{"id":3689,"date":"2013-04-22T14:41:51","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T11:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/?p=3689"},"modified":"2013-05-03T11:37:14","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T08:37:14","slug":"earth-day-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/?p=3689","title":{"rendered":"Earth Day, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 22, 2013<\/strong> Today is Earth Day, and a beautiful one it is here in Bulgaria. I have not been blogging because I am fairly inundated with not only preparations to move to China, but also with the many hassles that the theft of my wallet — and all the documents therein — has presented me.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We’ve had an insanely gray and wet spring here in Bulgaria, but the flowering bushes and trees are falling into line in the glorious spring parade of color — the cherries and plum trees that line many streets here are almost through with their gaudy displays, but the forsythia and Japanese magnolias are in full bloom now, with the delicate bridal veil blossoms right behind. The hyacinths and crocuses are over, but I’m still seeing daffodils and tulips. I wonder why mine didn’t come up. Mikel says I planted them too deep. Hmmm….<\/p>\n

The markets are also filled with wild dock, nettles, and garlic. In the photo at left, those are wild garlics that are indigenous here, not scallions. You use them the way you would garlic or scallions — they’re actually quite mild and the greens provide a lovely garlicky flavor that tastes of spring and the woods. Naturally, they pair well with eggs, so I have been using them in frittatas — though my favorite dish I’ve used them in was a Moroccan-inspired rabbit dish.\"\"<\/a> There are several wild garlics that grow in the Balkans; the woods are often filled with them, as you can see in this photo <\/a>by Evgenidinev. It’s probably good there are several varieties, given the superstitious nature of Bulgarians — according to local traditions, it not only thought to ward off vampires, but also to prevent miscarriages, to keep navi<\/em> and other evil spirits from attacking newborns, to bring good luck to young married couples, to protect the dead from both being a victim of vampires and becoming one, to bring in the new year with the promise of good harvests, to welcome spring, to prevent drought, to encourage growth, and to celebrate the fall harvest — in short, garlic is used in virtually every ritual from birth to death — and before and beyond.<\/p>\n

For the frittata at right, I cut up the garlic — the greens are delicious — and saut\u00e9ed them in a little olive oil, then added them to beaten, seasoned eggs. I added parboiled potatoes and broccoli to the frittata and baked it in a moderate oven for about a half hour.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The rabbit dish at left was one of the best I’ve ever made. Not unlike a Moroccan chicken dish made with preserved lemons (which I didn’t have), the dish used every bit of the rabbit and was seasoned with not only the wild garlic, but also fresh fennel, ginger, olives, and lemon juice. First I cut up the rabbit, and set the liver, kidneys, and heart aside, covered with olive oil. I used the rabbit head, tail bone, and belly flaps to make a stock. I brined the legs and saddle pieces. After a couple of hours, I patted the rabbit pieces dry and browned them in this flameproof clay casserole that is one of my favorite kitchen items (I paid about $2 for it in Portugal many years ago). I set the browned rabbit aside and added a large sliced onion and a sliced fennel bulb to the pan, along with lots of the wild garlic. I cooked them until tender, then returned the browned rabbit to the dish, along with some matchsticks of fresh ginger, a few wild fennel seeds crushed in a mortar, some of the rabbit stock, and the juice of a lemon. I tossed it all well together and put in a moderate oven for about a half hour. I then added about two dozen big juicy olives, the rabbit liver, heart, and kidneys, tossed it all together, and returned the pan to oven to while I prepared rice and a fennel-orange salad to go with it. Though it might seem strange to have a fennel both in the salad and in the main course,\u00a0 the flavor of cooked and raw are so different, I like to pair them. I served pilaf in lieu of Moroccan couscous. I am from South Carolina, after all!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I don’t know how many versions of this salad I have made — or how many I have published on the blog over the years, but it really doesn’t matter. I never tire of the combination. Often I’ll use red onions for a third type of sweetness (along with the fennel and orange), but I didn’t have any, so I used my mandolin to cut thin slivers of carrot instead. The salad also contains the wild garlic. Anointed with my favorite delicate Ligurian oil, and dusted with a little cinnamon and cayenne, and the whole balanced with the juice of a lime, this one was one of the best yet!<\/p>\n

Stinging nettles are in season now, as are ramps (another type of wild garlic) and dock. I think I’ll do as I did last year, and let the local, traditional Bulgarians prepare those local, wild ingredients for me. No telling when I’ll ever see any of them again. The local version of the nettle soup is very similar to ones I used to have in Italy — zuppa di ortica<\/em>, made with vegetable broth and some onions and garlic. Though often thickened with a potato in Italy, it’s more likely to be bolstered here with yogurt. There are dozens of recipes online. Here’s a photo of ramps and dock from last year. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 22, 2013 Today is Earth Day, and a beautiful one it is here in Bulgaria. I have not been blogging because I am fairly inundated with not only preparations to move to China, but also with the many hassles that the theft of my wallet — and all the documents therein — has presented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1270,1268,1267,1269,1266],"class_list":["post-3689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-bulgarian-superstitions","tag-fennel-and-orange-salad","tag-frittata","tag-moroccan-rabbit-with-fennel-and-olives","tag-wild-garlic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3689"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3730,"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3689\/revisions\/3730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoppinjohns.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}