The Malcolm Blue Farm Museum and Farmhouse is an historical
farm in the Sandhills of North Carolina, built in 1825. Today, the farm holds authentic events year
round, the largest being the Annual Farmskills Festival & School Children’s
Day, and the Christmas Open House. The
farm’s historical society has published a cookbook with authentic recipes from
the early 1800’s. Here is another choice
recipe from the Blue’s Farm Cookery cookbook.
Poke Sallet is the common pokeweed, poke root, poke salad
(or poke sallet), poke berry, poke, Virginia poke, inkberry, cancer root,
American nightshade, pigeon berry. I’ve
seen articles saying the purple berries and purple stems are poisonous. However, an article at this cancer.org link
says pokeweed may have medicinal properties – so proceed with caution. You may want to consider a nice Caesar salad
instead. [Speaking of healthy.... this is probably the most artery-clogging salad recipe I've ever seen!]
INGREDIENTS:
3 qts. Tender pokeweed
leaves
1/4 tsp. Baking
soda
12 slices Bacon
DIRECTIONS:
Clean leaves and cover with 1 quart of water and bring to a
boil. Gently cook for about 10 minutes,
and add baking soda. Stir and drain
thoroughly.
In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon to a paper towel. Add pokeweed to the bacon fat and sauté until
liquid has almost evaporated.
Crumble bacon over poke sallet and serve.
NOTE: Pick poke greens or shoots in the spring when they are no taller than 6"-8". The new leaves at the branching top of young plants before the blossoms appear are good and safe to eat, but the root of poke weed is poisonous. The purplish-black berries that form on the plant in autumn are also said to be poisonous, as is the purple rind of the mature stalk.
Poke Sallet was often enjoyed with stuffed possum (recipe at
the link below)
Enjoy a little Johnny Cash and Tony Joe White as you cook!
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