How to Grow and Harvest Burdock

How to Grow and Harvest Burdock

If you are starting or have an existing herb garden chances are you haven’t got burdock or may have not even considered it. 

You can plant burdock in your garden, it grows easily from seeds planted in spring and then thin seedlings to 6 inches apart. The plant tolerates most soils but prefers moist, rich soil and full sun. You may want to do as many herbalists by mixing wood chips and sawdust into burdock beds to keep the soil loose, so the roots are easier to harvest.

Burdock is popular in both Western and Chinese herbal medicines for its detoxifying effects yet we often overlook it in many Chinese dishes and you can easily incorporate it into your dishes.

Burdock is a biennial plant and the best time to harvest the root is during the fall of the first year, when the plant has large leaves that are green on top and grayish underneath, or during the spring of the second year.

During burdock’s second year, the plant will produce purple flowers from summer to early fall.

Burdock roots grow very deep into the ground and usually as much as two feet. This makes the herb rich in minerals.

There are not only medical uses for burdock but culinary ones also.

Both Western and Chinese herbal medicines for its detoxifying effects and it’s a great herb to try if you have skin problems, such as acne, eczema, psoriasis or skin infections. It’s also considered a traditional liver tonic.  You can treat the irritability associated with premenstrual syndrome.  Burdock is often used to protect against cancer. It was an ingredient in Hoxsey’s controversial cancer formula, which was popular in from the 1930s to the 1950s.  Burdock is often used for its nutritive and liver-strengthening effects. The powerhouse plant also has mild diuretic properties.

Make a tea by simmering 1 teaspoon of the cut root (fresh or dried) per cup of water, for 30 minutes. Strain and drink 1 cup, three times daily with meals or if you prefer a liquid extract, take 3 drops two to three times a day.  

In cooking you can sauté burdock in you wok with your stir fries.

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May the Creative Force be with you,

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery

Please visit both our stores as 100%of our proceeds are donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Home Farm Herbery Store 

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Home Farm Herbery’s Black Trumpet Mushroom Sausage Recipe

Home Farm Herbery’s Black Trumpet Mushroom Sausage Recipe

This recipe can be doubled etc. to accommodate the lbs of meat you are using just recalculate the rest of the recipe.

Makes 10-12, 4.5-inch links or you can make them into patties

Ingredients:
 2.5 lbs. pork
 3.6 tsp. salt (we prefer Kosher or Sea Salt)
 1/3 tsp. white pepper
 ¼ tsp. garlic powder  

 1/8 tsp. nutmeg  

¼ tsp. Spanish paprika 
 1/8 tsp. cayenne

½ tsp. dehydrated squid ink (optional, for color)
6.5 tbsp. Dried black trumpet mushrooms    (reconstitute dried mushrooms), then soaked in 13 tbsp. rice wine vinegar for 1 hour)

6.5 tbsp. whole milk

 ¾ cup of ice
1 lb. casing (ask for “24/26″ sheep casing—almost all butcher stores sell it.

Place the ground pork in a food processor

Add the spice blend (salt, white pepper, garlic, nutmeg, Spanish paprika, and cayenne) to the food processor. Mix until incorporated.

Add ice to the food processor while it’s running. This is what Home Farm Herbery calls a “cold immersion” sausage.

Next, add the milk in a slow stream while the machine is running.

Stop the machine at two distinct times during the mixing process. Take a big spatula, scrape down the sides of the machine, and fold the meat mixture with the spatula. This is to make sure all the meat is mixing properly.

Add the dehydrated squid ink to the machine. It’s up to you how much you’d like to add—the squid ink will only give the sausage a dark color, it won’t add flavor.

Once everything is incorporated, scrape the pork mixture out of the food processor and into a bowl.

Mix in more squid ink if you want an even darker color. You can use a spatula or your hands.

Take the black trumpet mushrooms from the rice vinegar in which they were pickling, and add them to the pork mixture. Don’t be afraid to get some of the vinegar in the mixture—it adds a nice flavor.

Mix the mushrooms into the pork mixture with a spatula. Don’t worry—you can’t over mix sausage. “You need to taste the mixture to make sure the seasoning’s right,” says Home Farm Herbery. We know its raw meat, but if you buy it from a good butcher, it’s safe to eat.

