DUNE SPINACH… THE REVIVAL?

You might want to get your laughing gear around some of that                                                                                      UHG

I have been growing and chomping New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia Tetragonoides) for years, but silly me has only recently got into savouring one of its close cousins, dune spinach (*Tetragonia Decumbens). It grows on the sandy parts of the coast from Southern Namibia to the Eastern Cape. It’s crazy, yet typical of the global world we live in, that I should know about the foreign variety before my local one; the one I pass nearly every time I skip down to the water’s edge for surf.

New Zealand spinach (Tertragonia Tertragonoides)                                                                                                           UHG

Dune spinach (Tetragonia Decumbes), New Zealand spinach's first cousin                                                                     UHG

No doubt the ‘real’ Hunter Gatherers of millennia gone by, the indigenous people living on the southern tip of Africa were munching dune spinach, as did the early colonialists. In more recent times it has been replaced by the conventional greens we see in the supermarkets… eventually it became all but forgotten. Nowadays, due to the foraging trend and a greater public environmental consciousness, our good old dune spinach is making a bit of a come back.

A free bowl of goodness                                                                                                                                                            UHG

People like fellow forager and wild food innovator, Loubie Rusch has been on a mission. Her pilot food garden, The Peace Garden, situated on the bleak and sandy Cape Flats (where not many common edible plants grow) is part of her drive to get more people eating indigenous foods. This makes complete sense! Because, apart from reducing food miles and therefore the carbon footprint, local plants such as dune spinach are water wise, pest resistant and don’t need fertilisers.

Remember to wash the dune spinach thoroughly, unless you like it full of grit                                                        UHG

It is pleasing that more and more people know about it. I have even seen bags of it for sale at a trendy Cape Town food market. Ironically, no more than fifty meters from that same market, is where I forage most of my personal supply, but don’t tell anybody though… it’s our little secret.

Dune spinach is vital for stabilising the sand dunes, so when foraging it is important not to uproot any plants, so stick to picking just the tips and leaves.

Delectable winter treats right on our doorstep                                                                                                                      UHG

A good start to cooking with it is to substitute ‘normal’ spinach/chard with our amazingly-fantastically-delicious-nutritious dune spinach.

*Plants are not like us humans, they like to have their surnames put first.

Here is a little SPANAKOPITA recipe to get you going

INGREDIENTS (4 servings)

2 double handfuls of spinach leaves (in this case dune spinach)

1 onion chopped

1 egg

1 grating of nutmeg

1 sprig of chopped herbs (in this case wild sage, oregano is good too)

200g of ricotta or feta (in this case ‘fake feta’)

4 sheets of phyllo pastry cut in half

50g melted butter or 50ml of olive oil

A glug of olive oil for frying

1 salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

In a large frying pan on medium heat, fry the onions until soft.  Add the herbs, nutmeg and spinach.  Place a lid on the mix, while turning occasionally until the spinach is wilted and dramatically reduced in size. Allow to cool.

Once cooled, squeeze out excess fluids (I do this in the pan angled over the sink by pressing the spinach with the back of a large serving spoon). Now thoroughly mix in the cheese and egg.  Season with salt and pepper (if you are using feta, be careful with the salt, because dune spinach is salty too). Your filling is now done… scoop it into an appropriate sized baking dish and lightly flatten.

Cut four sheets of phyllo pastry in half and brush with melted butter/olive oil. Loosely crunch each greased pastry sheet and place on top of the spinach mix in the baking dish… repeat until the dish is covered in phyllo pastry. Pop into the oven and bake until the pastry is golden, about half an hour.

Chomp and enjoy.

What you'll need. I made a double portion, which explains two eggs, not one                                                             UHG      

A simple homemade cheese in the making                                                                                                                         UHG

The curds ready for a little session in an improvised press                                                                                             UHG

And there it is…                                                                                                                                                                         UHG

The egg binds the spinach mix together                                                                                                                               UHG

Keeping in the  Greek vibe, I brushed this one phyllo sheets with olive oil                                                                     UHG

Loosely place greased phyllo sheets like wet rags on the  spinach mix                                                                         UHG

I was rather pleased with that little creation                                                                                                                 Nic Good

For more about Loubie please refer to her blog  makingkos.blogspot.com/

ROUSHANNA; THE FORAGING PIXIE

Roushanna Gray, a foraging inspiration                                                                                                                                  UHG

Near the sharp pointy bit at the bottom of Africa are some pretty amazing people doing some pretty amazing things when it comes to foraging and sustainable food.

