t have arthritis was because she regularly handled nettles.
I am much more measured in my harvesting method and wear gloves. I use the steamed nettles to make a risotto. I stir in some of our local mountain cheese and enjoy a dinner that tastes of the Bavarian spring.
I love nettles and would find them in the San Francisco farmers market occasionally. I have used them incorporated into gnocchi soaked in a mage broth.
An interesting question about leftovers. In India, we are required to have leftovers on the table. If the dish finishes it is both embarrassing to the host and a sign to the guest that they are not welcome. It is such an interesting cultural difference.
Nettles - you need loads - doesn't have to be just the tops, lower leaves are fine at the beginning of the season. And I do cook em right down to a mush, and chop em up finely and pack em in a box in the freezer for a lasage layer in a bechamel, or stuffing pancakes. And I don't tell anyone ir's not spinach unless I trust them - people can be odd about forage (or maybe I get found out anyway).
leftovers are everything to me! i'm forgetful of lunches so knowing there's something with minimal effort and enough to feed everyone a little more in the near future is something that makes me feel really secure and at ease. and leftover rice and beans topped with an egg, salsa, and some cheese for breakfast never gets old!
I hope I’ve understood this right - the sense that abundance is its own kind of reassurance and care, and that an empty rice pot leaves a small space of uncertainty.
Nettles are one of those Spring things that people go nuts over. Other than wintered greens and often watercress, nettles announce Spring. The now seven billion deer population that has taken over the entire state of New Jersey - no, these are not healthy animals - will fight over it. Nettles are a nutritional powerhouse. We have posts about nettle amasake, nettle idli, nettle callaloo, nettle chutney, nettle flatbreads, nettle sodas, nettle kombucha, etc. in the archives. As for your leftover question. My belief is that no one would actually ever learn how to cook without leftovers. Especially in professional kitchens. The younger or newly minted chefs were always tasked with making something edible for the staff from leftovers. But, along with your feeling that you have somehow failed at hospitality, couple that with the idea that many if not most people eat whatever they can. As in, what's available or what they can afford. We are indeed a spoiled world that has rarely gone hungry - at least those of us that have time to write about the food we eat or grow. To me, leftovers always meant an easily available brunch lunch or dinner. In macrobiotic training, in cooking school, home economics classes etc. you were trained to cook things you could use for a week. The fresh things that had to be made daily - sometimes because you foraged them - can even be made to have leftovers. Unless you're planning to throw uneaten food out, a sin in every religion, or a transgression against the Earth and humanity. Freeze it. Have your koji ready and make a paste for cooking out of it. Salt it down. Use it for egg rolls or dumplings. Frittata. I'm convinced that dumplings were created to use up food that would never have been thrown out. Egg rolls. Stir fried rice. You know you can make stir fried rice with leftover biryani? And the best arancini are made from leftover risotto. The wealthy world wastes huge sums of food daily while the majority are hungry or starving. I judge the skills and usefulness to the world of a professional chef by how they plan what to do with leftovers, as well as whether they are smart enough to make sure they have some for the next shift. With grains and legumes, it's really a no brainer. I think that's how the whole concept of tadkas came about. May you always have enough fat to make your leftovers a meal that everyone gets to eat. Never underestimate the satisfaction and nourishment that someone gets just from eating in each other's presence. Sounds like no one left hungry, or felt restrained, and that you fed them well.
Nettles, yes! One of those greens that are so essential in springtime when our blood is weakened by weeks and weeks of mostly stored food (or that's the way it used to be). Nettles, like dandelion greens, are full of minerals and antioxidants that boost us out of winter doldrums almost as surely as cherry blossoms do. You are far advanced in spring over there in Toronto. I spent the weekend in Magog, south of Montreal (I think) and the buds on the trees were still hesitant, timid, awaiting some sunshine before they would fully open. But it was a good trip, despite the chilly weather, and so good to get out of the Benighted States.
In answer to your leftover question: I always want them. Tonight for dinner Paul ate Saturday’s meatballs and I had Friday’s Farro with asparagus. Mostly leftovers mean lunch food, or breakfast, but sometimes dinner, and it’s always better than ordering in when we’re not cooking. Cooking is love and effort, might as well spread the bounty out.
That's absolutely how I feel about leftovers. We had the leftover lamb this evening, lovely pan juices too. But mostly I eat leftover grains and greens for breakfast. The best. With an egg or two on top, natch
I always want leftovers! I most often cook for myself and by having a main course already cooked, I save time. That’s how I survived when I was working: I
cooked on Saturdays—something that would be good on subsequent days or would freeze well. Coming home after work, I only had to make a salad and a vegetable and dinner was ready. If I am cooking a meal for friends, I still aim for leftovers because I know I will enjoy the leftovers free of the pressure of seeing to guests.
