Steemit Iron Chef 2018 Act 01 Round 01 : Wild Chopped Salad with Olives, Gingko Nuts, Bittercress and Jerusalem Artichokes
I saw a Gingko tree dropping rotten fruit this week. I thought, I better eat those! With olives - for the Steemit Iron Chef Contest! Come into my post to see how.
Getting My Ingredients Together
Earlier this week, I saw a gingko tree dropping fruit all over the sidewalk. Most folks think it's a big mess - and it is. But it's also the source of something special -- Gingko nuts! They take some special processing to be edible and nobody should eat a lot of them all at once. That's not too different from olives, this week's special ingredient. So I wanted to use them together.
I'll write a longer post or make a video about picking and processing the gingko nuts. But this shows the basic steps. 1. Gather the stinky, rotten fruit. I got about 20 pounds! 2. Get the nuts out of the squishy, stinky, rotten fruits. 3. Clean the nuts and then boil them for 10 minutes. 4. Crack the nut, get the nutmeat out, and remove its paper covering to reveal the little green orb. That's the part I'm gong to use!
Except for the olives, every ingredient was free for the picking. The cherry tomatoes are the last ones from my garden. I harvested them in October, including all the unripe ones. I let the green fruits ripen slowly. I only used a couple here -- I'm saving the rest for a nice wild weed salad this week! :D
I didn't use all the olives. Instead, I selected the bright green ones and the dark black ripe ones. I finely chopped the olives, Jerusalem artichokes, Gingko nuts, and bittercress. And then mixed it together. That's it!
Serving It Up!
The flavors of this dish are incredible! The green olives are spicy and salty. The black ones are garlic-y and salty. The Jerusalem artichokes are crisp and crunchy, with a smoky flavor. The Ginkgo nuts are gummy and chewy, and taste like roasted Chestnuts. The bittercress has a pepper-y kick. The flavors match so well!
I'd be happy to get this little plate in a restaurant! But I don't think I'll ever see it on a menu. At least I can make it myself! And mostly for free!
What Do You Think?
- Have you ever eaten gingko nuts?
- Do you forage for any wild food?
- Would you eat my salad?
- What would be a better name for this salad?
I eat a lot of wild plants and show you how, because I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wild places.
I would like Steemit to be the premier site for Foraging on the Internet! If you have any thoughts about foraging, or experiences to share, write a post and be sure to use the Foraging tag. And check out the @foraging-trail to see curated quality posts about foraging. Happy Foraging!
Thanks @progressivechef for creating the Steemit Iron Chef contest series!
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Plant List
- Olives - Olea europaea - fruit
- Bittercress - Cardamine hirsuta - tender leaves and stems
- Jerusalem artichoke - Helianthus tuberosus - tubers
- Gingko - Gingko biloba - nuts
- Cherry tomato - Solanum lycopersicum - fruit
I did not even know that the gingko tree has nuts! I love how fresh your salad looks like and telling by the ingredients it also must taste so fresh! Really really nice recipe!
Thanks, @pustemblume! Ginkgo nuts are sold in a lot of Chinese markets. You may be able to get some dried ones, in the shell, in your area. This really did turn out to be a great dish -- I will be making it again, for sure!
Thank you! Great tip!
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Hmmm Jerusalem artichokes... miss them so much. Your dish made me hungry! Hope they are still in season when we go to Europe in April. Good luck ;)
It's nice to find other fans of Jerusalem artichokes! I think they are so under-appreciated. They might -- might -- still be OK in April. But they start sprouting in the spring. I hope you get to enjoy them on your trip!
You have a ginko tree?! You have all the trees I want!!
I don't have the tree -- they are growing in an older part of the town where I live. They were making a giant mess on the sidewalk. But now I have a lot of seeds -- and if I plant them, I could have a lot of little Gingko trees. I don't think that Gingkos like hot weather, though. Do you ever see any in your area, even as little plants?
Never saw one but I would love to have one gingko tree
Very nice plate of food and appears to be a nice brew included as well!
Haha, you noticed that beer! I reviewed it on Saturday -- it's a Helles Belles Helles Lager that was brewed and bottled only a few blocks from where I harvested those gingko nuts! So that meal was really local, except for those exotic olives. ; )
Ive got a question, any idea what this green is? My friend thee Old Dog @kus-knee is having a contest and I wonder if this is a plant or moss or what lol. Its not important, but I was thinking of you...
