Let's talk about watercress

[Jenise]

A tasting note of Dale's mentioned a meal in which watercress played a prominent role. And I was struck by jealousy, because watercress just doesn't show up in stores up here. Oh yeah, there is the hothouse kind, and that makes a good salad ingredient, but it's both rather expensive and overly tame compared to the wild kind for recipes like the watercress soup I pondered in the new New York Times cookbook the other day.

I'm not even sure where, or how, it's grown. Are you luckier where you live? If so, how have you used it?

[Robin Garr]

When we lived in the Catskills, we had a little batch of wild watercress that grew in a spring out in the woods at the back. It grew right in the water (well, in the earth under the water, but came up through the water), which I guess is where it gets its name.

Here in Louisville, it's fairly common, if not available all the time, at produce markets, better grocers and, I think, places like Whole Foods.

Mary likes to use it in salads - it has a nice peppery bitter-greens flavor, and it's tender. It also goes great in stir-fries, thrown in whole.

Jenise,
Try the Chinese stores in Richmond or T & T. They always seem to have large displays of watercress.

We found some at Whole Foods early this month, tho it is not there all the time. It was excellent. We made our favorite watercrss and potato soup out of it.

[Jenise]

Jenise,
Try the Chinese stores in Richmond or T & T. They always seem to have large displays of watercress.

Thank you for that tip! I need to get up there--I'm eating a lot of greens these days and the Chinese versions would add a lot of breadth to my meal plans.

[Jenise]

We found some at Whole Foods early this month, tho it is not there all the time. It was excellent. We made our favorite watercrss and potato soup out of it.

Sounds great; that was just the kind of soup I was lusting over.

Watercress is the very first green we harvest in the wild in east central Wisconsin. Even while snow is still melting there are shallow running streams in the nearby woods where large, confluent beds of cress grow. As the season progresses and the cress stands above the water level, large bunches of heavily leaved, peppery cress is harvested by cutting with a scissors. You will never have fresher cress than what you harvest yourself as the taste is especially perishable after harvest even though it keeps well in the fridge, wrapped in paper towels and in a plastic bag.
I don't bother even looking at it in the store.

In the meantime, I bide my time making sprouts . It is terribly easy, extremely healthful and supplies the fresh green element lacking at this time of year. I especially like radish and broccoli sprouts although the broccoli takes a higher temp for germination than I keep the house. About to try fenugreek sprouts for a change.

Sorry, I did not answer the last question posed. At the beginning of the season, we eat it straight up as a salad simply dressed with a nut oil or olive oil and lemon juice. Mixed with other baby spring greens as they come up in the garden for salads. When harvested by the handfull, wilted in butter as a vegetable or sauteed and pureed for stock or cream for soup.
Chives/garlic chives/garlic scapes coming up at the same time are good in the sautee mix.

If you ever find yourself in the Chilterns (Thames Valley, England) around Ewelme, stop in and visit this charming little village centered around spring fed watercress beds. Formerly used for commercial production, this ended in 1988; fortuantely the locals have stepped in to ensure preservaton. They have a lovely church with attached almshouses; when I visited they had a delightful pastor who might fill you in on the local history (including it's connection with the Chaucer family). See http://www.ewelmewatercressbeds.org/index.htm

The local Portuguese shops here carry bunches of watercress and you can sometimes get a watercress salad in the Portuguese restaurants of Newark. I wish it were more common.

[Jenise]

Watercress is the very first green we harvest in the wild in east central Wisconsin. Even while snow is still melting there are shallow running streams in the nearby woods where large, confluent beds of cress grow. As the season progresses and the cress stands above the water level, large bunches of heavily leaved, peppery cress is harvested by cutting with a scissors. You will never have fresher cress than what you harvest yourself as the taste is especially perishable after harvest even though it keeps well in the fridge, wrapped in paper towels and in a plastic bag. I don't bother even looking at it in the store.

In the meantime, I bide my time making sprouts . It is terribly easy, extremely healthful and supplies the fresh green element lacking at this time of year. I especially like radish and broccoli sprouts although the broccoli takes a higher temp for germination than I keep the house. About to try fenugreek sprouts for a change.

Christina, what a romantic picture you paint. Watercress, or at least various species of it, must be somewhat impervious to climatic differences: there you are harvesting it with snow still on the ground, and yet it apparently grows very well in Hawaii too (lots of it in stores there, the prettiest I've ever seen in fact). Never have had the pleasure of seeing it in the wild, though if it grows in Wisconsin it would do well here, too. Not that there are any streams in my area.

Speaking of cresses, one of the most interesting greens I grew in my garden last year was a very pleasantly bitter chicoryish green called wintercress. Found the seeds locally--a small company that packages all kinds of seeds for greens most of us have never heard of that don't mind being cold and wet.

Do you have a special device for germinating sprouts?

Cress of a four varieties (watercress, garden cress, yellow rocket and even rock cress) became the rage in fine Middle-Eastern restaurants about six years ago. In addition to being found in salads it became one of the garnishes of choice for a good many dishes.

The amusing aspect of this was that nearly all of the cress was cultivated in hothouses in Israel. Because it is illegal to import Israeli products into countries such as Syria, Saudia Arabia, the Gulf Emirates, Iran and Iraq, those products were packed in cartons labeled in French, English, German and Arabic and sent to those countries via Europe.

But that's fair enough, its illegal for Israel to import products (e.g. dried fruits, pistachio nuts and other nuts) from Iran. We do, however have an abundance of them for they are shipped from Iran to Turkey and then repacked for export to Israel.

Ah...the games people play, even in the name of culinary pleasures.


Best
Rogov

RCP: Potato and Watercress Soup (Gourmet Blender Cookbook, Paul Mayer, p.44, Nitty Gritty Productions, circa 1970.)

Slice thinly 4 medidum-sized potatoes - prefeably not Idahos. Slice also 1 medium-sized onion. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a deep saucepan. Add the vegetables, and turn them about to coat them with the fat. Then add 1 cup of water, salt and white pepper. Cover the pan, and cook slowly until the potatoes are thoroughly soft. The add 1 bunch of roughly chopped watercress. Stir over the fire until soup boils. Then remove from the heat, and put the soup in the blender, and run the machine from 15-20 seconds on the highest speed, or until the mixture is very smooth. Return to the saucepan, and add the leaves only from 1 bunch of watercress, and 1 cup of whipping ceam. Correct the seasoning, and reheat, to serve steaming.

For sprouting I use the simplest sprouter recommended at www.thesproutpeople.org. They are full of great info and although selling many different sprouters they do not give all unqualified recommendations. The local organic grocer actually sells the sprouter and organic seeds.
A great source for a great variety of organinc sprouts is Johnny's Seeds - mustard, radish, broccoli, fenugreek, alfalfa, Red Russian kale, hard, red winter wheat.

it grows wild here in MI if you can find a clear stream. do people know that it is the true, original green ingredient in new orleans oysters rockefeller?

[Jenise]

do people know that it is the true, original green ingredient in new orleans oysters rockefeller?

I did not! Would be a lot more interesting than spinach, wouldn't it?

yep, it sure is.