STUFFING THE SAUSAGE

Home Farm Herbery uses a hand-crank sausage stuffer. If you’re making sausage at home, you can buy a sausage stuffer attachment for your Kitchen Aid mixer.

Casing usually comes packed in salt when you buy it. Soak the casing in cold water to flush out the salt. Feed the casing onto the tube of your sausage stuffing machine, bunching it up towards the middle, and leave a bit of casing hanging off at the end.                                         Over to page 2

Put the pork mixture into the top of your Kitchen Aid machine. Turn the machine on and feed it through.

Go slowly until air begins to enter the casing and meat begins to fill the stuffing tube.

 When the meat has just started to enter the casing, tie off the end with a knot. Make it as tight as you can because you don’t want air pockets in the sausage.

Always keep one hand on the casing to guide it, and use the other hand to stuff the meat into the machine. Go slowly; if you don’t, the machine will heat the meat too much, which can create bacteria. Try to keep everything steady and consistent, and let gravity do most of the work.

When the entire length of the casing is stuffed, tear the casing off the tube.

 Now it’s time to make the sausage links, which should be approximately 4.5 inches in length. Place two fingers on the sausage, then take your other hand and place two fingers on the sausage at the other end. Pinch the casing with your fingers to close it on both ends, then twist.

Make about five revolutions. Repeat this process with the remaining length of the sausage.

When you’ve made all the links, tie off the end of the sausage.

SMOKING & BOILING THE SAUSAGE

Use your smoker if you have one or if you don’t you can do this.

For smoking the sausage, you will need two hotel pans (one perforated and one regular), as well as an egg crate, regular wood chips, plastic wrap, and a blow torch.

Put a piece of egg crate at the bottom of one hotel pan. Pour the wood chips over the crate.

Put the perforated hotel pan on top of the solid hotel pan.

Lift the top pan up and torch the wood chips. Once smoke is being generated and the wood chips are lit, place the perforated hotel pan back down to create a lid.

You’ll see the smoke coming up from the grates. Torch the wood chips a bit more if you’re not seeing enough smoke. Once the wood chips are lit, leave the sausage in the smoker for one hour.

Drop the smoked sausage links into a pot of boiling water, then turn the heat off. Stir the water around at the very beginning to make sure the sausages cook evenly. Let the sausages cook for three minutes.

Have an ice bath ready to put the sausages in once they’re cooked. Cooling the sausages in the ice bath will make the casing snappy. You can cut one of the sausages open to see if it’s thoroughly cooked.

 Cut the sausage into links.

You can eat the sausage as is, or reheat it on the grill.

May the Creative Force be with you,

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery Store  

or by just clicking on the bold words.

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100% of our net proceeds go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital so we thank you in advance for anything you buy from us.

Cooking with Sriracha

Sriracha is a type of hot sauce or chili sauce made from a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. It is named after the coastal city of Si Racha, in Chonburi Province of eastern Thailand, where it may have been first produced for dishes served at local seafood restaurants

We produce this powder at Home Farm Herbery where we grow the chili peppers and garlic and Arlene has two of her favorite recipes where she uses a lot of what is produced here at the farm.

One is a cold recipe and one is a hot recipe and both are delicious and we want to share them with you hoping that you will add them to your cooking repertoire.

Quinoa Black Bean Salad with Sriracha Dressing

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa  

2 cups vegetable stock

2 cups roughly chopped kale

1 teaspoon salt, for massaging

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon Sriracha powder  

Fleur de sel, to taste 

Freshly crushed black pepper, to taste

1 medium sized red bell pepper, chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled and shredded

1 small shallot, thinly sliced

1 fifteen ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed

Directions

In a medium saucepan, over medium high heat, bring quinoa and vegetable stock to a boil. Turn heat down to low and simmer until all liquid has absorbed and quinoa is light and fluffy. Remove from heat and cool for ten minutes.

While quinoa is cooking, rinse kale and gently massage with teaspoon of salt to soften and make less bitter. Rinse and drain.

While quinoa is cooking, rinse kale and gently massage with teaspoon of salt to soften and make less bitter. Rinse and drain.

In a large salad bowl, combine quinoa, kale, chopped bell pepper, shredded carrot, sliced shallot and black beans. Gently toss with dressing and serve.

