Apologies, dear Cook-Offers, for the delay on getting this to you. We have two surprises for this week to make up for our absence.
Fritters of Spinach, sounds strange, but tastes AMAZING.
The finished product!
From the Old French friture…
A fritter refers to a fried batter cake, usually served sweet and with some sort of seasoning. During the late 17th Century, it was common to serve spinach as a sweetened dish, which lends itself well to today’s recipe. Last year we had a savoury version of spinach with Week 3’s “Fried Toast of Spinage”. If you recall, local forager Shawn Dawson visited us and cooked up a version of the dish using stinging nettles as a local variation on the spinach.
Well, surprise #1 Shawn Dawson was back! He gave us an amazing variation on, what became known around the Colony as “Spinach Donuts”, to try out with all of you. While it may not be possible to forage for the ingredients to his variation where you live, it does give us some insight into what variations would have existed for those living in Newfoundland during the 17th Century.
Shawn brought us Lambsquarters, also known as Wild Spinach. Lambsquarters were originally thought to have been native to Europe, but recent archaeological finds have found seeds for this plant in North America as early at the 16th Century. This plant is commonly thought of as a weed, but it has a similar taste to spinach, except a little bit nuttier. IT make a great addition to our fritters.
Lambsquarters photo taken from https://www.fourseasonforaging.com/blog/2017/7/2/identifying-lambs-quarters
The lambsquarters substituted for the spinach, but Shawn added in another interesting variation- elderflowers. He warned us that only experienced foragers should find elderflowers, as only the black variety (which we used here) are edible. They did add a wonderful flavour, but we recommend leaving this part to the professionals.
On to the recipe!
Lambsquarters and elderflowers ready for the batter
Bread, egg, wild spinach, and elderflowers all lined up- The finished product!
- They tasted amazing
Make sure you add a photo of your Spinach Donuts (AKA Fritters of Spinach) to the comments of this week’s recipe post on the Colony of Avalon’s Facebook page for a chance to win weekly and grand prizes. (Can be found here)
This week’s prize is another reproduction, this time of a pickling jar. This stoneware jar would make an excellent addition to any kitchen, you can find the jug here! Deadline for this week’s entries is 11:59 pm, Monday, August 28th, 2023. Apologies for the delay on this post, it wouldn’t be the Cook-Off without a few hiccups!
