Homestead Herbs & Healing | holistic living

Showing posts with label snack. Show all posts

reading time: 4 min

Christmas is slowly approaching, and the dreariness and cold of winter lies ahead of us. Today's cookies are meant to provide you with a boost of energy and strength for the coming months.

The nerve cookies ("Nervenkekse") are inspired by the ancient recipe of the 12th century German Benedictine abbess and holistic medical practitioner St. Hildegard of Bingen. She is still a well-known name in Germany today, and particularly valued for her medicinal writings that focus on holistic methods centred on spiritual healing as well as the healing powers of herbs, tinctures, and crystals.

St. Hildegard (1098 – 1179) apparently said the following about these cookies:

»Diese Plätzchen vertreiben alle Bitternis deines Herzens und geben deiner Gesinnung Ruhe und öffnen dein Herz und deine fünf Sinne und machen deine Stimmung heiter und reinigen deine Sinnesorgane und mindern in dir alle Schadsäfte (noxi, mali, infirmi humores) und liefern deinem Blut eine gute Säftezusammensetzung, machen dich leistungsfähig, stark und froh.«
W. Strehlow „Die Ernährungstherapie der Hildegard von Bingen“, 2003, S. 412 ff
^{(Freely translated: "These biscuits drive away all bitterness of thy heart, and give tranquillity to thy mind, and open thy heart and thy five senses, and make thy mood cheerful, and purify thy sense organs, and diminish in thee all noxious fluids (noxi, mali, infirmi humores), and supply thy blood with a good composition of fluids, and make thee efficient, strong, and joyful.")}

Portrait of Hildegard von Bingen, German Abbess and physician. (source)

The main characters starring in these cookies are nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and almonds.
Nutmeg has a warming, antispasmodic, pain-relieving and nerve-strengthening effect. It also stimulates menstruation, and is used for stomach cramps, flatulence, and diarrhoea. In folk medicine, it is considered an aphrodisiac and a hypnotic. In high doses, nutmeg has a hallucinogenic effect, and can even be deadly poisonous when overdosed (but don't worry – you would have to eat about 3 whole nutmegs for them to be deadly! For cooking and baking, you usually only use a pinch, so you don't usually need to worry about it.). It is recommended to avoid nutmeg during pregnancy.

Cinnamon is not only a classic winter spice, it is also a powerful healing spice with warming and calming properties. As such, it promotes circulation and improves digestion. It is also antibacterial and antifungal. Since the more common Cassia cinnamon (cinnamomum cassia) contains a blood-thinning component called coumarin which can cause kidney, liver and lung damage when used regularly and/or in large quantities, it is recommended to use Ceylon cinnamon (cinnamomum verum) instead which contains significantly less coumarin.
Cloves are known to be powerful pain-relievers, such as for toothache pain. In the Middle Ages, cloves were considered to strengthen the liver, stomach and brain. They also have a stimulating, mood-lifting and energising effect.

Almonds are rich in vitamin E, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, copper and protein. Magnesium and protein in particular are great for your nerves.

These cookies are meant to strengthen the nerves and increase the ability to concentrate. According to Saint Hildegard, the cookies are to be consumed as medicine, not as dessert. Let food be thy medicine, right?

For that reason, it is advised to consume no more than 5 cookies a day for healing effects.

reading time: 7 min

May I present to you: another cake recipe with hidden wild herbs!

This time around the hidden wild surprise is goutweed also known as ground elder.

Unlike your classic American apple pie, which consists of course of a buttery double crust with pastry both above and below the spiced apple filling, with the upper crust often being latticed – this Dutch apple pie or appeltaart has a flaky pie crust filled with several layers of sliced golden apples. Unlike the American-style double-crusted pie, it is open faced (as the name taart / tart implies), and often topped with a buttery crumb topping instead of the top pie crust. You can also add currants, apricot jam, lemon juice, rum and/or cinnamon to the filling, if you like.

So far, I had only used the leaves of goutweed or ground elder for recipes like my quick & easy wild herb salad bowl, sourdough bread with wild spring herbs, wild herb pesto, wild herb & garlic butter, or stuffed hazelnut leaves. But never for dessert, and never the flowers.

The Health Benefits of Goutweed / Ground Elder

The Latin word podagra, which can be found in the botanical name of goutweed / ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria) means "gout" in Latin and – just like its common name "goutweed" – illustrates what the plant was traditionally used for medicinally: gout. Due to its anti-inflammatory and uric acid dissolving properties, it is also used to treat rheumatism, arthritis, as well as bladder and digestive conditions such as cystitis. In addition, it has been used to make poultices, and to treat burns and stings.

