Dandelions have arrived!!
We're right around the corner from asparagus and strawberry season but I can't even wait that long. As I sat on my back porch this morning drinking coffee and dreaming about my summer gardens, it dawned on me that I had a delicious spring harvest all around me! Ahhhhh...Dandelions!
Lila and I got to work foraging a big bowl full of them while Daisy played with the younger kids. About 15 minutes later we had a heaping bowl full of stems and flowers. (We could have dug the roots for coffee and medicinal purposes but we chose to skip that for today)
The first step to using dandelions is to get them cleaned and ready. First I pop off all of the clean looking flowers and set aside.
Next, I put them all in the sink and start rinsing and picking off the leaves.
At this point the leaves are ready to be cooked in a recipe or simply thrown in salads. I'm going to cook mine with Pa Dutch Hot Bacon Dressing.
Now to the fritter recipe...
If you picked your dandelions from a pesticide (and dog pee) free area and they look clean, I wouldn't even wash them.
Simply heat the oil in a cast iron pan.....
dip each flower in the batter (recipe below)......
and drop in hot oil.
Even My kids LOVE these "flower fritters"
Go ahead and try this recipe. You'll never look at weeds the same way again.
Dandelion Fritters:
1 cup milk
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cups cornmeal, finely or medium ground
1 teaspoon sea salt
Lots of freshly ground pepper
2-4 cups Dandelion flowers
Frying oil of choice- I used sunflower oil.
1)Mix batter ingredients together with fork.
2)Heat oil in skillet
3)Dip each flower (holding stem) in batter mixture and then drop in hot oil
4)Remove when golden brown.