From this distance, anyway, it looks like Sphagnum Moss. It's the little star-shaped clusters that aren't really leaves, the color, and the density of its growth in almost little mounds in some spots, that I'm looking at for my ID. I bet that's a nice, soft area! Maybe a little wet, but soft! And if you get a bad wound, you can pack it with that sphagnum, just like they did in the Civil War! ; )
Thank you very much!!!! :)
I just hope I dont need the wound info though LOL!
Bromelia pinguin it is my new plant that i foraged recently, i would like to participate in the steem iron chef but i do not sure because i described the plant completely and the recipe after.
Well i like your salad, the gingko nuts procces for get the nuts is the same as we do when we gets its, the artichoques of jerusalen yes you know my history we do not get here we continued in the wanted.
Cherry tomatoes it is greats, here some of this, we found in the corn crop between the plants, the birds share the seeds between the homesteads.
I loved the olives here only gets in a can bought from supermarkets.
But this are great, i loved to eat its this acid for vinegar flavors, and the darks or purple olives too are greats, some times we put it in tamales.
Well have a great day.
Best regard @galberto
Thanks, @galberto! I will have to check your post about the Bromelia pinquin! Thanks for letting me know about it! I'm glad you have cherry tomatoes! They come up from seeds in my garden, now, too. It's nice to have plants that take care of themselves so much! I have to buy my olives, too. I did make olives one year, when I lived in Arizona. A friend and I harvested a lot of black olives from trees on the university campus. It took weeks to cure them, but they were so delicious! I was sad when I ate the last ones! Happy foraging!
Looks yummy! :D
I'm glad you enjoyed my little olive-gingko salad, @birdie! I like your tag line on your blog page. FA all the way!
Yes! Gotta love Fiona Apple.
She's my #1 favorite singer-songwriter, hands down. Story of my life: "Nothing I do don't do nothing but bring me more to do", lol. ; )
Haha, ain't it the truth! 😁
Looks and sounds delicious
I wonder if a real chef could figure out the ingredients - except for the olives, of course. The tastes blend so well because everything is chopped so fine. I think they would like how it tastes, for sure. Glad you enjoyed it!
To eyes; fascinating, to taste; really mouth watering, to stomach; enhancing appetite. To tell you the truth Cherry tomatoes are really a wonderful addition to my vocabulary.
Thanks, cheema1. Cherry tomatoes are the easiest of all tomatoes to grow. And they can be so productive, too. The tomatoes are small, but they are sweet and tasty! I hope you can find some in your area!
I'll try to find out and grow them at my home if they are suitable for such an environment:)
I would like to know what you find out about growing cherry tomatoes in your region. Good luck!
thanks for sharing
have a nice day @haphazard-hstead
I'm glad you enjoyed my salad, @gladysstillwagon! Gingko trees take 30-40 years before they will have any nuts to harvest. And they don't grow wild anywhere. So, really, about the only place to look for them is in old, established neighborhoods. Or old, established park landscapes. They got planted as street trees because they can handle urban environments better than many trees.
interesting that there is no doubt that you always learn something, we do not finish learning in life.
Now I have been wanting to try these nuts, well someday it will be.
Thank you very much for your answer @haphazard-hstead
You have a nice night
If you ever stop by a Chinese market, you might find some for sale, in the shell is best. But if you see a Gingko tree dropping their fruits, you can get a lot - a lot - for free and pretty quickly. They are worth the effort!
Beautiful dish that I would love to try.... But, it would probably be too green for me..... I haven't ever eaten the Gingko Nuts. These look tasty! It's good that you plant the Cherry tomatoes in your garden, I love this one, too! ;)
Good luck for the Steemit Ironchef contest! ;))
I wondered whether you ever ate Gingko nuts, @tangmo. I have read that they have a long history of being eaten in Asia. The Wikipedia entry shows a picture that says "Gingko seeds served with boiled coconut flesh in Thailand". Maybe they are called something else in your area. It may be too hot for the trees to grow in Thailand. So maybe they are imported.
I found an article on Thai food and travel that says:
So I wonder if you see it at any restaurants? I think you would like the desserts with the Gingko nuts! I will try to make something. I have a lot of these nuts!
Oh! So sorry for my misunderstanding! But, I think the Gingko nuts in your photos are something that are different from the ones here. ;)