Stinging nettle
Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 12:13 pm
As you'all know Spring is the season for stinging nettle, and I went to great lengths to establish a little patch on a side of the property. Very rarely found in these parts of Ontario, so I bought seeds online and it took about 3 years to get this patch going.
I'm sharing with you my favourite way of eating it, which is very similar to my favourite way of eating spinach. Here's the recipe. You can change the ingredient quantities accordingly if you want to cook more or less. Note that the nettle stings, so you need to harvest with a garden glove. Best to harvest in the Spring when it's less than 8" high, so it's not stringy and hard.
* 1 lb fresh stinging nettle
* 1.5 ounce flour
* 1.5 ounce butter
* 1/2 quart milk
* 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
* 1 or 2 spoons of sour cream
* salt to taste
Procedure: using rubber gloves, wash the nettle in a large bowl with cold water. Just bathe and throw the water a few times. In a large pot boil about 2" of water from the bottom and drop the nettle in the boiling water just to parch them. As soon as they get soft and that dark green put them through a strainer and let sit on the strainer for a few minutes. Then put the nettle in a smaller pot with about 1.5 ounces of milk and blend with a hand blender.
The sauce is prepared separately. On a pan melt the butter together with the flour on medium heat, and keep steering for about a minute. Careful not to burn the sauce, adjust heat accordingly. Add the rest of the milk slowly while stirring constantly. This is done similarly to a bechamel sauce. Reduce heat and stir for another 4 minutes or so. Add the blended nettle and mix in for about another minute. At the end take off the heat and mix in two spoons of sour cream and the garlic crushed.
Serve with sunny side up eggs. That's my favourite. The flavour is different than anything else I have ever tasted, but good, and amazingly rich in vitamins and minerals.
The eggs are from the chickens of Mr Dave. Not sure if they wore their helmets or not, but they make the best eggs ever!
I'm sharing with you my favourite way of eating it, which is very similar to my favourite way of eating spinach. Here's the recipe. You can change the ingredient quantities accordingly if you want to cook more or less. Note that the nettle stings, so you need to harvest with a garden glove. Best to harvest in the Spring when it's less than 8" high, so it's not stringy and hard.
* 1 lb fresh stinging nettle
* 1.5 ounce flour
* 1.5 ounce butter
* 1/2 quart milk
* 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
* 1 or 2 spoons of sour cream
* salt to taste
Procedure: using rubber gloves, wash the nettle in a large bowl with cold water. Just bathe and throw the water a few times. In a large pot boil about 2" of water from the bottom and drop the nettle in the boiling water just to parch them. As soon as they get soft and that dark green put them through a strainer and let sit on the strainer for a few minutes. Then put the nettle in a smaller pot with about 1.5 ounces of milk and blend with a hand blender.
The sauce is prepared separately. On a pan melt the butter together with the flour on medium heat, and keep steering for about a minute. Careful not to burn the sauce, adjust heat accordingly. Add the rest of the milk slowly while stirring constantly. This is done similarly to a bechamel sauce. Reduce heat and stir for another 4 minutes or so. Add the blended nettle and mix in for about another minute. At the end take off the heat and mix in two spoons of sour cream and the garlic crushed.
Serve with sunny side up eggs. That's my favourite. The flavour is different than anything else I have ever tasted, but good, and amazingly rich in vitamins and minerals.
The eggs are from the chickens of Mr Dave. Not sure if they wore their helmets or not, but they make the best eggs ever!