It is rich in potassium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, zinc and copper. It also contains several times more vitamin A, Vitamin C and protein than lettuce.

Where and How to Harvest Goutweed Flowers

Goutweed or Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria) is a perennial herbaceous plant that is native to Europe and Asia has also been introduced into North America. It prefers nitrogen-rich soil and grows in shady areas such as in damp shrubberies, woodland, grassland, on lawns, grass verges and near hedgerows. It grows to a height between 30 cm to 1 meter.

It is one of the first edible wild plants to show up in the spring, which is the best time to collect its leaves, and stays throughout the summer until late autumn.

As the plant ages, the leaves (and also the flowers) can still be eaten either cooked or raw, but they will become slightly bitter over time, so the younger the plant, the better. In addition to that, the medicinal effects are greatly increased, and once the plant has started flowering, it should not be eaten in any great quantity due to its increased diuretic, laxative and soporific effects.

As a very robust and quickly spreading ("invasive") herb that is difficult to remove once established, gardeners often complain about it as an annoying weed. But I think, the issue is just that we've forgotten how to make use of it – just like the stinging nettle!

Although not related to the elder shrub (Sambucus), which produces the delicious elderflowers and elderberries, the name "ground elder" stems from the strong similarity of the leaves and also the superficial similarity of the umbrella-shaped flowers. It's very important to know that young elder leaves are poisonous, whereas goutweed/ground elder leaves are edible!

Flavour-wise, the goutweed leaves are reminiscent of parsley, carrots, celery or even young peas or spinach, depending on who you ask. For me personally, it tastes like a mixture of parsley and carrot greens.

One of the easiest and best ways to identify goutweed/ground elder is the 3 x 3 rule: The leaves are divided into 3 groups of 3 toothed leaflets, which are sometimes regularly lobed or divided (the leaflets of the lower two leaf groups will sometimes grow together, making it harder to recognize the 3 leaflets), and the stem of each leaf is noticeably 3-edged / triangular.

Please be aware that goutweed is part of the family of umbellifers which include highly poisonous species such as deadly poison hemlock, water hemlock, spotted cowbane, fool's parsley, rough chervil and various species of water dropwort!

Most of those poisonous look-alikes will have finely divided and lacy leaves, like carrot greens, whereas goutweed has 3 groups of 3 toothed leaflets and a three-edged, hollow stem. So make sure that ALL criteria match when identifying a plant!

In late spring to early summer (May until July), the plant forms umbels of white flowers which consists of 12-25 flower stalks.

General Foraging Guidelines:

You should be 100 % certain you are identifying the correct plant. If you do not know what it is, DO NOT eat it! Do not pick if you're in doubt!
Don't harvest from contaminated areas such as busy roadsides, near industrial facilities, where dogs pee, along the edges of agricultural fields, old landfill sites etc.
Be mindful & harvest sustainably. Only pick from areas that have a plentiful supply, and never more than 1/4 of a plant, ideally only about 5 %.
Leave the harvesting area litter-free.

reading time: 7 min

»I've gotta get out of this place. Someday I’m getting on that train.«

– Lin to Chihiro/Sen, Spirited Away

You probably don't know this about me, but Spirited Away is actually my Nr. 1 favourite anime movie of all time, closely followed by Princess Mononoke and Grave of the Fireflies.

My grandma gave me the mangas for my 12th birthday, and growing up, it has always been one of my favourites to read and later watch, especially as a young teenager (but let's be honest here, I still get way too excited whenever I'm re-watching this, lol). It wasn't until I watched Galatea's video on femininity in media though (you know, Galatea from The Authentic Observer, another favourite of mine) that I realized just WHY I love this movie so much!

Chihiro's journey into the spirit world can be seen as a modern Japanese retelling of Alice in Wonderland, but in my opinion Spirited Away is a much more than that because as Galatea says, it is a great example for an empowering Heroine's Journey. It is one of the few (popular) stories with a female main character, a girl to be exact, who undergoes an exciting and dangerous adventure in order to save her parents and faces monsters that she has to overcome – and all that whilst not compromising or sacrificing her femininity! For example, Chihiro is the only one in the bathhouse full of magical creatures who is able to stop No-Face's destruction, not by fighting him, but by befriending him and believing in the good in him. Which requires both her bravery and her compassion. This also shows in the way she treats the alleged "stink spirit" who later turns out to be a river spirit and who thanks her with a magic herbal dumpling.

