Happy Urban Dirt

Picture this: you’ve just spread out a picnic blanket, a frigid breeze is blowing, the leaves are changing colors, and you’re enjoying delicious home-cooked food. The one thing that can make your fall picnic even better is to source the ingredients yourself.

The recipes below are from Feed, harvest, feast By Maria Viljoen. It has been adapted for operate on the Internet.

Yogurt Cheese With Wild Herbs

Serves 8-10 as an appetizer

An Instagram post by Danielle Prohom Olson, who forages on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, inspired what has become a favorite spring dish in my kitchen. My version is flavored with forages from the Northeast, wild salt and adolescent garlic plucked from the garden.

You can operate any seasonal herb salt and fresh herbs you like, but I love the accent of the four species of alliums with a little ground elderberry in this creamy, very spreadable cheese (technically labneh, drained yogurt). The better yogurt you operate, the better the result.

Ingredients

• 1 pound (453 g) Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons of very finely chopped, fine, ground elderberry leaves
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped field garlic
• 1 tablespoon of dried, salted rampa leaves
• 1 tablespoon chives flowers (divided into individual flowers)
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped green garlic (or ramp onions or field garlic)
• 3/4 teaspoon ramp salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground elderberry salt

Procedure

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Place a double layer of cheesecloth on a strainer set over another bowl.
3. Place edible flowers or leaves for decoration –chives, mustard, sheep’s sorrel, dandelionn – inside the fabric.
4. Carefully pour the yogurt mixture onto them.
5. Bring the corners of the napkin or cloth together and twist so that the yogurt forms a ball. Hold it firmly for a few seconds, allowing some of the liquid to drain out. Undo the turn.
6. Now wrap the cloth tightly around the ball and tie with kitchen twine.
7. Transfer the wrapped yogurt to a strainer and bowl to the refrigerator.
8. The cheese can be enjoyed after 4 hours, but after 12 it is much harder. Gently remove the fabric wrap and place on a serving board or plate.
9. Serve with crackers, toast, nettle and ramp cakes and honeycomb or in a fresh salad.

Elderberry gin and chicken liver mousse

For 6 pots, ½ cup (125 ml) each

The mousse has a lithe and silky consistency and is quick to prepare. If you operate a cream that contains an additive such as carrageenan, don’t worry about the strangely gelatinous consistency of the mixture after mixing. But try to find a cream that is just cream (harder than it looks).

You can also substitute Sweetfern Bourbon or Bayberry Beach Plum Gin for the elderberry gin. Serve with good toast or bread and side dishes field garlic marmalade, blackcurrant juniper chutney or fermented elderberry capers.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces (113 g) melted butter
• 1 pound (453 g) cleaned chicken livers
• 2 gigantic egg yolks
• 5 fluid ounces (150 ml) of cream
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3 tablespoons of elderberry and fern leaf gin (optional)

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F).

For single servings:

1. Combine all ingredients and mix until glossy (you may need to do this in two batches).
2. If using sweet fern, place a leaf in the bottom of each ramekin.
3. Pour mixture into six 1/2 cup (125 ml) ramekins until three-quarters full.
4. Place a gigantic skillet or baking tray in the oven. Place the ramekins in it.
5. Fill the pan with balmy water until it reaches two-thirds of the height of the ramekins.
6. Place a gigantic sheet of parchment or foil on top of the ramekins to protect the mousse from the balmy air from the oven.
7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the mousse is firm and does not wobble violently in the center when tapped tough. Ideally, you’re looking for a barely noticeable thrill.
8. When the mousses frigid down, they should be cooled in the refrigerator, covered.
9. Serve them straight from the pot or remove them from the tin: Dip a knife into freshly boiling water and run it around the inside edge of each ramekin.
10. Cover with a diminutive plate or serving board and turn over. Serve frigid.

Version for a single cutting mousse:

1. Instead of using ramekins, pour the entire mousse mixture into a baking pan or terrine measuring approximately 81⁄2 by 41⁄2 inches (22 × 11 cm). Be sure to line it with sugar fern leaves before pouring, if using.
2. Place in bain-marie as above and cover with parchment or foil. You will need longer baking time, about an hour.
3. This happens when the stick inserted all the way is tidy and when removed it is tidy.
4. Once cooled, follow the chilling and serving instructions above.

Mugwort olive oil crackers

Makes about 40 crackers.

One of the most malleable doughs I operate is the olive oil recipe it is a crunchy base for countless cakes and tarts.

Rolled out even thinner, it makes perfect crackers (as I discovered one day while taking care of my friends’ little sons who were bored – we baked them together and they ate them balmy from the oven).

Serve with yogurt cheese with wild herbs, baked carrot pâté with elderflowers or garlic mustard with pecans.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups (180 g) flour
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons of finely chopped mugwort
• 1 teaspoon of mugwort salt
• 1 tablespoon of butter

Procedure

1. Combine all ingredients except butter in a bowl and mix well.
2. To make rolling easier, divide the dough into two chunky discs, wrap and chill 30 minutes (will never be completely challenging).
3. Melt the butter and grease the baking tray. Place the sheet in the freezer to chill.
4. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).
5. Roll out the dough on a floured board as thinly as possible.
6. Now pipe the crackers using a cookie cutter, or operate a knife or pizza blade to cut out 21⁄2 inch (6 cm) squares or rounds by hand. Carefully transfer them to the baking tray.
7. Bake until their edges are deeply golden, about 12 to 15 minutes.
8. Transfer to a wire rack to frigid. Once frigid, store them in an airtight container and eat within 2 days or freeze.

Persimmon cakes with spices

For 1 gigantic cake or 8 diminutive cakes.

The color of turning leaves, this aromatic cake has autumn in it. Although they can be baked in a 20-23 cm (8-9 inch) round or square tin, I like to make individual cakes as holiday gifts by baking them in six-slot pans, each 9½ cm wide.

Chestnut honey is perfect here, but it melts in your mouth with any honey and can also be prepared with molasses. It’s uncommon that I can resist opening one, taking it out of the oven and spreading butter on it. The next day they are thicker but still delicious.

Ingredients

• 4 oz (113 g) hoshigaki
• 3 tablespoons of bourbon
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) water
• 1 cup (250 ml) dim honey
• 1 cup (250 ml) boiling water
• 4 ounces (113 g) butter
• 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
• 1 gigantic egg
• 21/2 cups (300 g) flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of ground spice bush
• 1 teaspoon of mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon of cattail pollen
• 1 tablespoon of sumac sugar for greasing 1 tablespoon of water for greasing

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Lightly butter the cake tin or pan.

For persimmons:

1. Remove desiccated stems and calyces from hoshigaki.
2. Place them in a diminutive bowl with the bourbon and water. Cover.
3. Let them soak for 12 hours, turning them once to let the top fruit soak as well.
4. Once they have absorbed all or most of the liquid, cut them into diminutive pieces. The centers may still be tough, so watch your fingers.

For the cake:

1. In a jug or diminutive bowl, combine honey and boiling water; stir until honey dissolves.
2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until lithe and fluffy. Beat in the egg.
3. Gradually add the desiccated ingredients, alternating with the water and honey. Mix well.
4. Stir in persimmon.
5. Pour the rather loose dough into the prepared pan or pan.
6. Transfer to the preheated oven.
7. For a gigantic cake, bake for about 35 minutes; for smaller cakes, 18 to 20 minutes.
8. The inserted stick must come out tidy.
9. Throw them away carefully.
10. Mix the sumac sugar with water and quickly brush it over the top of the cake while it is balmy.

Recommended reading