• HOME
    • MY HERBAL ROOTS
    • HERBAL ROOTS
  • ME
    • ABOUT ME
    • CLASSES AND EVENTS
    • CALENDAR
    • SERVICES
    • MEDIA
    • CONNECT
  • SEASONS
    • ALL SEASONS
    • SPRING
    • SUMMER
    • FALL
    • WINTER
  • HERBS
    • ALL HERBS
    • ARUGULA
    • BASIL
    • BAY LEAF
    • CHERVIL
    • CHIVES
    • CHOCOLATE MINT
    • CILANTRO (CORRIANDER)
    • DILL
    • EDIBLE FLOWERS
    • EPAZOTE
    • GRAPEFRUIT MINT
    • HYSSOP
    • LAVENDER
    • LEMON BALM
    • LEMON GRASS
    • LEMON THYME
    • LEMON VERBENA
    • MARJORAM
    • OREGANO
    • ORANGE MINT
    • PARSLEY
    • PEPPERMINT
    • PINEAPPLE MINT
    • PINEAPPLE SAGE
    • PURSLANE
    • RED BASIL
    • ROSEMARY
    • SAGE
    • SAVORY
    • SORREL
    • SPEARMINT
    • SPECIALITY HERBS
    • TARRAGON
    • THAI BASIL
    • THYME
  • WANDERINGS
    • MAP
    • ASIA
    • AUSTRALIA
    • CANADA
    • CARRIBEAN
    • CENTRAL AMERICA
    • EUROPE
    • MEXICO
    • SOUTH AMERICA
    • USA
  • RECIPES
    • SEARCH
    • SEASONS
    • HERBS
    • PLACES
    • VIDEOS
    • BLOG POSTS
  • HOME
    • MY HERBAL ROOTS
    • HERBAL ROOTS
  • ME
    • ABOUT ME
    • CLASSES AND EVENTS
    • CALENDAR
    • SERVICES
    • MEDIA
    • CONNECT
  • SEASONS
    • ALL SEASONS
    • SPRING
    • SUMMER
    • FALL
    • WINTER
  • HERBS
    • ALL HERBS
    • ARUGULA
    • BASIL
    • BAY LEAF
    • CHERVIL
    • CHIVES
    • CHOCOLATE MINT
    • CILANTRO (CORRIANDER)
    • DILL
    • EDIBLE FLOWERS
    • EPAZOTE
    • GRAPEFRUIT MINT
    • HYSSOP
    • LAVENDER
    • LEMON BALM
    • LEMON GRASS
    • LEMON THYME
    • LEMON VERBENA
    • MARJORAM
    • OREGANO
    • ORANGE MINT
    • PARSLEY
    • PEPPERMINT
    • PINEAPPLE MINT
    • PINEAPPLE SAGE
    • PURSLANE
    • RED BASIL
    • ROSEMARY
    • SAGE
    • SAVORY
    • SORREL
    • SPEARMINT
    • SPECIALITY HERBS
    • TARRAGON
    • THAI BASIL
    • THYME
  • WANDERINGS
    • MAP
    • ASIA
    • AUSTRALIA
    • CANADA
    • CARRIBEAN
    • CENTRAL AMERICA
    • EUROPE
    • MEXICO
    • SOUTH AMERICA
    • USA
  • RECIPES
    • SEARCH
    • SEASONS
    • HERBS
    • PLACES
    • VIDEOS
    • BLOG POSTS
Fall Thai Basil USA

Spent Blooms & Wild Persimmons

November 10, 2022

Spent Blooms & Wild Persimmons

NOVEMBER 10th, 2022

Unbeknownst to most people, an herb garden on the verge of disappearing into a cold winter offers some of the most potent flavors imaginable for making culinary magic. The same herb garden that appears to be dying an unceremonious death is alive and rich with potency. The metaphor is strong: life cycles carry the essence of transformation and change, and change offers something new; in this case new flavors, aromas and textures that we might not expect.

My herb gardens tend to be wild, not surprising I suspect. Most try and control gardens, I go with the flow my Missouri garden is pretty wild. Part of this wildness is because, I’m lazy, in the way that I don’t  like to exude effort that’s not needed, and in my Blue Eye abode I have had to grow many herbs in subpar conditions: too much shade, too little water, soil that is too acidic or in spots Inca (my dog) wont pee. This is real and herbs thrive in realness, which is likely why I have always been drawn to them.

