Recipes This Week: Violet Foods, Fermented Garlic, Vinegar, and Herbs

This past week, I vowed to get outside and take better advantage of the plants, herbs, and "weeds" growing in our garden! Foraging from my yard gives me such a deep sense of satisfaction, especially as I'm beginning to learn the specialty and medicinal plants. We also decided to try out two separate fermented garlic recipes. Here's what we've been making…

1. Violet simple syrup. This recipe yielded a syrup that was bright blue! The taste is very subtle (and my attempts to make violet-flavored ice cream failed), but it looks super cool. The method is simple: a cup of violet petals infused in a cup of boiling water for 20 hours; then strain out the petals and gently warm the infused water with a cup of sugar until it forms a syrup.

I swear this is literally the color! It looks like cool-aid!

2. Violet sugar. Who doesn't want purple sugar in their pantry? This was a lot of fun to make, and again, while I'm not sure the subtle violet flavor actually came through, it looks super cool. You just mix violet petals with sugar in a blender, then dry them and grind them once more. The recipe calls for drying it in the oven, but I used a dehydrator since we have one. We sprinkled it over the wannabe-violet-flavored ice cream I made, and it looked beautiful!

3. Garlic-infused honey. After half an hour of the three of us (Zach, our roommate Lydia, and me) furiously peeling garlic, we popped them into a jar along with some honey and left them to ferment. When they're done, we can use the honey for glazes, sauces, and dressings. This Bon Appetit video will show you more detail. 

4. Dried dandelion root, raspberry leaf, and plantain leaf. I harvested these from my yard for use in tea: dandelion root for nutrition, raspberry leaf to soothe menstrual cramps, and plantain leaf for stomach issues. They dried overnight in our dehydrator. Zach made them into tea, along with a bag of yaupon holly and some chocolate mint I'd previous dried, and it made a delicious and nourishing tea that got me through a hard day at work.

Freshly-harvested dandelion root. I scrubbed/peeled the hairy roots off, then sliced them

When these dried, I diced them into little bits for tea

Plantain leaf (not the banana plantains, but this plant)

Raspberry leaf

5. Torshi seer (aged garlic-infused vinegar). Zach discovered another garlic recipe he had to try: putting whole unpeeled garlic cloves in a jar with vinegar, and leaving them to sit for a year minimum— up to seven is better! Of course we had to do this, so we bought another bag of garlic and popped them into apple cider vinegar along with with salt and cloves. I'm excited to see how it goes!

6. Cold kicker. My mom and I swear by this recipe for the winter months, but I decided it might be good to whip up another batch for the rest of the year. The recipe is simple: chopped onion, garlic, horseradish, ginger, cayenne, turmeric, rosemary, and sage, soaked in apple cider vinegar for two weeks or longer, then strained and mixed with honey. If you feel a cold coming on, it usually knocks it out quickly.

What have you been making this week? Are you going to try any of the above?

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