It has long been known that plants that include chicory – including dandelion – are more crunchy and have a milder taste if they do not have light: the famous fabric regatta is “made” in the cellar, as is Belgian chicory. who appreciates this. feature. We recognize them by browsing the moles, behind the long white shoots. Almost every dandelion, even if it grows among the grass, has a part that is exactly like that: white, crunchy and soapy, we call the dandelion crown. It is usually cut and discarded during cleaning. Our fish recipe uses this part – in the end it resembles baked Treviso chicory.
Where the dandelion crown is hidden
The only thing that matters here is the harvesting and cleaning technique: during harvesting, cut deep enough to hold some roots and then cut exactly, “along the line”. Remove the bad outer leaves and cut again, this time the top, green. We will use it for salad, the white part, for the chronicle, but we just whiten it a bit and add it to the new dish. In short: we take two plates from a dandelion head, recycle them perfectly and do not create waste, even if they are organic and vegetable.
The most crunchy and least bitter part of dandelion is an ingredient that we will have in abundance if we start to clean it properly: the crown is the white part where the leaves stick.
Natalo will eat an almost designer lunch in 10 minutes.
Dandelion wreath with noodles, sardines and anchovies
- about 20 dandelion crowns
- 2 cans of sardines
- 4 cloves garlic
- a glass of anchovies
- spicy flakes or other hot spice that is close to your heart
- Chinese wrappers for rice noodles (200-300 g)
- olive oil
Preparation
1. Clean the dandelion: hold it as you would a ponytail from the leaves, remove the bad ones and cut exactly where the root sticks to the plant so that nothing black remains and everything still sticks together. Then cut the leaves, around the place where they become green. We save you for the salad.
2. Boil a pot of salted water and whiten the cleaned dandelion crowns for a few minutes. Then roll them in another pot of water – it should not be icy – and roll them a few times to remove any dirt we have left behind between the leaves. Drain.
Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in the shrimp and fry the finely chopped garlic until it smells, and at the same time the chili flakes. Add the well-drained anchovies from the jar (preferably cut into smaller pieces) and stir / fry until the fat becomes fragrant.
4. Shake the rice noodles in a bowl and pour boiling water over them for a few minutes; when they soften, drain them well and transfer them to a shrimp with garlic and anchovies. Stir well to flavor the noodles, then add the whipped garlic cloves and drained sardines, cover and set again, until everything is warm and serve.
We also recommend: The legendary lunch a little different: mashed potatoes, eggs in the eye and something better instead of spinach.
Photos: Sonja Ravbar