I have found great beauty (and flavor) in my wild herb garden here in Missouri.

I love herbs for their tenacity, their resilience, their awesome ability to be something no matter what. The way their flavor changes depending on the season, the weather, the conditions, their stage of life, always offering something special. I am inspired by the way herbs live in this world. I’m constantly learning about how simple and pleasurable it is for them to be constantly alive and thriving. My herb garden and I have a good exchange of energy, I think.

This time of year my seemingly dying garden thrives with weird little bits of beauty in everything from their roots to new little shoots from bursts of sun amidst cold and, of course, all the seeds and spent blooms. Most people haven’t paid much attention to spent blooms or really know what it means beyond some kind of flower. A spent bloom is a bloom that has finished flowering and is basically dying off. All gardening advice is the same; spent flowers should be removed promptly to promote continued blooming. Of course, with freezing temperatures looming, more blooms will not happen, so this is the ideal time of year to let them go, allow the plants to prepare for the winter and go dormant or, in many cases, die off completely and rebirth as a new plant. I will admit I often let them go in all seasons,  I just let the plants do their thing and then collect and extract their essence for my culinary artistry.

I love using spent flowers in my culinary creations. They have incredible aroma and flavor, very different from the plants and flowers when they are in peak production. There is something very fall and wintery about spent blooms. I use them in many of my herb salts, and I love to use them as cocktail garnish, which I recently did for a Missouri Wild Persimmon Cocktail I made for friends with Thai Basil spent blooms.

Thai Basil spent blooms are my favorite; they have a stunning dark purple color and one of the most incredible smoky burnt cinnamon aromas. I have learned to use them in all forms including when they are brown and seedy. The flavor constantly evolves as the bloom matures and begins to wither away. Even when I think the bloom is dead it has a potent flavor. That’s a great metaphor for aging.

I had no idea how well they would pair with a super impromptu cocktail I made after foraging for wild persimmons along Table Rock Lake here in Blue Eye, MO. Many of my best ideas come out of nowhere, inspired by ingredients (naturally) but also the feelings in the moment which, in this case, was a free frolicky kind of feeling with the warm-sweet sensual taste of the wild persimmons.

Wild persimmons, also called American persimmons or “sugar plums”, as some folks believe reference the line “ while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads” in the poem The Night Before Christmas, are North American fall treat.

Around where I live in Missouri these special little fruits are ample this time of year, often being found along the lake shore as they thrive in more open space environments as opposed to the thicker forests a bit inland from the lake. I never really noticed just how many there are until the leaves fell and the  orange dots stuck out amidst the drab brown leafless trees.

Wild persimmons are bright orange with a dull lackluster skin tone. They are tiny and round, about an inch in diameter and have several little flat plum-like seeds in them that make them a bit hard to deal with for culinary use, if you ask me.

While some insist that they are only good after a series of frosts, this year proves that theory totally wrong as we had one  minor frost and unseasonably warm weather and this year’s persimmons (the only ones I have tasted to be fair) are incredible sweet and delicious.

I of course had it in my head to make a Fall-2022 Herb Salt with them for a while, knowing they would fit right into this season’s theme, The Hunters & Gatherers series. I knew of one tree on an island that some friends take me too from time to time and  I went out in late September to try and pick some, they were not ripe and  I quickly discovered that when not ripe they have an unbelievable and unforgettable bitter, astringent quality that gives you more dry mouth than you have ever experienced. Like pear skin times a million.

But this past weekend (early November) they were totally ripe and we gathered them. They were exquisite tasting. They have such a unique flavor. Warm, caramel like sweetness and kind of sensual tasting. They are similar in a way to a super ripe and honey-sweet apricot but have more earthiness to them and a tinge or orange essence.

I have about five pounds in my freezer so I am excited to do some of my herbal artistry with them this winter, but it’s the cocktail that I made for my friends that is super shareworthy.

I made a simple syrup by cooking down whole, smashed ripe wild persimmons with sugar and water and spices and straining it all. My idea was to create a  syrup with a fall vibe, warm and persimmon-fruity and a tinge bitter from the peels of the persimmons. Thankfully, my syrup was not too sweet.

