The bumpkin gourmet cooks poke salet

You know times are tight when you'll eat weeds growing in your backyard. We had a big ole stalk of pokeweed growing by the compost pile and I cooked it up for lunch. Pokeweed is supposed to be poisonous if you don't double boil it before cooking - better safe than sorry I suppose. Just pick it - rinse it and chop it...I even cooked some of the baby stems.



Boil in water for a minute or two - drain and boil again in fresh water. I sauteed the drained pokeweed in olive oil with some shallot I crisped up - a shot of Bragg's (or tamari) a squeeze of lemon and voila - lunch! The taste is beyond divine - very delicate, almost buttery in flavor much like a cross between spinach and asparagus.

Looks like I should've triple boiled my poke salet - poor Jim.