Teriyaki Chicken with Sriracha Garlic Sauce

Ingredients:

½ tsp. Minced Garlic Pieces 

2 tbsp. Sriracha Powder 

1 tsp. Dried Shallots  

3 tbsp. Rice Vinegar

1 tsp.  brown sugar

2 tbsp peanut or sesame oil

2 cups white rice

2 ½ cups water

1 14 oz .can lite coconut milk

1 can red beans - no salt, drained and rinsed

1 tbsp. vegetable oil.

1 lb boneless, skinless, chicken breast cut into small pieces

4 carrots peeled and grated

1 yellow squash, diced

1 zucchini, diced

2 celery stalks, sliced

1 cup broccoli florets

3/4 cup + 1/4 cup (divided) low sodium teriyaki sauce

1 cup pineapple, cubed

Directions:

In a blender, combine first six ingredients (Garlic through the peanut or sesame oil).

Blend to a paste consistency, scraping the sides of the blender if needed.

Let the sauce stand for at least 2 hours to allow flavors and heat to develop.

In a large saucepan over high heat, combine water and coconut milk.

When the liquid starts to boil, stir in the rice.

When rice starts to boil again, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes.

Remove rice from heat, fluff with a fork, and stir in beans.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.

Add chicken and cook until pieces are crispy and brown and cooked through.

Remove chicken with a slotted spoon to a separate dish and keep warm.

In the same skillet add the carrots, squash, zucchini, celery and broccoli and cook until slightly tender but still crisp.

Return the chicken to the skillet and add 3/4 cup teriyaki sauce and 2-3 teaspoons of the chili garlic paste, toss to combine.

Add the pineapple and serve over rice.

Mix the remaining chili garlic paste with 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce and use to drizzle over the top of the dish when serving.

May the Creative Force be with you.

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery

How to Make Spicy Thai Stir Fry

How to Make Spicy Thai Stir Fry

You worked all day and you come home and now have to cook.  Or you are an empty nester like me and really don’t do much cooking any more.

I have been using a wok for over 40 years now and I find it not only great but easy and fast to use.  However, in the event you do not have a wok then just use a deep sided frying pan.

Either way this great, easy to make, 15 minute dish is wonderful whether you are cooking for 4 or for 1.  I don’t mind making it for 4 because I can either freeze some of it to thaw out another day and add to my lettuce later or I just reheat the leftovers.

Light, spicy and full of flavor. This is a very easy dish to prepare and only took about 15 minutes to get it on the table. At Home Farm Herbery I really liked using the lettuce because it gave a nice freshness and cool crisp taste to what might otherwise been the usual rice.

Some times I use bigger pieces of lettuce and make a lettuce wrap with the meat.

I use 2-3 Tablespoons Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (30,000-35,000 SHU)

*Let me make a big NOTE here.  The secret of easy cooking is to have all the ingredients cut/chopped/diced/poured out prior to starting the cooking.

It's all about "mise en place", which is French for "together in place". Always have all of your ingredients available and ready to go before you start cooking. For some recipes where the dish is cooked very quickly, such as stir fry or Chicken Picatta, you should have all of your ingredients cut and ready to go in advance before you start to cook. For other dishes such as soup which cooks longer, you can save time by doing the prep work as you cook versus having everything cut and ready to go in advance.

This dish is a good source of protein, Vitamin K, Vitamin B12 and Zinc but it is also high in sodium.

Ingredients:

1 pound flank steak

2 – 3 Tsp. Dried Red Chili Pepper Flakes

1/4 cup Spicy Thai Seasoning  

1/4 cup Minced Onion

2 tablespoons + a pinch of canola oil (for the chile paste)

1/2 small bell pepper, chopped

3 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 cup water (more if needed in Step 6)

Green lettuce leaves

Directions:

Slice beef into 1/4 inch strips 2-3 inches long.

Grind chilies, Spicy Thai Seasoning and Minced Onion into a coarse paste adding a pinch of oil.

Heat wok or deep side skillet and the oil and swish it around the wok.

Add chile paste and stir until lightly browned.

Add beef and bell pepper and stir not overcooking.

Add fish sauce, sugar and water and stir (you will have about 1/2 to 3/4 cup sauce) more water if needed).

In serving bowl place lettuce leaves to cover bottom and place mixture on top.

Serves 4

May the Creative Force be with you

Arlene Wright-Correll

Home Farm Herbery