I grabbed gin as my friends who were here like gin. And then I grabbed the Meletti Amaro, not totally sure why except I love amaro and I wanted something slightly softer than my usual go-to. Amaro is a bitter liquor made from botanicals. Meletti Amaro is a beautiful soft amaro that has a chocolaty caramel taste and is a bit sweet. I thought it would be a perfect addition to this impromptu cocktail. I added some lemon for acidity and some Kumquat liqueur for a little more sweetness and because I tend to like oranges and persimmons together. I shook it up and double strained it so that the bitter pulp of the persimmons wasn’t present. I wanted a delicate and fresh feel; it was a sunny warm fall day after all.

I topped each glass with a Thai basil spent bloom which gave way to its smoky cinnamon aroma while sipping the drink, and it was exquisite.

The result was one of my best Missouri cocktails yet!

MO Wild Persimmon

Makes 1 drink

Ingredients

1 ½ ounce gin
½ ounce kumquat liqueur
½ ounce Melfetti Amaro
1 ½ ounces Wild Persimmon Syrup*
½ ounce lemon juice
Thai basil spent bloom

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously for about 30 seconds. Double strain into a coup style glass and garnish by laying a Thai Basil spent bloom on top.

Wild Persimmon Syrup

Makes 2 ½ cups of syrup

Ingredients

2 cups ripe wild persimmons, stems removed and smashed whole
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon white pepper
¼ teaspoon mace
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon clove
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

Directions

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Strain pushing down with the back of a spoon to extract all pulp from the persimmons. Allow strained syrup to cool completely before use.
.

Fall Thai Basil USA

Spent Blooms & Wild Persimmons

November 10, 2022
November 10, 2022
NO WIDGETS YET
Turn me off under Shout Options>General Tab

FOLLOW HERBAL ROOTS ON INSTAGRAM

View
Open
What im most excited about for spring  #ChiveBlossoms
View
Open
Strawberry blossoms are edible and really beautiful and if you are like me and need to pluck them so your new strawberry plants focus on roots then you have yourself a pretty little additive for your food and drink.
View
Open
It will likely he the first birthday in a long time where i dont “launch” something new. That is NOTHING to do with my get it done Aries self and everything to do with all the other signs who procrastinate and dont understand the feeling of fire in your soul. 

But there is some programming action happening woth the e commerce herbal salt site FINALLY and i might still have time to launch one new Crespo thing because my team on the crespo marketing side understand my fire! Maybe i have a herbal roots surprise too. But my time is limited and i dont have much help. 

Anyhow as an aries im pissed when i dint control everything! 😀
View
Open
A literal #onepot easy #hamburgerhelper style bolognese dish! See prior post for the specificities
View
Open
Most of my best recipes are born from my creative soul. The food/the dish/ is the final result of my unraveling of mood and feeling inspired by or wrapped up in an 
ingredient, a flavor, a place or a culture.
 
There are many times I birth a brilliant recipe, born from the simple act of feeding myself in challenging circumstances. This is one of those recipes. That kind of just stumbled out of me when my 100 pound propane tank that runs my stovetop  finally ran out of of gas- this is after almost two years. The tank, too small to be filled by a company and too heavy and big for me to just toss it in my car and get it filled through a wrench in my planed meatballs and polenta rainy day meal I had planned. But if you know me you know I improvise well.
 
I make a wonderful northern Italian style Bolognese, its one of my specialties- I cook it on the stove because I first crisp up pancetta and then cook the onions and garlic in that and the meat gets caramelized and crispy edged and then the rest and it gets slow stewed and its good, one of my best.
 
But with no stove top I decided to do the same concept in one pan!
 
So into the large ceramic pan went- pancetta, garlic, onions, celery, carrots, red chili flakes, onion powder, sage, rosemary, oregano and thyme with some olive oil. That was followed by ground beef and mixed together. From there I tossed chopped roma tomatoes and some of my new Slavic white wine. And my Wild Boar Herb Salt from Fall of 2022- It roasted in the oven covered at about 350 for a few hours. I then added some heavy cream, a can of tomato sauce and some water and added pasta shells and baked it another 30-40 minutes.  Grated parmesan on top and some fresh basil flecks and walla – a fancy pants hamburger helper style – literal ONE POT dinner, not like the ones that claim to one pot but have you boil pasta in another!
 
