Anodyne
Thursday, June 19, 2008
 

Lysichiton americanus, aka dinner. Lots of these guys up the Mamquam. Spurred by a (dim) memory of one of my native plant books describing them as edible, I took the Seabus over to North Vancouver and harvested a few leaves from the Mosquito Creek watershed. Back home, I chopped the greens into chunks and briefly sauteed them with olive oil, garlic, and cracked black pepper. Surprisingly good; kind of like a mustard-spinach cross, with definite bite. As it turns out, the native plant book recommends eating the roots and using the leaves for food storage. Also on last night's menu: radish tops, spurred by feeling guilty about putting 90% of the plant into the compost heap. These guys benefit from finer chopping and longer sauteeing, but they're perfectly edible, and equally peppery.

Q: Don't you eat real food any more?

A: Sure! Bunch of chopped kale, two big leeks. Olive oil, cracked black pepper. New "Yukon Golds," roughly chopped into quarters. Three cups organic chicken stock, one cup water. Dried red chile seeds. Forty-five minutes with the lid on. Sea salt, garnish of finely diced inner, spicy, lime-colored leek leaves. "We make money by buying food, fixing it up and serving it," Bill Buford quotes Mario Batali as saying, rummaging through Babbo's kitchen trash for edible gold. "Not by throwing it away."


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