Ah, Monday, We Meet Again

[lydamorehouse]

 
image: a mess of greens, as it were, on a fancy plate.

I tried sweet potato greens. I followed this recipe: https://thewoksoflife.com/yam-leaves/.  By chance, I happened to have Shaoxing wine leftover from another dish, so I duplicated the instructions fairly faithfully. Normally, I also have sesame oil around, but turns out I'd used that up without remembering to buy more. That may have made a big difference to the taste, but maybe not.

What I decided about this dish was that it was strongly "okay." I was not blown away, but I was also not "ewww."  I did tend to prefer the leaves to the stems, even though I was clearly supposed to use both in this recipe. Perhaps I didn't cook the stems long enough, but I found them to be kind of woody/crunchy? It might be intentional to have both textures in this dish, however, since otherwise the leaves were very wilted and soft (which sounds bad, but which I found to be the yummist part.)

I saved out a few of the yam/sweet potato leaves because, in doing further research, I discovered yam leaves are used in some much more exciting looking dishes from Sierra Leone and other parts of the African continent. I watched a few videos of people making various dishes and I suspect that if I try any, I will have to go looking for palm oil. Everyone I watched seems very adamant that palm oil is essential to authentic taste.

Of course the real trick will be convincing my family to try, but both Shawn and Mason like Ethiopian food and I am hoping whatever I end up making will be enough similar that they will at least taste it. I should probably plan to make it for a lunch, though, so in case my family chickens out, I won't have too huge a pile of food with no one but me to eat it. :-)

Looking in the fridge, the only other stuff I still need to use up is the cabbage and the beets. I have plans for a big part of the cabbage tonight as we're having pork pot stickers. With whatever's left over, I'll make borscht. Unless it gets hot, in which case, I'll start looking into beet salads. But honestly, I can see why my ancestors liked beets. They keep really well. 

In other news, this is Mason's birthday week. He's turning 17 on the 24th. It seems unreal How can it be seventeen years already? But, I guess that's the funny thing about kids: they grow up. I think I reported that we finally managed to get his fancy laptop delivered. So, he's actually been enjoying his big birthday present for a week already. 

In fannish news, I've been binging Star Trek: Discovery. I just finished Season 2, Episode 5: "Saints of Imperfection."  So far, I am not as big a fan of season two as I was of the first season. HOLY CRAP I loved the first season. I emailed my friend tallgeese to say just how much that first season was my JAM.  Second season lacks some of the punch for me, I guess? At least at this point. Perhaps it will turn around. However, I will literally watch Michelle Yeoh read a grocery list. I've been a fan of Yeoh since I saw her in various Hong Kong action films, when I used to go to the midnight Asian Film series at the Riverview Theater back in the early aughts. Her character in the second season is a scenery chewer, which I adore. I only have a few more days on my free week of the CBS streaming service, so I'm going to watch what I can and then call it good enough. 

Shawn expressed interest in re-watching some of the newer Star Trek movies, so we might do that as well.

What are you all watching? Anything interesting?

Comments

[sabotabby]

Good to know. I'm wondering if I can eat the greens on my potato plants.

I just finished "I May Destroy You" (incredible, strong TW) and "The Old Guard" (so much fun).

[lydamorehouse]

On sweet potatoes, yes. I'm not sure about regular potatoes.

I had not heard of "The Old Guard," but that looks amazing!

[offcntr]

Regular potatoes are nightshade family. Greens and fruit (and even, to a extent, green tubers that weren't properly buried) are poisonous.

[j00j]

Seconding The Old Guard. I am also making my way through The Expanse.

[kore]

HOLY CRAP I loved the first season. I emailed a friend to say just how much that first season was my JAM. Second season lacks some of the punch for me, I guess? At least at this point. Perhaps it will turn around. However, I will literally watch Michelle Yeoh read a grocery list. I've been a fan of Yeoh since I saw her in various Hong Kong action films, when I used to go to the midnight Asian Film series at the Riverview Theater back in the early aughts. Her character in the second season is a scenery chewer, which I adore

OMG YES a lot of people I know feel the opposite, but we LOVED S1 of Discovery and were much less happy with S2, partly because trading Lorca for Pike was disappointing, partly because Michael felt really sidelined for a while, and, for T, mostly because of New Spock. He is a total One True Spock fanboy (he was horrified by the movie reboots) and while he MIGHT watch recast Kirk, recast Spock is absolutely no go. I did get some entertainment out of how completely disgusted he looked whenever That's Not Spock was onscreen. Michelle Yeoh is absolutely marvellous and Emperor Georgiou is an instantly classic character. S2 did really pick up later, but it took a while.