                                                                                                                                               

Loubie Rusch knows stuff… lots of stuff. (https://www.facebook.com/making.kos) Amongst other projects, she is doing a great job educating folk about indigenous plants and is encouraging people to grow indigenous edible gardens that don’t need much attention. They are water-wise, pest resistant and there is no need for added soil nutrients.

Keeping this in mind, it is interesting to consider that in our Western culture we have developed a pretty generic palate.  For example, when we think of herbs, we usually think of things like rosemary, chives, sage, etc.  Which are jolly nice and all, but growing right here are our very own delicious indigenous versions of these herbs.  Sadly our traditions and preconditioned tastes are not familiar with them, so we just carry on chomping their good old European counterparts, just like we have done for centuries. Perhaps if our African versions of these herbs came from Europe, the Western World would be eating our wild rosemary (Eriocephalus Africanus), chives (Tulbughia) and sage (Salvia) instead?

Our local culinary rock-star, Kobus Van der Merwe is turning this mindset on its head. He is creating world-class food using ‘unfamiliar’ local flavors. I don’t really know him, but on the odd occasion when I have eaten his amazing creations it has left me in awe and wanting more. I hear that his recently opened restaurant ‘Wolfgat’ in Paternoster is exceptional. (www.wolfgat.co.za)

Kelp, sea salt and sesame chocolate eyes                                                        UHG

Living on the very tip of that pointy bit of the continent is Roushanna and the Gray family. She is leading the way when it comes to coastal foraging and is no slouch when it comes to indigenous edibles. It stands to reason, as she is involved in the family business, The Good Hope Nursery (www.goodhopegardensnursery.co.za), which specializes in indigenous plants.

Kind, beautiful and fun loving, Roushanna has always been happy to share; no matter if is it information, her homegrown family veggies, foraged bounty, or a bottle of wine. For her to put a day aside for me to do this blog was both a privilege and a delight… and of course, deliciously educational too.

I knew we were in for a fun time when Roushanna asked me to bring my wetsuit and surfboard so that we could paddle out to collect the ‘best’ seaweed.  Actually we both knew that on such a flat day we could have wobbled around knee deep on the submerged boulders to get the seaweeds we needed.  But where is the fun in that???

This Suhria vitiate (Agar agar) will go onto the drying rack for a jelly, sometime in the future                                   UHG

First morsel up was Sea Urchin.  This Italian favorite is also a Japanese delicacy, which they call Uni.  I have eaten it off the rocks many times, but Roushanna’s preparation was primal yet delicate. It was by far the best way I have eaten Urchin.

Roushanna gently prepares a seaside snack of sea urchin                                                                                                   UHG

A gentle rinse, so only the deliciousness remains                                                                                                                 UHG

Roushanna presents to you, Uni                                                                                                                                             UHG

Roushanna reminded me about the Acid Weed. To some the name suggests it could be a bit of psychedelic fun to ingest a little.  But consume it at your peril, for it is the only toxic seaweed, with a dangerously high concentration of sulphuric acid. As a rule, never eat any seaweed that is not attached to a rock, shell or other seaweeds, because it might just be the evil Acid Weed.

Roushanna reminds us what not to eat; the evil Acid Weed                                                                                               UHG

Evidence of where sulphuric acid has eaten the bio-matter off the rock     UHG

After collecting a variety of edibles we headed for Roushanna’s rustic and charming home. On the way to the front garden we nipped through the kitchen sampling a couple of rounds of Roushanna’s delectable kelp, sea salt and sesame seed chocolate. We grabbed a few handfuls of ingredients, a bottle of wine and headed outside. Waiting for us was a higgledy-piggledy and inviting space, where a fire was already on the go. I was in for a treat.  Unfussy cooking on a wood fire is by far my favorite. It got better still… we raided the veggie garden while waiting for the fire to be just the right heat for Roushanna’s paella-style seaweed dish along with mussels steamed in a kelp bulb.

What a pleasant space to pass time                                                                     UHG

A quick detour into the veggie garden. These things make me happy                                                                            UHG

Sea vegetables for Roushanna's 'paella'                                                                                                                                      UHG

Once Roushanna had sautéed the usual suspects (garlic, onion, chili etc), in went the rice for a coating of olive oil, followed by a variety of chopped seaweeds and handfuls of mussels.  After generously covering the ingredients with water she popped on the pièce de résistance, an edible lid of Slippery Orbit, my new favorite seaweed. The dish was a triumph. The mussels steamed in white wine in the kelp bulb were also bloody delicious. And let me not forget the simple grilled garden leeks. YUM, YUM and YUM.

