You’re
probably expecting, from my subject heading, either morels or wild leeks, but I want to introduce you to a
less well-known Up North spring delicacy. It is the humble cutleaf (or
cut-leaved) toothwort (also known as crow’s toes or pepper root), found from
eastern Canada to Florida.
You
can walk in the woods for years without noticing it, as I did. Then one day you
make the identification, and from then on you watch for it eagerly every
spring. Here is a site that keys it as a Brassica, i.e., a member of the mustard family. Its name has apparently been changed, just like my old childhood friend Brontosaurus, whose new name will never be lodged in my long-term memory. -- Whoa! Here’s good news for my generation: Brontosaurus is Back!!! Well, I'm glad I looked that up!
Anyway, toothwort. I am bound and determined to keep in the mustard family. Look at the
four-petaled flower, and try to deny the family relationship.
My
point – and I realize I’m taking forever to come to it – is that the peppery
leaves and flowers of toothwort are a welcome change from the store-bought
lettuce (and even kale) we’ve lived on all winter. I went to the woods on
Friday afternoon and picked me a nice mess.
I
chose the bland smoothness of tofu to offset the peppery greens. (If you don’t
make your own tofu but live in the Grand Traverse area, the best available can
be found at the Oryana Food Co-op in Traverse City.)
I
dressed my salad with a little olive oil and very small dash of balsamic
vinegar, whisked together with a smidgeon of Grey Poupon. And that was that,
except for a sprinkling of hard-cooked egg yolk on top. If
you don’t care for tofu, you might substitute the white from the hard-cooked
egg – an easy exchange.
We
seem to have strayed far from Paris today, but it’s that time of year – time to get
out into the northern Michigan woods. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that
toothwort or something like it can be found in the forests of Europe. We are,
after all, at about the same latitude, and many of our plants are common to
both continents. And who knows better than the French about foraging in the woods for kitchen treasures?
