Echinacea infusion

Echinacea infusion

This summer I tried echinacea infusion for sore throat and ear ache. According to botanists/herbalists, the medicinal properties of echinacea are concentrated on its roots, but I did not want to cut a piece of roots from blooming echinacea, so I harvested some flower tops, leaves, and stems. Also, experts suggest that echinacea should be taken as tincture (of fresh root) or tea (of dried flower tops, leaves, and stems) for herbal remedy, but I had neither form of echinacea handy, so I made infusion of fresh flower tops, leaves, and stems. The below is my notes for the experiment and the results. 

1. Rinsed harvested herb with water. Put 3 flower tops and 2 cups of chopped leaves and stems in a quart mason jar, poured boiling water over the herb until it filled up to the top of the jar, and closed the jar with a lid. 

2. Waited for 2 hours or so until the infusion turned golden brown. Sipped a teacupful, warm. It's hard to describe the flavor. Reminded me of Japanese twig tea. It's not bitter. 

3. Let the rest of the infusion sit for another 2 hours or so. Sipped another teacupful, lukewarm. Began feeling some positive effects on me. Took out the herb from the jar and stored the rest in fridge. 

4. Sipped 2 more cups, chilled, over several hours. 

After drinking the quart of echinacea infusion, I noticed some positive effects on me, so I made another quart and sipped a teacupful at a time throughout a day. Within 2 days, my sore throat and ear ache were totally gone. I never expected herbal infusion to be noticeably effective because no commercial herbal/medicinal tea bags have ever worked well on me. As a back-story, I gave echinacea in my yard extra attention and care this spring because the young shoots were chewed up by flee beetles and the growth was stunted. I felt as if the echinacea shared her loving and healing energy with me in return when I needed it this summer. 

Pine needle vinegar

Photo by bodhilens

I made a number of herbal vinegar with different herbs this summer to enrich minerals and vitamins in my diet and reduce the amount of synthetic nutritional supplements that I've been consuming for the past few years. You can find inspiring and useful information here and here about why herbal vinegar is so good for your health and how to make herbal vinegar at home at very little cost. I sampled my first one-month-old batch of pine needle vinegar (mostly white pine needles with a little bit of red/black pine needles infused with apple cider vinegar), and it smelled and tasted like balsamic vinegar as some people have described so! Pine needles were free (I'm fortunate to have a husband who loves and owns bonsai pine trees). I used some store-brand apple cider vinegar, reused a jar of jam or something, and  put some wax paper under the metal lid to prevent corrosion.

Yomogi (Japanese mugworts)



Yomogi (Japanese mugwort) by bodhilens

Recently a distant relative of mine passed away. She was my mother's older brother's wife's mother, who used to live near my family in Osaka. We affectionately called her obaachan (grandma). When I was a child, I remember her sometimes visiting us with homemade sweets, like kusa mochi (sweet rice cake pounded with cooked yomogi [Japanese mugwort]). Although kusa mochi is available at some Asian grocery stores in Kentucky, I kind of missed fresh homemade kusa mochi. So this spring I bought a packet of yomogi seeds from Kitazawa Seed Company (They sell seeds of Asian vegetables and herbs in California.) and sowed them in a planter. To my surprise (and the company's), they grew into at least three seemingly different kinds of yomogi. (See the photos below.)

To make sure that all the plants in the planter were indeed yomogi varieties, I read a lot of information published on the Internet. A gist of what I learned is that yomogi or Japanese mugwort usually refers to artemisia princeps. However, several hundred varieties of artemisia grow worldwide, and according to some Japanese information, more than 35 kinds of yomogi grow in Japan, any of which can be called "Japanese mugwort." The good news is that they are all edible, although some are less bitter and more palatable, while others are more bitter and more medicinal. I sampled a few leaves and found them all fragrant as yomogi should and some more bitter than others as I had read. So I said to myself, "Fair enough," and harvested a bunch of young leaves, cooked them, ground them in a mortar with a pestle, pounded them into mochi (rice cake) made from glutinous rice flour sweetened with stevia powder, and wrapped a spoonful of anko (sweet red "azuki" bean paste) with the mochi. My first homemade kusa mochi turned out to be pretty good.

Black swallowtail by bodhilens

While watering yomogi in my garden, I was reminiscing of obaachan and her kusa mochi, and a black swallowtail appeared and flew around me. She lingered for a while, so I was able to ask bodhilens to bring his camera and take a photo of her. Japanese say that insects can carry souls of the dead. I wonder if the butterfly was carrying the soul of obaachan.