I don't remember if you watched Picard -- it was on yet another streaming service so we ahem'd it, and Patrick Stewart was great. We just saw the Netflix movie The Old Guard, the new Charlize Theron action flick, which was fantastic. And I splurged on the box set of 12 Monkeys (TV show) because it was T's birthday last week and it's one of his favourite shows ever.

I wish they would just go ahead and release the Black Widow movie on D+. :-/

[lydamorehouse]

Personally, I think Lorca was the best captain StarFleet ever had, but, as I told another friend, that's like saying Barty Crouch, Jr. was the best Defense Against Dark Arts teacher ever (which I also believe and will defend to the death.)

I loved all the twists of the first season so hard, honestly.

I have not seen the introduction of the new Spock yet, though it's clearly coming (and I feel like I actually remember some ads from when this season was new?) Regardless, I have fewer issues with Trek purity. I was weirdly upset by Kirk not being born in Iowa in the re-boot movie, but then they neatly made it an obvious and canonical alternate universe so I thought, "Oh, okay. Works for me!"

I have "Picard" on a bootleg disc which I feel kind of bad about, however, it means that I can watch it more at my leisure. I suspect I'll like that one, too.

I loved Twelve Monkeys too! I had not heard of The Old Guard, but I just looked it up because Sabs mentioned it as well. That looks really interesting!

[oracne]

I want to get back to my Leverage-in-order watching soon.

[lydamorehouse]

The ads for "Leverage" really made me want to watch it.

[offcntr]

Do! We bought the entire series on DVD, and are rationing out the last few episodes because we don't want to be done. Also, the commentary tracks are fabulous. John Rogers is a national treasure.

[dreamshark]

I'm pretty sure that palming off "sweet potato greens" as a vegetable is in the same camp as spiderplanet's report of a CSA pickup that included "carrot greens" along with a typed sheet attempting to convince the customer that this is a real thing. There are lots of greens that CAN be eaten if you are desperate to prevent scurvy, but that doesn't mean it is worth crunching on the woody stems instead of buying some spinach. Ish.

And no, sabotabby, do not eat those potato greens, or the nasty sprouts that grow out of the eyes of overripe potatoes. I don't think they are drop-dead poisonous, but yes, in the nightshade family. As are tomatoes. Don't eat tomato leaves either. They smell terrible enough that I don't think most people would try, but they can't be good for you.

[lydamorehouse]

Given the number of recipes I've found where they are included in Asian and African dishes, I think their inclusion in my box has more to do with the fact that my farmers come from a culture that eats them regularly. My CSA is the Hmong Farmers Association.

[dreamshark]

Ah, that makes a little more sense. Still, I'll bet even in their home culture this is not actually considered the most edible part of that plant.

[lydamorehouse]

Maybe? But which is more edible caraway or dill?

I'm a fan of dill, but one is just the plant, the other the seeds. Humans do this a lot with plants? Eat all parts of them for the different tastes they provide. Would you feel ripped off in your CSA if you got both cilantro and coriander? I mean, I would, but only because I hate cilantro. But, see, here's what's weird, I'd be excited to see coriander.

So, I dunno. It's not that hard of a mental stretch for me to think that, yeah, if this is a food you associate with mom's best dish, you might be more excited to get it than yams? Maybe you hate the taste of yams and love the leaves?

Why is that difficult to imagine, when I can think of dozens of other foods that are exactly like this for a lot of people. Like, I have never eaten the fruit that surrounds a cashew because it's not common in America, but if I were in South America and someone offered me a cashew apple/fruit, I'd totally try it! And just because Americans would throw it away as useless, doesn't mean it's not tasty or even someone's preferred part of the plant.

I guess the difference between this and being offered carrot tops and not carrots, is that I see this is as a chance to learn something about a food? I'm more skeptical of carrot tops because when you Google them you don't hit another country's recipe list immediately like I did with yam tops.

On the other hand, I will admit that if we don't also get yams I will be sad.