The forage is the thing. On a recent hike into a bog with naturalist Robin Tapley, we stopped to taste the crisp green apple of starflower leaves and the fresh crunch of Indian cucumber root. He was careful to point out the top and berries of the plant are poisonous — an important bit of information.
And how better to spend an afternoon than tromping through a swamp with a master chef? Riverwalk’s David Friesen and I recently roamed Muskoka’s back roads in a quest for the perfect cattail.
An acre of cattails yields 10 times more food than an acre of potatoes. The shoots, rhizomes, pollen and flower spikes are all edible. The green cattail flower — that’s the bit that eventually turns brown — has been called Cossack asparagus and it does taste like a wilder cousin of the tamed vegetable. Eat it like corn on the cob, with butter and salt.
We found our cattails and some water lilies just outside of Port Carling. Earlier in the day I had gathered a collection of Johnny jump-ups, dandelion greens, plantain, wild onion, mint, violet leaves, sweet clover, stonecrop sedum, daisy buds and the tiniest of wild strawberries. Friesen made off with our bounty to taste, consider and discover where this wild muse would take him.
The next day I met him at his trés chic Bracebridge resto for one of my favourite culinary experiences to date. Friesen whipped us up a couple of wild mint mojitos while I gently pulled the purple tips from our clover. I had found some lilies on the trip over, so he julienned the deep orange petals for our salad of wild greens dressed with a light vinaigrette. We agreed the orange lilies were sweet, the stonecrop succulent and the water lilies bitter but the stamens had a licorice-like aftertaste.
Our next course was gorgeous lamb with a wild mint glaze, served with cattail flowers tossed in butter and salt. Fantastic. For dessert we had cattail pollen crepes filled with wild strawberries. The wild mint appeared again in a drop-dead delicious, fresh tasting ice cream made earlier that morning.
Unless I have previously tried a food under the watchful eye of an expert, I don’t take any chances. Lone Pine’s new guide Edible & Medicinal Plants of Canada is a constant foraging companion. However, even with a field guide, I exert extreme caution when eating wild foods. For instance, I will never tempt fate by eating a wild member of the carrot family because the poisonous varieties look too similar to the edible and one cousin is more deadly than the deadliest nightshade. Put your lips to this water hemlock and you will die. The first time I try anything new, I do so in small quantities – just in case I have an individual reaction to something otherwise edible.
Riverwalk Mojito
Shake it, shake it, shake it. Shake it like a Polaroid picture.
1 cup wild mint leaves – crushed
2 cups simple syrup
2 oz rum
Combine in a stainless steel cocktail strainer. Shake. Strain. Drink.
Makes two servings.
Cattail Pollen Crêpes
Bright yellow cattail pollen gives these standard crêpes a unique taste.
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp cattail pollen, strained to remove impurities
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter, melted
Whisk together flour, pollen, sugar and salt. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Let rest for half hour. Cook on cast iron crêpe pan, flipping once after the crêpe is golden on the bottom and set. Fill with your foraged find: berries or wild herb and garlic double cream cheese.
Makes 20 crepes.
Wild Herb and Garlic Double Cream Cheese
The sharp buttery marvel of soft cheese is given an extra bite with wild herbs.
Round of your favourite double cream soft cheese (or triple cream if you’re a St. Andre fan)
1/4 cup wild herbs (onion, garlic, mint, clover), washed
Slice round in half on the horizontal, so you have a bottom round and a top round. Sprinkle centre with wild herbs. Bake on a tray in a 300F oven until cheese is warm and runny. Serve slathered on crepes.
Makes one round.
Cattails on the Cob
They taste of asparagus but with a mellow en plein air vibe. Only eat them when green; once brown they’re fuzzy and unpleasant.
2 cattail flowers per person
Butter and salt to taste
In a large pot of simmering, salted water, cook green cattail flowers until heated through, about 3 to 5 minutes. Serve with butter and salt and eat as you would corn on the cob.
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