Chihiro is also discriminated by the other workers in the bathhouse (because she is a human), but will not be deterred and continues to treat everyone with kindness and respect nonetheless.

Another aspect I love about this movie is that Chihiro isn't especially pretty, or cute, or even sexy. She's just a regular, rather unremarkable girl, beautiful in a very "mundane" way. She's also quite clumsy, but still hard-working and determined. Oh, and her journey isn't about romantic love either, but about the love for her parents and later for her friends and even her "enemies". Although one could argue that her unconditional love for Haku is something in-between platonic and romantic. Perhaps the best way to describe them as is "soul mates".

It also needs to be said that all of the main characters – except for the river spirit Haku and perhaps Kamaji – are female: Chihiro, Lin, Yubaba, Zeniba ...

But enough about my love for this movie!

Let's talk about these steamed buns now. Lovely soft, slightly sweet, warm buns ... *drool*

In the movie Lin brings along a plate full of huge squishy buns ("dumplings") filled with a dark red paste during the celebrations of having released the river spirit. It is one of the first big successes on Chihiro's journey.

These are most likely Dou Sha Bao (豆沙包), one of the most popular Chinese desserts. I've also read the term Da Bao (大包) or Mantou (馒头) though, and I think the Korean equivalent to these sweet red bean filled steamed buns is called Hoppang (호빵). There's also a Japanese version of this called Anpan (あんパン), but it doesn't seem to have the characteristic white dough, but is more golden on the outside. (We even have very similar steamed yeast buns here in Germany called Germknödel which are traditionally filled with spiced plum jam and served with vanilla cream sauce, and then there's also the German Dampfnudel which translates to "steam noodle" and refers to a sweet bread roll almost identical to the Chinese Mantou. Interesting to see the intercultural similarities!)

Chihiro munching away on a steamed bun. (source)

I based my recipe on the classic Chinese steamed buns. They are soft and fluffy like a white little dough pillow, and filled with the not-too-sweet gooey red bean paste that is very unique in taste.

A delicious snack or dessert! Ideal if you're planning to do a Miyazaki movie marathon any time soon 😉

(I know this is probably considered a sacrilege, but I would actually recommend serving these buns with vanilla sauce, like the Germknödel I mentioned above! Or feel free to replace the sweet bean filling with a savoury filling, if that's more up your alley ...)

CHIHIRO'S VEGAN STEAMED BUNS

adapted from Fiction Food Café

Preparation time: 2 hours (+ 1 hour proofing time)
Main ingredients: flour, yeast, red beans, dates
difficulty level: easy
makes: 8 large steamed buns
suitable for: vegan, lactose-free, wheat-free, nut-free, low sugar, low fat

Ingredients:

dough:
500 g spelt flour (type 630 or all-purpose flour)
3 tbsp powdered sugar
a pinch of salt
250 ml lukewarm plant-based milk or water (or a mix of both)
4 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp granulated sugar (I use raw cane sugar)
2 tbsp vegan margarine or vegetable oil
(optional) 1 tsp vanilla extract

filling:
1/2 cup (100 g) dry adzuki beans or red beans, soaked for at least 2-3 hours or overnight
water for soaking and boiling the beans
1/4 cup soft deseeded dates (or sugar)
3 tbsp coconut milk
3 tbsp agave syrup
1 tbsp date syrup (or more agave)
(optional) 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

or 200 g store-bought red bean paste (available in most Asian stores)

also:
a pot
a bamboo steamer or steamer basket (alternatively you can use a metal strainer or colander!)
parchment paper

Instructions:

To make the filling:

Rinse and drain soaked adzuki beans. Place in a large pot, fill with enough water to cover the beans by about an inch. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer for about 1 hour. Check on the beans in-between to make sure there's still enough water to keep them submerged. After about an hour, test a bean by mashing it with a spoon or your fingers. If it just splits in halves, it's not ready yet. Keep cooking until it mashes easily.

Turn off heat and drain the beans. Allow to cool.

Add cooked beans to a food processor, along with deseeded dates and the remaining ingredients for the filling. Blend until a sticky paste forms. Set aside in the fridge to firm up while making the bun dough.

