Creamed weeds

[bunnyjadwiga]

From August09

I've been reading Hungry Monkey: A food loving father's quest to raise an adventurous eater by Matthew Amster-Burton (you should too, it's very funny as well as foodie). Mostly because I'm terrified of Beekman growing up to be a picky eater: we already have one serious picky eater, and because of the way I was raised, it makes me want to tear my hair out. Two of them will drive me right off the edge. (I know, picky eating usually peaks at age 4; I figure since Miss B. will be 14 and probably not speaking to any of us, the two of them will live on ramen noodles and salami sandwiches that year.)

We moved into our rented house last fall, and our garden this year fell by the wayside, between the horribly rainy cool weather, lack of funds for me to gorge on plants, and the time suck that is having a baby. (Have a baby: you'll never have time for a hobby again. I *knew* this. I just didn't believe it, because other people have hobbies, darn it. My current hobby appears to be freecycling.)
So, basically, we have some basil (dying in this week's heat), and the bank of mint that came with the house-- and a whole bunch of that lovely weed, fat hen.

Fat hen, a.k.a. lamb's quarters, pigweed, "wild spinach," chenopodium album

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:6H-Lambs-quarter.jpg
is a rather ubiquitous weed in the Goosefoot family. I spent years trying to confirm that lamb's-quarters was actually the weed I thought it was; my grandmother finally confirmed it for me. Once you are sure of it, you'll see it everywhere-- the plants grow huge, with thick stems, and the leaves are characteristically shaped like a knapped flint arrowhead, grayish green with a whitish hairy underside. We've eaten it periodically in different ways as I could think of them: in the style of de Nola, sauted with garlic, and plain steamed with butter. It does taste rather like spinach, and it reduces the weed population of our yard. And it's organic and home grown.

So, when I saw a recipe for creamed baby spinach in Hungry Monkey, I was inspired, especially since it's definitely time to weed some of our fat hen. (Also some of the deadly nightshade [Solanum dulcamara not belladonna] and pokeweed that were peeking up in the garden-- I have no mercy for those plants, and they went into the garden trash pile.) Admittedly, some experts say babies shouldn't have even *spinach* in the first 2 years because of the oxalic acid content, but I figured 1-2 teaspoonfuls was all he would eat, and I doubted that would hurt.

Admittedly, fat hen is tougher than baby spinach, in fact a bit tougher than regular spinach if you include some of the stems. So I planned to pick off all the leaves and just use those. I made the mistake of bringing my first picked handful on the table while I brought the baby in-- Angel the bulimic cat got at them and it will probably take some time to find his results. But even without marauding cats, picking enough fat hen off the stems to make a serving for everyone was tedious. We went outside and Benjamin sat in the grass while I stripped leaves, carefully avoiding anything with white spots or other discolorations. (If it were just me, I'd probably eat most of those, but the baby would have some.)

Botanists refer to the gray-green leaves with gray-white undersides as "unwettable", which you understand when you try to wash the dirt off them (fat hen likes dryish, crumbly dirt that is 'recently disturbed'). Basically, the water appears to just slide off them. Fortunately, it took some of the dirt off them. I dumped them in a bowl, ran water over them, swished them around, scooped them out with a hand-strainer, and washed them again. Because I'd included the smallest leaf clusters and because they are just plain contrary, they stuck to my hands and to the strainer somewhat.

Amster-Burton's recipe doesn't call for blanching, but then he uses baby spinach; so I blanched my fat hen in boiling water until it was half-wilted (we re-used the water to cook corn on the cob, then) and scooped it out again and drained it. Sarah said the baby would not like it-- too bitter. Ah well, more for us.

Then I put half a stick of butter in a nonstick frying pan and mostly melted it, then added my cup and a half of lamb's quarters leaves, sauteeing them until they were mostly soft. At that point I went off the rails and into de Nola, adding about 1/4 cup of milk and cooking it down-- it turned emerald green. (Amster-Burton's recipe, I discovered later, calls for adding the milk at the end and not cooking.)

Then I transferred it into a bowl and dug up the stick blender. Someone had suggested this for making small amounts of baby food instead of using the food processor, Osterizer, or blender (yes, we have all three; two foodie households joined together here, so we also have a rotisserie, 2 crock pots, a Kitchenaid mixer, a Frybaby we've never used, and two rice cookers we can't find.)

Listen. A stick blender, leaves in liquid, and Jadwiga is... well, the outcome involved a lot of fine green spray. Sort of like when I peel a lot of cucumbers in a hurry. Eventually, I gave in and put the stuff in a higher-sided bowl, and blended some more. It did eventually achieve the texture of spinach dip, but it took much longer than just putting it in the blender or Osterizer. It also took longer than I'd like to peel plant fiber out from around the blender's blade.

Well, now we had it. Amster-Burton says his version is also good on crostada. I would suspect mine would too, but not on soft German Dark Wheat, I'm afraid. So the rest of us ate it with a spoon. It was pretty good.