Quinoa tabouli (with Japanese red perilla and watermelon rinds)

I sowed seeds of Italian parsley in a terracotta pot this spring, and they are growing so well. I thinned the seedlings at least three times, transplanting some in the ground and giving some away, but the pot soon returned to be full. I decided to harvest a bunch of parsley leaves and make tabouli. Tabouli is usually made of bulgur wheat, but I used quinoa this time. Quinoa is one of those super-nutritious ancient grains, and I often substitute it for couscous, too. I experimented with tossing in some spearmint and "akajiso" (Japanese red perilla) that I also harvested from my garden and watermelon rinds that I was saving in my fridge for additional flavors, textures, and colors. Red perilla is often described as having an anise- or licorice-like flavor. Believe or not, watermelon rinds are actually nutritious and taste like slightly sweet cucumbers. They both were perfect for this dish. Also, this dish goes very well with humus. (Photo by bodhilens)

Ingredients (for 6 or more servings):

1 cup of dry quinoa (makes about 3 cups of cooked quinoa)

2 handfuls of fresh parsley
1 handful of fresh spearmint
2 cloves of garlic (or 1/4 onion)
1 handful of fresh red perilla
1-2 cups of watermelon rinds (or a cucumber)
1 can of tomato (or 2 fresh ripe tomatoes)
2 fresh lemons
2-3 TBSP of extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Cook quinoa and let it cool. (Boil it in 3 cups or more hot water for 5 minutes, turn off heat, keep a lid on the cooking pot, and steam it for 10-15 minutes until it’s tender. Or cook it in a rice cooker, just like white rice.)

2. Chop all herbs and vegetables finely. Grate garlic. (If you use a can of tomato, drain juice and save it for another dish.* I often use a can of tomato with Italian seasonings for additional flavors.)

3. Zest and juice lemons. (Use 1 TBSP of zest for this dish and save the rest for another dish.*)

4. Mix 1, 2, and 3 with extra virgin olive oil. Add sea salt if you like.

5. Let the mixture rest in a fridge for half an hour or longer.

 *Tomato (canned or fresh) and lemon zest are freezable.

Italian parsley (Photo by gardenfairy)

Young "akajiso" (Japanese red perilla) (Photo by bodhilens)

Virginia's favorite tofu and vegetable chili beans (garnished with low fat yogurt and Mexican-style shredded cheese, served with soft corn tortilla and blueberry tea)

Virginia is my beloved mother-in-law and an artist who inspired me to create this blog. She liked this dish so much that it earned the honor of being named after her. I share with you a trick to make tofu ground-beefy and a few ingredients that you may not find in other recipes for chili beans. (Photo by bodhilens)

Ingredients (for 7-8 servings):

For Step 1:
4 cups (or 2 cans) of cooked red kidney beans or chili beans (aka pink beans)

For Step 2:
1 pack of firm tofu

For Step 3:
1 tsp of olive oil
1 medium size onion (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (grated)
1 stalk of celery (chopped)
1/2 large green pepper* (chopped)
1/2 large sweet red pepper* (chopped)
2 broccoli stems* (chopped)

*You can use any cut vegetables (e.g., 1/2 green pepper and 1/2 sweet red pepper) or vegetable scraps (e.g., broccoli stems) left in your fridge.

For Step 4:
3 TBSP of chili powder
1 TBSP of paprika powder
1 TBSP of oregano
1 tsp of chipotle powder
1 tsp of cumin powder
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of nutmeg
2 bay leaves
2 bouillon cubes (or add anything that contains "umami")

For Step 5:
1 can of diced tomato (I sometimes use a can of tomato in juice with Italian seasonings, like basil, to further enrich the flavor.)
1/2 cup of red cooking wine
2 TBSP of Worcestershire sauce** (include 1 TBSP of Japanese "tonkatsu" sauce** if you have it)
1 TBSP of ketchup

**Japanese brands of Worcestershire sauce may be sweeter than American brands, and tonkatsu sauce is definately sweeter than Worcestershire sauce. So if you don't use either, you may want to add more ketchup to adjust the sweetness of this dish.

For Step 6:
1-2 cups of water
1 pinch or two of salt and pepper

Directions:

Step 1. Soak beans in water overnight, cook them for several hours in a crock pot at a high temparature setting until they are tender, and drain. (Or open cans of beans and drain.)

Step 2. Here's the trick to make tofu ground-beefy. You need firm tofu for this. Crush tofu, squeeze excess water out of it, put it in a freezer bag, and freeze it overnight. Then, thaw it, squeeze excess water out of it again, and pan-fry it without oil to dehydrate it further. This treatment gives tofu a ground-beefy texture that is ready to absorb all the flavors from the other ingredients.

Step 3. Sautee garlic and onion with olive oil in a cooking pot. Add vegetables, dehydrated tofu, and 1/2 of cooked beans in the pot.

Step 4. Add the listed dry herbs and consomme cubes in the pot.

Step 5: Pour the listed wet ingredients in the pot.

Step 6: Add water to adjust the thickness of the mixture as you like. Cook it at low heat for an hour or so (or in a crock pot at a high temparature setting for several hours) . Add the rest of cooked beans 30 minutes before you serve. Add salt and pepper if you like.

I garnished this dish with low fat yogurt (instead of sour cream) and Mexican-style shredded cheese (including monterey jack, mild cheddar, queso quesadilla, and asadero) that I found in my fridge.

I also made soft corn tortilla to serve with this dish. I'll share the recipe for the tortilla sometime.

Many herbal/floral teas (e.g., red zinger [hibiscus + rosehip], any mints, and jasmine) can be cold-brewed, and they are as tasty as hot-brewed. I put 4 bags of blueberry tea in a 1+1/2 quart pitcher filled with filtered water and left it in my fridge overnight to serve with this dish.