Chrysanthemum leaves

[Patience]

Note that Chrysanthemum leaves are said to turn to nasty mush in a split second of overcooking so we worked fast when we sautéed them! Tongs worked best for us, to handle the greens. Tried to show the color when the greens are done in pictures.

The dressing. MADE this dish! We rarely measure when cooking. The dressing recipe is an approximation.

We added a good drizzle of sesame oil to about a quarter cup of tahini (sesame seed paste), then added a big glop of soy sauce, followed by enough rice vinegar to make a thick dressing, whisking it all around with a fork. Tasted as we worked. It turned kind of fluffy along the way but smoothed out as we kept adding liquid.

Made the dressing as the garlic for the greens cooked.

Toasted sesame seeds are often added whole or ground in a mortar and pestle. We were in a hurry and skipped those.


Greens

About 4 cups of washed chrysanthemum leaves.

1 tablespoon high temperature oil (we used avocado oil, ghee would be great too)

3 cloves minced garlic

Sauté the garlic in very hot oil. Add chrysanthemum leaves with washing water clinging to them. Work quickly, turning and stirring until the green color brightens as it does when blanching and remove from pan immediately.

Pour dressing over cooked greens and serve.

These are often blanched too. 30 seconds in the boiling water and then served.

Our garden is going to look quite different next year. We try many new foods expressly because we have trouble growing traditional salad crops. We do well with peppers, squash, onions, okra, cherry tomatoes and tomatillos. Most greens and lettuces have a limited growing season here and usually fail in our hot summers. We CAN grow chrysanthemums and pests don’t seem to care for them.

We found the chrysanthemum leaves at an Asian grocery. Armed with general cooking instructions from the nice lady who works in the store we bought a big package of them.

We looked them up and learned they are actually crown daisies. Invasive at least in California. And all mums are edible but taste can vary considerably so taste test before stripping the leaves off a garden mum to cook them.

We have not always washed produce as we should so we gave them a soak in vinegar water, several trips through cold water baths and a good rinse under cold
running water. Got an amazing pile of fine dirt out of them.

Gave each stalk a good shake after the final rinse and spread them on a dedicated kitchen towel we use for such things.






It took a good while to get them dry enough to put away with the high humidity we have lately. Tucked a paper towel in a bag, stuffed the greens in and stuck them in the fridge.

We ate a big pile of the greens raw out of hand and mixed in with a salad we made with mixed lettuce and chopped cabbage with carrots and peppers. We maybe ate half of the batch raw and found them VERY good. Not bitter, totally unique flavor. Note the older leaves are said to be bitter.

We could have cooked them right after washing, in just the water clinging to the leaves. Had to add water when we did cook them the following day. Dipped fingers in a cup of water and flicked it over the greens in the pan. Several times.

We discarded the hollow stem portions. Kind of treated it like asparagus. Where the stem pinched off easily we kept the top part. Used all the leaves from the larger stem portion.

Sesame dressing is what the nice lady told us her boss ate on these greens. The nice lady does not eat chrysanthemum leaves herself. She wrinkled her nose and said she found them too sharp. We did find the cooked greens with dressing fairly bitter but we like bitter! The dressing seemed to intensify the bitterness.


Our dressing recipe was the result of reading many recipes for these greens and then using what we actually had as a fair approximation.

In our recipe survey we found that common additives included whole garlic cloves or hen of the woods mushrooms and pork or chicken. We may try our frozen chanterelles in the next batch. These will definitely be an addition to our greens rotation!

I got about half of the pork chop in the photo... Cockatoo Syd ate more pork chop than is maybe good for her. The elderly Tinker cat got a pile of it too. Part of it was set aside for stock we’ll make with the bones.

We’ll add recipes with this thread as we try them. When we look for the seeds we’ll share that too.

[Rhodie Ranch]

who knew? I've a terrific homemade hummus recipe using Tahini. My fav brand of Tahini is from New York. It comes in a can. I can't remember the brand right now cus I have CRS disease.

Speaking of bitter, my Daddy used to make wilted endive. I can remember loving it. I think he sauteed it, with onion and vinegar?

I buy sesame seed oil by the gallon. It doesn't take on the 02 molecules and go rancid like regular oils do. As a last min meal, saute anything in a splash of sesame seed oil and YUM!

CRS disease (Can't Remember Shi!)

[Farmfresh]

Looks amazing!

You are actually supposed to pinch back your garden mums right before the 4th of July to encourage more blooms. Maybe after a taste test... we will now have something to do with the pinchings.

[Rhodie Ranch]

I have volunteer mums in a pot out front. Off to taste them.




Yuck. Sour, chemical aftertaste, coarse, tiny, tastes ucky. I'm thinking mum leaves from an Indian store would be better.



Gag....

[Patience]

We only recently learned to make hummus Rhodie. It is so much better than store bought! We suffer from crs too, so next time you get your tahini maybe you could tell us what brand it is and we can try to remember what it is!

Sorry your mums weren’t tasty:(

Good tip about pinching mums back Farmfresh!