Comments on: Locally Grown Chard, Celeriac, Butternut Squash & Cardoons!!!

By: Margaret O'Regan

Margaret O'Regan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:48:01 +0000

Love your comments about cardoons. My husband and I plan to start growing them next March or April here in Cork, Ireland. Seeds are available from moreveg dot co dot uk – I think, for the moment, Europe only.

We have been growing chard for the past few years – a great plant yielding two dishes in stems and leaves.

It is important to keep the old heritage varieties going, and groups like Irish Seedsavers are to the fore in this important work.

By: Divina

Divina — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:59:24 +0000

I just love butternut squash and the ingredients that you’ve listed. I have to contact Dizon Farms for that. Thanks.

By: RST

RST — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:05:24 +0000

Gej yes!
A couple of years ago, I did some research in Morocco for a magazine and this is from the (unpublished) material. The specific variety of Cynara involved is still unclear to me: it is probably not cardoons but another kind of thistle.

Start quote:
MEHLABA

Traditionally, pancakes such as mlawi and msemen are sold out of a mehlaba (lit: “lieu de lait” i.e. a cremerie, a purveyor of fresh milk and milk products) although today this is not necessarily so. It is in these mehlabas that one can enjoy an early morning glass of rayib (also sp: raib, rryib, Wolfert has raipe), fresh milk mixed with a few spoonsful of fragrant orange flower water and a little sugar and then lightly curdled into a soft yogurt-like consistency. I have wonderful memories of standing in a mehlaba in the Meknes medina slurping creamy rayib in the company of with market-porters and laborers on their way to work.

Traditionally, rayib is curdled with the vegetable rennet of the dried wild thistle called “kok beldi” (also sp: Wolfert = coques) (Cynara humilis or perhaps Cynara cardunculus). This is almost certainly a variety closely related to the wild thistle/artichoke that is used to make cheese in Sardinia and in many other parts of the Mediterranean. I am almost certain that it is the same thistle used to make my favorite Spanish cheeses, the Torta del Casar (http://www.tortadelcasar.org/ingles.html) as well as the Torta from the neighboring village of La Serena (http://www.tortaserena.com/). At the end of my trip, I stopped by Formatgeria La Seu in Barcelona (a great champion of Spanish farmhouse cheeses: http://www.formatgerialaseu.com/) where the owner Katherine showed me her stash of dried thistle. We both agreed that it must be the same thistle. Nowdays, however, most Moroccan mehlabas simply use an enzyme/microprotease in the form of a pill called asproya (marked “caille lait” milk curdler) that could easily be bought (for 1 dh) for home use from any corner store. A pill curdles one liter of milk (I was told).

End quote.

RST

By: Pia Mac

Pia Mac — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 06:39:05 +0000

The vegetable colors are so pretty! And as for the cardoons, the first time I ever saw them was in a book from Time-Life’s The Good Cook series. Local growers should really look into these special vegs!

By: Gej

Gej — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:09:25 +0000

Interesting post. Also found this link through the Specialty Produce Fan Page in FaceBook. Found out, for example, that cardoons can take the place of rennet in making cheese ( not with cow’s milk though).

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=102792599607&h=IiQOm&u=GO2J_&ref=nf