Which of Our Whites Pair with Dandelion Burgers?

left, the townie raised bed garden sprouts dinner

Its early spring and everyone without allergies are happy, happy and i am no exception. i love green. i crave green. being originally from the mighty MO (zone 5 is NOTHING to laugh about, gents. its bitter cold, there) i am used to changes in the season and i welcome the signals of seasonal onsets. but as i grow older, how difficult late winter becomes and how i welcome spring!

after a year of eating dangerously and exhibiting the waistline to show for it, i find i want to eat spring. i want to eat fresh, green, slightly tangy—slightly bitter—above all, lean. banish stews, split pea soup in a dutch oven, pot roast with root vegetables! give me fish, asparagus, field greens....GIVE ME DANDELION BURGERS!

at this pronouncement, the swelling music should give way to a screeching of a record needle skipping across an LP (if you are younger, your ipod is just sitting there, silent)

but there is a wealth of foraging one may due in early spring and yours truly sits on the tip of the foraging iceberg, waxing eloquently about the virtues of dandelions. ehow.com offers a multitude of articles about this weed, check it out: http://www.ehow.com/how_4533673_eat-dandelion-greens-health.html or this great article: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/kallas82.html

truth be told, it was the edible chesapeake online recipe that caught my imagination: http://tinyurl.com/c88ofx dandelion burgers? why not? at the most i've wasted some crackers and sunflower seeds. at best, i've taken care of the weeds in my townie garden.

boy2 was my companion throughout the dandelion adventure—being at that age where anything is possible and nothing is to be missed. all along, he kept a running monologue of WWMD? What Would Ming Do? comes from ming tsai's pvodcast: http://www.simplyming.org/rss/vodcast.xml which i catch on itunes and boy2 watches religiously. WWMD and boy2 corrected my onion fine chop skillz, so thanks, ming!

here, boy2 crushes the crackers for the dandelion burgers. and mixes the dry ingredients with the wet ones. the online recipe is pretty simple to follow. and since it was successful, i suggest using white beans or field peas as a binder. these burgers call out for indian spices or asian flavorings. carefully review your dandelions for little critters—we found two discombobulated ants and a tiny inch worm in our collected blossoms.










after you carefully review the blossoms and mix up the ingredients, its just a matter of shaping them into patties and giving them a fry in a heart-healthy oil of your choice. tonight i served the dandelion burgers on a bed of baby dandelion greens with grilled scallops and a condiment of thai chili sauce. oh. wow. so. tasty!

ger broke out a bottle of our 07 viognier—which was really perfectly floral perfumy and decadently round, but needs a little acid. so then he broke out our marsanne—which i am currently sipping and am contrasting against the viognier. both are not oaked, but the marsanne is spare when comparing to the viognier, has a bit more acidity and less perfume. both of our whites went perfect with our spring clean and lean meal. how content are we!

blessings upon you all—may you cultivate early spring dandelions and eat them while sipping the perfect wine pairing. may you have young babies or young at heart to go off on culinary adventures and may you always wind up at the dinner table with those you love, eating food you love and sipping wine you love.

bon appetit.