I have been growing some native wild plants for microgreen purposes, to expand my palate.
I have had pretty all right success (so far) with purslane (cannot believe that this Summer/tropical plant is clinging on, but I still have 3 little 'bushes' left from about 9 over the summer !!!) a crore of Asian garlic-chives and wild garlic (don't worry: it 'stinks' like garlic, so that means it's edible), a bunch of surprisingly doughty thistle seedlings (by far the best-tasting of my asteraceæ inulin-slaves), dandelion seedlings, wiry mint plants, and some daikon that I let go more to root (I hœp). But I have had nominal success (despite a fungus/white mold attack) with Burdock/gobo. They grow quite strong and the leaves are quite big and tender, but are by far about 20x more bitter than the bitterest dandelion greens I've ever prepared.
Until today (!)
I tried a trick I use with dandelion greens, but with a slightly different twist. The trick is to prepare the greens with bacon fat - salty, luscious, creamy bacon fat. Sonething about the porky naughtiness just neutralizes the bitterest principles of the dandelion, and makes for a truly yummy, hearty worthy late fall/winter veg.
(for the Kosher & Halal, I wouldn't doubt that a good Schmalz or duck fat would also do some marvey culinary magic for ye aulde pissenlit)
But today, seeing as to how I had some bacon laying about from yesterday's brunch kitchen explosion, I wrapped some sticks of bacon in fresh-snipped burdock leaves.
Guess what? Very very om-nom-nom-some. But make no mistake: Burdock is no lame-milquetoast
lettuce or simply ramped up arugula: you have to appreciate it for it's own untamed, indomitable mustang-merits. But if yer brave enough, give it a try. BTW, I would not use the bigger more prominent leaves on a burdock/gobo crown: god only knows what sort of paint they'd taste like.
I also recently bought some gobo root from the local Asian grocery: cannot wait to make some Kenpira Gobo stir-fry once againe!!!!!
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Guude Eße!