I first discovered nettles here in Germany. The first time I had it was up north and I came across nettle soup—a rich, cream-based soup. Later in Orvieto, I was served a nettle pesto with a filet of beef. After I settled in Germany, I spent a spring weekend in a small Bavarian town nestled on a lake learning to identify and cook wild plants. The teacher, up in years at the time, had written numerous books on healing and culinary wild plants and was a regular guest on the Bavarian radio broadcaster.
The first day of the program, we went into the fields and she pointed out this and that. She came to a clump of nettles—a prolific weed here. After landing in a nettle patch when climbing over a wall, I had great respect for the plant and did my best to keep my distance. She, on the other hand, plunged her bare hand into the nettles and harvested what she needed. I watched with horror, expecting her to react with pain, but she laughed and said the reason she didn’t have arthritis was because she regularly handled nettles.
I am much more measured in my harvesting method and wear gloves. I use the steamed nettles to make a risotto. I stir in some of our local mountain cheese and enjoy a dinner that tastes of the Bavarian spring.
I love nettles and would find them in the San Francisco farmers market occasionally. I have used them incorporated into gnocchi soaked in a mage broth.
An interesting question about leftovers. In India, we are required to have leftovers on the table. If the dish finishes it is both embarrassing to the host and a sign to the guest that they are not welcome. It is such an interesting cultural difference.
Nettles - you need loads - doesn't have to be just the tops, lower leaves are fine at the beginning of the season. And I do cook em right down to a mush, and chop em up finely and pack em in a box in the freezer for a lasage layer in a bechamel, or stuffing pancakes. And I don't tell anyone ir's not spinach unless I trust them - people can be odd about forage (or maybe I get found out anyway).
Yes, not telling can be critical. A bit like anchovies, because many people are strange about those too.
leftovers are everything to me! i'm forgetful of lunches so knowing there's something with minimal effort and enough to feed everyone a little more in the near future is something that makes me feel really secure and at ease. and leftover rice and beans topped with an egg, salsa, and some cheese for breakfast never gets old!
Lovely. Thank you
I hope I’ve understood this right - the sense that abundance is its own kind of reassurance and care, and that an empty rice pot leaves a small space of uncertainty.
Thinking of you.
Nettles are one of those Spring things that people go nuts over. Other than wintered greens and often watercress, nettles announce Spring. The now seven billion deer population that has taken over the entire state of New Jersey - no, these are not healthy animals - will fight over it. Nettles are a nutritional powerhouse. We have posts about nettle amasake, nettle idli, nettle callaloo, nettle chutney, nettle flatbreads, nettle sodas, nettle kombucha, etc. in the archives. As for your leftover question. My belief is that no one would actually ever learn how to cook without leftovers. Especially in professional kitchens. The younger or newly minted chefs were always tasked with making something edible for the staff from leftovers. But, along with your feeling that you have somehow failed at hospitality, couple that with the idea that many if not most people eat whatever they can. As in, what's available or what they can afford. We are indeed a spoiled world that has rarely gone hungry - at least those of us that have time to write about the food we eat or grow. To me, leftovers always meant an easily available brunch lunch or dinner. In macrobiotic training, in cooking school, home economics classes etc. you were trained to cook things you could use for a week. The fresh things that had to be made daily - sometimes because you foraged them - can even be made to have leftovers. Unless you're planning to throw uneaten food out, a sin in every religion, or a transgression against the Earth and humanity. Freeze it. Have your koji ready and make a paste for cooking out of it. Salt it down. Use it for egg rolls or dumplings. Frittata. I'm convinced that dumplings were created to use up food that would never have been thrown out. Egg rolls. Stir fried rice. You know you can make stir fried rice with leftover biryani? And the best arancini are made from leftover risotto. The wealthy world wastes huge sums of food daily while the majority are hungry or starving. I judge the skills and usefulness to the world of a professional chef by how they plan what to do with leftovers, as well as whether they are smart enough to make sure they have some for the next shift. With grains and legumes, it's really a no brainer. I think that's how the whole concept of tadkas came about. May you always have enough fat to make your leftovers a meal that everyone gets to eat. Never underestimate the satisfaction and nourishment that someone gets just from eating in each other's presence. Sounds like no one left hungry, or felt restrained, and that you fed them well.