Slippery Orbit…  my new favourite seaweed                                                                                                                           UHG

'Paelle',  Roushanna style in the making                                                                                                                                   UHG

A delicious lid of Slippery Orbit. 'More please?'                                                                                                                 UHG

Thank you so much Roushanna for a brilliant foraging day, for teaching me stuff and for the take away butternuts and pink pop corn from your garden.

Roushanna leads coastal foraging outings in summer and indigenous (Fynbos) ones in winter. Please see her website for bookings.

https://veldandsea.com

Follow Roushanna on instagram @goodhopegardens

'STRAIGHTMOPS'

And so it was that the Straightmop was  born                                                                                                                           UHG

Rollmops are traditionally pickled herring fillets rolled around a savory nugget, usually gherkins or green olives.

Glenn, a friend and fellow forager is a wealth of information with truckloads of enthusiasm for anything primal. Recently he kindly gave me some rollmops that he had made from a local fish called ‘Streepies’. He had rolled their little fillets around gherkins. They were amazingly excellent. I simply had to get some and some more…

Glenn casts his net far and wide... wish I could do that                                                                                                     UHG

If I were a little fish, I would be afraid. Not of Stef though                                                                                                UHG

When it comes to a little adventure, Glenn is a pushover, so it wasn’t long before we headed for the coast with throw-nets and our friend Stef in tow. It turned out that I was rubbish with the throw-net, so I left that part to others; in turn Stef proved to be only slightly less useless than me. Finally it was up to Glenn to sneak up to fling a net around the darting shoals of little fish.

A time consuming process, but well worth it                                                                                                                       UHG

An overnight salting sucks out the extra moisture that you don't want, not to mention adding seasoning           UHG

There weren’t any signs of ‘Streepies’, but we (or should I say Glenn) managed to net some small ‘Harders' (another local fish). They were too small to fillet, so I kept them whole and with a toothpick secured an agave pickle in their gut cavity… and so it came to pass that the fully foraged ‘straightmop’ was born.

Agave buds, the perfect straightmop pickle, if you going fully foraged ?                                                                      UHG

Stef  harvesting fennel fronds… an obvious pickling spice                                                                                                 UHG

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

Fish

Vinegar

Salt

Onion

Pickles / green olives (in this case agave bud)

Pickling spices (I went for foraged fennel flowers, lemon leaves and Peruvian pepper)

MOTHOD

If you have small fish - scale, gut and take off the heads, or if they are  big enough - scale and fillet them.

Layer the fish with course salt in between and leave in fridge overnight.

Rinse off the salt.

If you only have small fishies and are going for the new and exciting ‘Staightmop’, stab a half toothpick through each one to secure your pickle in their gut cavity. If you have bigger fish and are making good common old Rollmops, roll the fillets around pickles and zap them with toothpicks.

Pop em into a jar with your pickling spices, a few onion slices and top up with white vinegar… and there you have it.

 They will last in the fridge for weeks.

A FEW DELIGHTFUL FOOD ILLUSTRATIONS

Good old favourite nasturtiums, always at the ready to brighten a winters day     Illustrations by Esther Cooper- Wood

Recently I was lucky enough to be contacted by Esther Cooper-Wood, a visiting food illustrator from England. She was interested in doing a little foraging during her stay in Cape Town. We agreed that she would join us during a few routine foraging missions and in return she would represent her experience with some drawings for our use. All in all it turned out to be a rather happy arrangement for both parties.

 Nasurtium-mania                           Illustrations by Esther Cooper-Wood

While Esther was here we managed a couple of outings. The first was a costal mission and the second a brief neighborhood exploration.

Scattered about this blog are a few representations of our food adventures, quickly knocked up by Esther.
Enjoy…. I did.

All these 'yummies' are ready and waiting right on our doorstep                              Illustrations by Esther Cooper-Wood

Our spontaneous West Coast Mussel lunch                                                             Illustrations by Esther Cooper-Wood

Esther 'smashing a pesto into existence'                                                  Pic. UHG

Esther, the illustrator herself collecting the last of the season nasturtiums                                                              Pic. UHG

A huge thanks to Esther for the fun times, fine bread baking, pesto making and of course for the beautiful illustrations.

