In preparation for my veggie garden, I took a look at my garden plot (aka a pile of dirt below the highway) and this is what I saw:
Well, apparently someone had planted some veggies without me knowing! I like the idea of free food not wasting usable things, and I remembered a little post I saw last year, so I decided today was the day that I was going to eat dandelions. And feed them to my children. >:)
So- I found a helper. Wow, my mouth looks so weird here! LOL!
Then we collected some nice big dandelion blossoms. I still need to figure out exactly how to prepare the greens/root to make them not taste like buttocks.
Then I rinsed them. Note the filthy magic eraser. I use those things up until they are so dead. And I am sharing that with you so that I come across as more relatable- thus gaining a broader audience and being one step closer to my ultimate goal (making money by making messes.) Just kidding. I’m just a lazy pig. 😉
Next I dried them for a bit and prepared them for their hot oil bath.
I was confused as to exactly which parts of the flower to remove, but I figured it out and I will show you:
Peel off any of the leaves that aren’t attached to the blossom. Then trim the stem. It took a couple of tries for me to figure out how far to slice without having the flower fall apart. Speaking of bitter greens, the whole time I was prepping the dandelions, I was singing this. Heheheheh.
Okay, and apparently I was in some kind of Gordon Lightfoot-induced trance that rendered me more useless than usual, because I didn’t take pictures of the battering/ frying process… I guess I will try to paint a picture in your mind…
Here is the recipe for the SOOOPER SIMPLE batter:
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Batter for Deep Frying:
1 cup flour
1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
pepper and paprika
Mix it up.
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Drudge the blossoms in the batter and drop them (carefully) into an inch or so of heated oil in a pan. Cook them until they are golden on one side, then flip em and cook em for another minute or two. Let them drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Here are some tips on deep frying.
A.D.D pause! The first time I tried to deep fry something, it resulted in me getting 3 fire extinguishers for Christmas. But don’t let that scare you- I was 18 and stupid. Seriously. Who heats oil on maximum with the lid on and proceeds to try to put out the massive fire with a jug of water? It was 10 years ago, okay? :’O ANYWAYS…
Here are the little beauties. And 3 of my guinea pigs children. Serve the dandelions right away with a dip of your choice. My fave dip is a lil number I created, and I’m feeling extra generous, so I will share…
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Dot’s Chili Ginger Mayo of Love:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce (the kind you’d dip Thai spring rolls in)
1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger (or 1/8th tsp dry)
one green onion, chopped finely
a pinch of black pepper
Mix it up.
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Oh golly, after sausages, this would have to be my fave food. It is perfect with yam fries. Or anything.
Grab a blossom like so, and dip.
Ingest. Digest. Enjoy.
These were so SO delicious. At first I thought they would probably be edible, tolerable, but I figured that since they were, you know, WEEDS, that they wouldn’t be amazing. But they were! They tasted like tempura mushrooms (but better cuz they weren’t slug-textured.) My neighbor hates mushrooms but she loved these. The kids loved em too.
I encourage you to track down some big ol’ dandelions and turn em into something delectable!
Thanks for reading, and happy weeding 😉 heeeheeee that rhymed!
I love how in the first picture your daughter looks a little scared. LOL.
You are a gem! Thanks! So enjoying you and the little ones!
DO you know that they are now looking into that dandelions may have certain things in them that help heal/ stop cancer. XD
um cool!!!!
Oh man, this makes me hungry!
mmmmm you know you want to eat weeeedsssss
This makes me think of something my gram used to cook when i was little. Fried squash flowers! You just dunk clean zucchini flowers in egg, and then breading, and fry them on the stove!
mmmmm- i must do that this summer!!
You must! It is sooo tasty! Just make sure you wash them good because bugs like to stay in them. (Oh, the only unfortunate downside, if you take the flower from the plant, you don’t get a zucchini to grow, but most people have an abundance anyways =op)
Awesome! Thanks for the tips 😀