It was delicious.
View
Open
My cocktail tonight

  I harvested a lot of the shoots of early spring herbs from the garden and  combined them with blackberries,meyer lemons and spices to creat tonights mexican spice cocktail. I utilized  tequila and corn liquor from Mexico # .
View
Open
Strange is good!
View
Open
Egyptian Rose Fresh Blackberry Ice Cream with Cardamon Chocolate Flecks

Flecks is a thing right?
View
Open
I hate to say that i didn’t again, but?????

Egyptian Rose Ice Cream, Fresh Blackberry and Cardamon Chocolate Flecks (im a ripple and fleck expert) 

Ice cream is EASY to make if you have an ice cream machine - which i really recommend!

My recipe is one that i adapted from a @biritecreamery recipe for strawberry ice cream i saw once in some magazine years ago- ive been using some version of it ever since and certainly rue concept i use and the egg and sugar part every time. 

First i mix 2 1/2 cups milk or half and half with 1 1/2 cup of heavy cream (ill be honest i use about 4 cups depending on on what  i have on hand milk wise- if i have less heavy cream i add more egg yolk to compensate. 

Key is heat the milk/cream (infuse it- for this one i infused with the rose from egypt and 2 smashed blackberries for color)

4-6 egg yolks (depending on size and milk make up whisked together with 3/4 cup sugar (i dint live sweet ice cream / 1 cup if you do)

Once the milk is hot temper (pour some hot milk into the egg sugar and whisk. I do 1/2 cup whisk and then another half cup and whisk. Pour it over the milk thats still simmering on low. It will thicken. Takes a few minutes. Once its thick. I strain it (even plain in case and egg mixture cooks) into a glass bowl in an ice bath. This just instantly makes it cooler. 

My ice cream@maker allows me to put in warm mixtures- so i just push a button. 

For this one i added 5 fresh ( semi frozen black berries once it was basically done  and they fall apart a little while it turns. Then i swirl  in melted chock mixed with cardamon and ot freezes into little flecks. 

This one- all the rose ones i do are sooo good. I love making ice cream. Nissa needs a parlor. 

Google my herbal-roots daytime ice cream for a similar recipe.
View
Open
Pork and Beans (and herbs) #NissaStyle
View
Open
Home sweet home means putting random herbs, @frankiesspuntino #calibrianchili olive oil, garlic, some andouille sausage and my #herbaceous oven dried tomatoes in a pan for a cavetelli  pasta meal. See story for final result
View
Open
Instagram post 18082242907328463
View
Open
I was so last week I didn’t get to share about my new little strawberry roots that I planted. And within a matter of days, I already have beautiful little leaves on all of them last picture of a strawberry plant that’s a different batch, and is a year old. I long for strawberry 🍓
View
Open
#incareport paw friction NOBUENO

His feet are red and swollen from him biting the glue stuff off which i think also made him sick 💩 he makes me@so@mad biting at his feet all the DAMN time. 

Really really bad decision on my part.
View
Open
Totally awesome. 😱🤯‼️
View
Open
In less than 2weeks  i will, as usual, on my birthday,  drop and launch a new aspect of the long awaited Herbal-Roots project. 

Stay Tuned April 10th
LATEST TWEETS
Twitter
@MyHerbalRoots
Follow Us
Read all about Nissa's Middle Eastern herbal wanderings, in her new blog post My Herbaceous Istanbul!… https://t.co/5WdPk1H1U9
Over a year ago
- @MyHerbalRoots
Find out whose behind My Herbal Roots? https://t.co/HayqctqYld
Over a year ago
- @MyHerbalRoots
There are some great recipes in this one plus the basic facts on salt and pepper. https://t.co/x0n4VlrJ9P
Over a year ago
- @MyHerbalRoots
LATEST POSTS
  • December 31, 2022
    “Different” Chicken Congee
  • December 20, 2022
    Nissa’s Christmas Mole (& Tamales)
  • November 13, 2022
    The Herbal Dry Brine
  • HOME
  • ABOUT ME
  • GET IN TOUCH
@2019 Ger-Nis Culinary & Herb Center

HERBAL ROOTS

ABOUT

TEAM

MEDIA

CONNECT

MY HERBAL ROOTS

NISSA

EVENTS

CLASSES

SERVICES

VIDEOS

SHOP

RECIPES

HERBS

SEASONS

WANDERINGS

..

HOT OFF THE PRESS

THE HERB BLURBS

Spent Blooms & Wild Persimmons | My Herbal Roots