{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Food Garden Life Show: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping","title":"Sochan, Galinsoga, Squash Tips: Root-to-Flower Cuisine","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3779,"description":"Our guest today, Chef Alan Bergo, looks at vegetables through the eyes of a forager. He’s passionate about using parts of the plant that are often overlooked.\r\nChefs using a whole animals might use the term nose-to-tail cooking. Bergo takes this approach with his vegetables, using a root-to-flower approach.\r\nBergo is the author of the new book, The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora: Recipes and Techniques for Edible Plants from Garden, Field, and Forest.\r\nOften-Forgotten Plant Parts\r\nBergo talks about using squash tips in the kitchen. “The squash is a perfect example of how foraging and looking for different ingredients changed how I consider vegetables that I thought I knew,” he says.\r\nHis advice for cooking squash shoot tips? Cook gently and delicately. Steam them, or blanche for one minute…or barely wilt them in a pan.\r\nOther often-forgotten plant parts include:\r\n\r\n* \r\nFennel fronds. Bergo likes to combine these with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs to make into cakes.\r\n\r\n* \r\nCarrot leaves. He suggests simmering them in salted water. They keep their shape and texture when gently cooked, and can then be used like salad.\r\n\r\n* \r\nUnripe sunflower heads. They have the texture of an artichoke along with a strong sunflower flavour.\r\n\r\n\r\nForaged Ingredients\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n* \r\nSochan. Bergo explains that leaves from this rudbeckia family member can be harvest three to four times over a year. The leaves formed after the flower stalk dies back are different—and are his favourite. Older leaves have a stronger flavour.\r\n\r\n* \r\nNettles. He finds that common nettle has more of a “saline” or “oceanic” taste to it than Canada nettle\r\n\r\n* \r\nMilkweed flower can be used to make drinks with an intensely fruity flavour.\r\n\r\n* \r\nMeadowsweet flowers have an almond-like taste. Bergo says that a good way to catch floral aromas is by using cream.\r\n\r\n* \r\nBlack walnut. Young nuts can be used to make a jam and catsup.\r\n\r\n* \r\nPine pollen. It’s used in China and the Middle East to make sweets.\r\n\r\n\r...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/_y3e1k24nMlKLGYUZdhBsMgezF6u9k_5w92OUmAhniI/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kMTFk/NDg3ODQxNjE2MGM1/ZWMwNGVhOTgyZTY1/NmZhOC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}