To make the dough:

In a small bowl, combine lukewarm plant-based milk or water, sugar, and active dry yeast. Set aside for a few minutes until foamy.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, powdered sugar, and salt. Add the foamy yeast mixture, and stir until roughly combined. Add margarine or vegetable oil, and optionally vanilla extract.

Use an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment to knead the dough for 8 minutes, or until the dough is super soft and smooth. You could also use your hand, or do a mix of both: a couple of minutes with the mixer, then kneading the rest with your hands.

Once the dough is velvety soft and smooth and does not stick to your hands or the bowl, cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or a plate, and leave to proof for 1 hour in a warm spot.

In the meantime, roll your cooled red bean filling into balls about the size of a walnut.

To assemble:

Once the dough is done proofing and has doubled in size, transfer it to a dusted surface. Knead once again, then form a log, and divide it into 8 equal sized pieces. Shape each piece into a round, and roll it out into a disk using a rolling pin or your hands.

Each piece should be big enough to enclose the bean paste ball with a little extra to overlap and seal. It should also be thinner at the edges and thicker in the centre.

Place one ball of red bean filling in the centre of the dough disk. Gather the edges of the dough around the filling, and pinch them together to enclose the ball. Seal, and set aside on a piece of parchment paper, seam side down.

Fill a pot with about 5 cm / 2 inches of warm water, then place the steamer inside or on top of the pot, depending on what you are using.

Transfer the buns to the steamer, making sure they are each sitting on a small piece of parchment paper to prevent them from sticking to the steamer. Cover with a lid, and rest for another 20 minutes at room temperature.

Turn the heat on to medium-high. Steam the buns for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, but let the buns sit in the steamer over the remaining heat for another 5 minutes. Do not uncover the lid yet!

After a total of 20 minutes, your steamed buns should be ready. Enjoy while still warm!

Any leftover buns can be frozen once cooled and re-steamed for about 5 minutes to eat.

The last picture shows how I served the buns: doused with pink Himalayan balsam syrup. Sweet, sticky, yummy!

BTW: Back in 2014 I drew a sketch of Chihiro with the chubby mouse baby and the fly-that-looks-like-a-tiny-bird, using this image as reference, so I thought I'd share it with you. I remember being quite obsessed with the manga as a young teen (way before 2014), and copying scenes from Spirited Away was literally what drove me to start drawing!

Looking for more nerdy recipes? Check out some of my fiction-inspired creations:

The Witcher's Honey Spice Cake (vegan)

Sansa's Lemon Cakes (vegan)

Beorn's Honey Cakes (vegan)

Legolas' Lembas (vegan)

Madam Rosmerta's Butterbeer (vegan)

♥

Maisy

reading time: 5 min

Creeping charlie is a wonderful medicinal wild herb that has been featured on my blog before, for example in my fluffy sourdough bread with wild spring herbs, my wild herb & garlic butter, and my pesto flower pull-apart bread using homemade wild herb pesto.

But did you know that creeping charlie (which by the way I am renaming "creeping charlotte" since the plant has a feminine energy to it for me) makes for a great ingredient in desserts as well? As a member of the mint family, it pairs especially well with chocolate!

Hence, these creeping charlie chocolate brownies. They are decadent, rich, moist, and just delicious. They aren't the most healthy, though, but sometimes I like prioritizing flavour over salubrity. The leaves and flowers of the creeping charlie give these brownies a unique aromatic flavour.

This is a magic(k)al recipe for celebrating Beltane or the full moon in May, also known as the Flower Moon, or for the upcoming Mother's Day 💗

Where and How to Harvest Creeping Charlie

Creeping charlie (Glechoma hederacea), also known as ground ivy or gill-over-the-ground, is an aromatic, perennial, evergreen creeper of the mint family. It is widespread throughout most of Europe and can also be found in western and northern Asia, New Zealand, the USA and Canada. It is often-times considered "invasive".

The ground-covering herb can be found on meadows, lawns, wooded areas, along field margins and on fallow land. It thrives in moist shaded areas but also tolerates sun very well. It is relatively unassuming, expect when it is in flower between April and June, sometimes even July.

Creeping charlie contains many essential oils, tannins and bitter substances, which have anti-inflammatory, digestive and metabolism-stimulating properties. It can be used for complaints such as acne, colds, coughs, bronchial diseases, abscesses, tumours, and to stimulate the metabolism. It can be used to make tinctures, ointments, compressed, tea, or used for cooking and baking, such as in herb butter, lemonade, chocolate, cottage cheese, salads and egg dishes.