I did give about 3 tsp to the baby. Apparently, it was a success. He took a small spoonful, and it mostly stayed in. We held out another spoonful, and he made a dive for the spoon. It's still unclear whether he wanted the green stuff or the spoon to chew on, mind you. But he opened his mouth repeatedly, and I got about 3 tsp into him before he began spitting it out. There was, of course, dribbling and dropping and green stuff all over his face-- I wish we'd taken a picture. Very smeary green baby.

Afterwards, he had a small bit of cheese-filled sausage, minced fine-- but that came RIGHT back out on the tongue. He finished the meal with fresh cantelope in his 'Munchkin' feeder-- a mesh baggie on a ring handle that you can put fruit and veggies in so you don't have to hold them for the kid to gnaw on (he's got 1 and a half teeth now, and I don't like to get in the way of his food) plus he can hold it himself and if he sticks it in his eye he just gets an eyeful of cantelope juice.

So, yes, my baby had creamed weeds for his first successful vegetable.

(We'd tried mashed potato but that came RIGHT back out; I was appalled and considered having a maternity test; nobody in my family has ever turned down mashed potato-- it's the traditional first food!_

Comments

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

OMG that is a chubby, happy, beautiful boy!

I saw J and Beekman in the loonnngg line for the Children's Fete at Pennsic, but I wasn't sure he'd remember me so I was shy and didn't stop.

A couple of foodies have reminded me that picky eating serves a biological function: its a way for nature to protect babies who have no judgment but who can put things in their mouths from eating potentially illness or death inducing items.

[jacylrin.livejournal.com]

The rejection of the mashed potato could have been more of a textural problem. A lot of babies prefer their first foods to be fairly runny.

I'll have to see if we have some growing at our place (I'm sure we do). I love greens :-)

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

Figures your baby would eat weeds. ;)

We had a bad potato incident. It didn't come right back out, came out in the more appropriate method but it was bad news. We're holding off on the rest of nightshade after that.

Now sweet tato, on the other hand. Nomnom.

[landverhuizer.livejournal.com]

soon as I saw the picture it way hey... lambs quarters!... nummy!
but none of the good foods ever seemed to be introduced by my parents...
my mom was not big on cooking or gardening or foraging so she fed me canned spinach (which is undoubtedly horrid)
Love greens to this day, sadly my youngest won't eat anything green apart from broccoli

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

So he won't eat mashed potato yet, which tends negative on whether he's yours, but he *will* eat lawn weeds, which definitely tends positive. Go figure.

Looking forward to Herbalist Symposium, assuming I survive the gauntlet to get that far (Birthday+Coronation and KWHSS). Did we ever figure out if there was something I should teach?

[montuos]

http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/fail-owned-parenting-fail.jpg

What do you think — would Beekman like to try snake? ;>

[prelley.livejournal.com]

Hes adorable! =)

[maziemaus.livejournal.com]

it was the nonstick pan, wasn't it? The one piece of greens I pulled out after it was 1/2 wilted was bitter, the end result was smashing!

[evil-fionn.livejournal.com]

I have two very picky eaters.. and I think both of them were due to their father's influence. (When an adult man spits out a mouth of food because it's nasty... well, the kids are gonna follow suit.)
One of them actually only lived on bologna, saltines and white grapes for 6 months when she was six.
Since their father and I divorced, slowly but surely their tastes have changed... Now their favorite meal is Thai green curry, and anything made of chickpeas... all of it as spicy as I can make it.
And they love it when I experiment with new foods. :-) I am now a happy mom.
(I do have to say though that new shoots of pokeweed has always been one of my springtime favorite meals...)

[georgie-bird.livejournal.com]

That is one seriously cute, Mairi Ceilidh approved baby!

[magicksaff.livejournal.com]

Get a baby grinder... they're incredibly simple, cheap and you can offer a baby anything on the table, just ground up (and requires no electricity, oh and portable too LOL http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000067Q6J/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B002F9MUWK&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0X7PX86PSDHGS08QGGQX).

I had one for both kids and it was awesome and exposed both kids to all sorts of tastes, colors, textures... turned out Isaac kept with the adventure and Alana bailed out after the toddler years. She ate all manners of things... then went on a picky bender... and is finally emerging out the other side. We tried one of those mesh bag things with Alana and she didn't like it, at all... We DO make her eat some things... and have finally convinced her that potatoes are responsible for not only french fries and tots (which she loves) but also mashers and homefries (which she won't touch). She's adventurous with dessert of course. LOL... Now Isaac is butting up against not wanting to eat meat and his body's need to grow at an accelerated rate and craving protein...

Food is always an adventure. LOL Sweet potato may be more his liking?

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

He looks gorgeous. :)

Our four-year-old says things like, "And ummah, we haven't had avgolemono or menudo for a Long time!" And while he dislikes zucchini and didn't want any in his tomato pasta sauce tonight, he wanted minced sweet onion, andouille, garlic, and Italian herbs.

Be of good cheer. :) Unless he takes to emulating Miss B. instead of others of you!

[amazon-42.livejournal.com]

Nicky is turning out to be a vegetarian, and I KNOW he's mine.

BTW his new word is "Giraffe", and his favorite word is "Wow!"

Beekman is adorable. What else can I say.