The Home - Cooking Dames Rocket & Garlic Mustard

 

    Both of these lovelies are growing in my yard, but I found the garlic mustard too late to eat, really. The seed pods are already forming though so I will harvest seeds to plant where I want them to grow and reseed themselves for years to come - hopefully.

    Yay! There were some unopened dames rocket flower buds for a raab side dish to serve with dinner tonight. I will let the flowering plants go to seed to collect those also for a patch next year. 

    Both garlic mustard (alliaria petiolata) and dames rocket (hesperis matronalis) are in the wild mustard family. You can pretty much tell a mustard plant by its four-petaled flowers and the seed pods that form beneath after flowering. Dames rocket has lovely purple flowers; garlic mustard has snowy white flowers.

    Garlic mustard leaves are very tasty and not as "bitey" as most mustards. Crush a leaf between your fingers to identify that garlic smell. 

RECIPE: DAMES ROCKET RAAB

This is more of a basic preparation rather than a recipe.

Ingredients:

• dames rocket flower buds with a few leaves beneath
• any other easily wilting greens: violet, chickweed, spinach, garlic mustard, stinging nettle (blanch first to remove sting)
• bacon grease, butter, or ghee
• wild onion bulbs, scapes, ramps, scallion, or onion, chopped
• chopped nuts (walnuts, hickory nuts, pecans
• honey
• a dash of water

1. Heat the oil and saute the onion. 
2. Add the flower buds and wilting greens along with a dash of water and saute a couple of minutes.
3. Remove from heat, drizzle with a touch of honey to bring out the florals of the buds. 
4. Top with nuts.