The fresh leaves contain a lot of vitamin C. When the leaves are crushed, a spicy, slightly minty scent is noticeable. Personally, it often reminds me of the melissa family as well. The taste is usually compared with mint, but some people have also associated it with goat's cheese. Well ...

The best way to distinguish creeping charlie from other wild herbs is its intense minty aromatic scent when crushed, heart-shaped or kidney-shaped opposed leaves with prominent rounded lobes on the edges, stalks that usually creep along the ground, flower shoots that are upright, and funnel-shaped blue or purple flowers. At the tips, the stalks can sometimes be brown-purplish instead of the usual dark green.

Due to very similar common habitats, creeping charlie is often confused with bugle (Ajuga reptans) which also has erect flowering stems with two-lipped blue flowers, but very different elliptical leaf blades. Luckily, bugle is also edible, so you don't need to worry too much about it.

You could also potentially mistake creeping charlie with heal-all (Prunella vulgaris) or even purple dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) – which are both edible as well. They can be told apart by their leaves and flower shape.

The leaves of the creeping charlie can sometimes be confused with the young leaves of lesser celandine or fig buttercup (Ficaria verna). Once it flowers between March and May, the difference is obvious: the lesser celandine has glossy yellow flowers that open up into a star-shape. Its leaves are also edible, but should only be consumed before it flowers!

The best time to collect creeping charlie is between March and June.

General Foraging Guidelines:

You should be 100 % certain you are identifying the correct plant. If you do not know what it is, DO NOT eat it! Do not pick if you're in doubt!
Don't harvest from contaminated areas such as busy roadsides, near industrial facilities, where dogs pee, along the edges of agricultural fields, old landfill sites etc.
Be mindful & harvest sustainably. Only pick from areas that have a plentiful supply, and never more than 1/4 of a plant, ideally only about 5 %.
Leave the harvesting area litter-free.

VEGAN CREEPING CHARLIE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

Preparation time: 1 hour (+ 30 minutes cooling time)
Main ingredients: flour, chocolate, sugar, creeping charlie
difficulty level: easy
makes: 12 brownies
suitable for: vegan, lactose-free, wheat-free, egg-free, yeast-free

Ingredients

150 g spelt flour (I use type 1050 which is the German equivalent to bread flour)
100 g ground almonds
80 g coconut blossom sugar or cane sugar
1 package (8g) vanilla sugar
50 g unsweetened cacao powder
4 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
100 g dark vegan chocolate, chopped (I use 70%)
400 ml coconut milk
110 g vegan margarine (or sub 90 g canola oil)
about 3 tbsp cacao nibs
2 handfuls of fresh creeping charlie
(optional) 3-5 fresh mint leaves

Instructions

To make the herb-infused coconut milk:

Start by infusing the coconut milk with creeping charlie.

To a small saucepan, add 400 ml of coconut milk (both the creamy and the watery part).

Rinse the creeping charlie to remove any residual dirt, bugs, or soil that may be on the plant. Then, tear or "smack" the leaves to help them release their aromas.

Add about 2/3 of your creeping charlie to the coconut milk. Bring to a slight simmer, then turn off the heat and allow the herbs to steep in the coconut milk for at least 1-2 hours. I suggest infusing it overnight.

Strain the herbs, and use the infused coconut milk for the brownie recipe.

Creeping charlie before and after steeping in coconut milk overnight.

To make the brownies:

Preheat oven to 347 °F /175 °C.

Chop the remaining creeping charlie leaves and flowers very finely. Do the same with the mint leaves.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, vanilla sugar, sugar, cacao powder, cacao nibs, chopped creeping charlie and mint, and salt. Stir well.

Chop the chocolate and melt it over a double-boiler.

In a separate bowl, beat the vegan margarine until fluffy. Slowly add in the flour mix and the herb-infused coconut milk, alternating. Mix everything together using an electric whisk. Lastly, add the melted chocolate, and mix again.

Pour the batter onto a greased or parchment lined baking tray. I used a smaller brownie tray, pictured here, and a second larger one. The batter should make about 12 brownies.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin completely, then cut into squares.

Garnish with leaves and flowers from the creeping charlie, and/or other edible flowers such as daisies or violets.

Store brownies in an airtight container and eat within 3 days. If they last that long, congratulations for your self-discipline!