If you want to see some of Esthers' beautiful work please check out her site below. http://esthercooperwood.com/

'ZOO PESTO'

Sweet Peas pesto coming up…                                                                                                                                         UHG

I remember as a young boy feeling a panicky surge, as I imagined toppling into the lions’ den at the local zoo. That zoo has long since been closed, the decaying structures are reminders of a bygone era, yet live evidence of it still exists. Himalayan Mountain Tahrs roam our city’s majestic mountain. The story goes that some of these goats escaped from the zoo and headed for the hills. They now thrive on Table Mountain. In fact they are so prolific that culling programs have been established to eradicate them, but with little success. The expression, ‘horny as a Billy Goat,’ jumps to mind.

It's no coincidence that Stone Pines have that Italian vibe about them                                                                             UHG

Sweet pea shoots climbing a Pine           UHG

Does that not scream, 'Zoo Pesto', or what?   UHG

At about the same time that my imagination was running wild wrestling lions, I also discovered that inside certain pinecones were delicious little nuts (in the late seventies few South Africans knew about such ‘Italian delights’), but getting to them was epic. Trying to crush the cones by heaving rocks onto them, or violently throwing the cones onto the pavement, proved not only dangerous, but ineffective too. Should you try either technique, I suggest wearing a helmet and a gum guard, or you can simply leave them out in the sun or next to a few winter fires and patiently wait for them to naturally open, but when you are 12 years old, patience is not an option.

Sweet Pea shoots against the backdrop of decaying lion cages and Pine trees                                                            UHG 

Mid to late summer is flower and pod time                                                                                                   Lauren Biermann

Yum                                                                                                                                                                    Lauren Biermann

A few years ago a friend pointed out that the rambling purple flowers clinging to the neglected zoo fence looked like sweet peas. Lo and behold… it was so. What a discovery they have turned out to be. From early spring they develop delicious tender shoots, mid summer brings with it their yummy purple flowers together with little pods similar to mange tout, these finally turn into actual peas, which when scorched by late summer, dries and twist the pods into little springs that fling their seeds about; ready to shoot up the next spring. All their forms are great for salads, garnishes and pestos.

There they are... a pair of nuts, nestled beneath each scale (It's not what I mean, you dirty buggers)                        UHG

Just the right weight behind each blow is the trick; too soft, they don't crack -  too hard, you crush the kernel      UHG

The old zoo grounds are also peppered with Stone Pine Trees, the very trees that produce those elusive pine nuts, which are made even more scarce by the competitive Grey Squirrel, who don’t suffer our incompetence when it comes to getting them out.

Surely, Zoo Peas + Zoo Nuts = Zoo Pesto… I gathered the ingredients for such a dish, so I could document it for this blog. As luck would have it my friend and one of my foraging partners Jocelyn just so happened to call me on that same random work day suggesting beer and a lazy afternoon. So it came to pass… that I had the privilege of photographing the executive chef of one of Cape Town’s most prestigious hotels (The Table Bay) make ‘zoo pesto’ while sipping beer and nibbling a lunch of foraged goodies... all in my little garden.

Ready, set… grind                                                                                                                                                                 UHG

ZOO PESTO RECIPE

       Ingredients (in more or less the correct amounts)

-                     Sweet pea shoots (the tender tips); x 2 handfuls

-                     Pine nuts; x 1 ‘vertical grab’ (thumb and four fingers)

-                     Indigenous mint ; x 3 sprigs

-                     Lemon; x 1 little squeeze or better still Cape Sorrel leaves and stems; x 1 generous pinch

                       Indigenous garlic chives (Tulbaghia); x a few strands

           Cheese (a hard one. In this case a mature local cheddar); x a grating of        

                      Olive oil; x a glug or two

-                    Seasoning salt and pepper (preferably foraged Brazilian Pepper)

Method

Chuck in all the ingredients into a mortar or pestle (I never know which is which) and get grinding. You’ll probably need to add a little at a time to make space. Oh, add the olive oil and seasoning last.

Joce goes the nuts                                                                                                                                                                    UHG

Joce doing what she loves and does best                                                  UHG

Lunch                                                                                                                                                                                   UHG

So it came to pass… and  'Zoo Pesto' was created                                                                                                              UHG

Disclaimer – There is some debate as to the toxicity of wild sweet peas. I have done a fair bit of research on the subject and feel there is little evidence to substantiate these beliefs. I’m alive, kicking and gagging for more zoo pesto, I trust Jocelyn is too… no news is good news. 

Don’t just take my word for it though. Check it out yourself and make your own educated choice.

Thanks to Jocelyn Meyers-Adams for her skills and the beer. Also, thanks to Lauren Biermann for her great pics.