Eating invasive spicies.

[BilletHead]

           While I know the gray squirrel is native here, I will post a spin on what the UK is doing to fight back unwanted species.  Now I wish I would have saved some "racks" 🙂

 

Rack of squirrel, anyone? The chefs putting invasive species on the menu | Invasive species | The Guardian

 

[DADAKOTA]

Love some fried squirrel.  Looked at the pic in the article and I would not frequent a restaurant that brought me a plate like that.  Tiny bite of protein flopped on some unidentified mess complete with a couple swirls of who knows what for probably $50 a plate.  Too "gourmet" for my tastes.  Bring me good food served homestyle and I'm in.

[Johnsfolly]

38 minutes ago, BilletHead said:

           While I know the gray squirrel is native here, I will post a spin on what the UK is doing to fight back unwanted species.  Now I wish I would have saved some "racks" 🙂

 

Rack of squirrel, anyone? The chefs putting invasive species on the menu | Invasive species | The Guardian

 

Here's the menu of Miya's that was highlighted in your article. 

THE INVASIVE SPECIES MENU

 

THE INVASIVE SPECIES DINNER

You―a member of the most destructive invasive predator species ever―will devour over a decade and a half of original Miya’s invasive species recipes as a first step toward eating in a way that helps regenerate ecosystems. 
 

MISO WILD

This soup—which Momma calls delicious medicine—features medicinal wild plants that are despised by farmers and lawn owners alike.  Garlic mustard, nettle, purslane, dandelion, clover, plantain, amaranth, chickweed, chicory, and Japanese knotweed make this the healthiest and tastiest soup you’ll ever put in your mouth.  This miso, which features invasive plants and weeds, is the healthiest and tastiest soup you’ll ever put in your mouth and features a dozen wild plants, including Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, nettle, purslane, dandelion, clover, plantain, amaranth, chicory, and chickweed.

There are three very good reasons to be eating invasive plants and weeds:

1) Over 16,000 years of farming, humans have been able to cultivate plants for greater flavor, size, and physical appeal but never for increased nutritional value. In fact, farmed food has become less nutritious over time. As a result, conventional crops are much less nutritious than the edible weeds that grow among them. In a world where malnutrition has led to global epidemics of hunger and obesity, humans must expand their palates to include a wider variety of unconventional healthier-to-eat food species. Invasive plants and weeds fit the bill; they contain loads of fiber to boost gut health and a wide range of phytonutrients that prevent damage from free radicals that cause many chronic health problems, including inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

2) As the world warms, unpredictable weather patterns have become commonplace, causing crop failures and increasing global hunger. Invasive plants and weeds are more resilient to extreme weather patterns and therefore could be cultivated in regions where they already exist and where climate change will decrease the production of staple crops. 

3) By foraging/cultivating edible weeds, we do not contribute to the poisoning of our planet with pesticides. Five billion pounds of dangerous pesticides are used worldwide each year, affecting every living thing, from beneficial microbes in the soil that plants depend upon to the community of gut bacteria that live within us and are the bedrock of human health. 
 

DREAMCATCHER ROLL

Mugwort-steamed rice with sweet potato, pine nuts, and cranberry crab apple butter. Mugwort is used worldwide by traditional peoples as a medicinal herb that inspires dreams and visions. This recipe combines a prolific herbaceous invasive species with native ingredients that would never have been encountered one another over a half-millennia ago before Columbus crossed the continental divide. The combination of these flavors from different lands harmonizes in our Dreamcatcher sushi recipe, symbolizing healing and renewed life.
 

MUGGU MOCHI

Toasted mugwort mochi stuffed with sweet red bean. 
 

CATFISH BLUES ROLL

Chesapeake Bay invasive blue catfish fried in Old Bay Seasoning and beer tempura.

Blue catfish can weigh up to a hundred pounds and have become a threat to the biodiversity of the tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. This recipe, which incorporates Southern-style fried catfish and okra, tips its hat to the African origins of all people and is a reminder that, despite our differences, we are all one, yo.
 

MY JELLY BELLY

Thinly sliced invasive cannonball jellyfish, trawled off the coast of Georgia, seasoned with roasted sesame and Miya’s farm-grown Szechuan peppers.

Jellyfish populations have been exploding because of human-caused climate change, ocean acidification, and pollution. Yet few cultures utilize jellyfish as a food source despite the fact that jellyfish is an endlessly abundant food source that is low in calories and high in protein and collagen. 

The crown jewel of Miya’s invasive species menu features the first invasive species we ever caught and ate—back in 2001—the Asian shore crab. Chesapeake Bay blue crab meat in potato skin, Cato Corner Farm  (Colchester, CT), Old Bay-fermented shore crab. Asian shore crabs are an invasive crab species that migrated to North America in the ballasts of ships in the 1980s. They have infested craggy intertidal habitats along the East Coast from Maine to Florida. They are able to thrive in a wide range of temperatures and compete with native crabs and fish for microalgae and other smaller edible animals and plants. This recipe was created with Dr. Yancey Orr, Yale College 2001, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Maryland.
 

NINE-SPICE INVASIVE ASIAN CARP SASHIMI

Thin-sliced Kentucky silver carp prepared fugu-style with spicy sesame citron soy sauce. The introduction of Asian silver carp has led to the precipitous decline of native fish species in seventeen states. These giant plankton eaters are netted by Kentucky fisherman who have been fishing as a way of life for over a century. 
 

IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS

Staghorn sumac-seared salmon, avocado, pickles, and flying fish roe wrapped in pickled bog rhubarb leaves.

As described by Tanizaki in his 1933 essay “In Praise of Shadows,” this is our twist on a recipe of sushi that was eaten by the ancient mountain people of Yoshino, Japan. Instead of persimmon leaves, our recipe uses invasive bog rhubarb. 
 

A ROMP IN DA SWAMP

Minty and bitter invasive bog rhubarb stem simmered in kelp stock and sake.   Bog rhubarb, which shades out native plants with its giant lily-like leaves, has been used medicinally for pain relief for over two thousand years in China. Bog rhubarb inhibits cyclooxygenase-2 activity, thereby acting as an anti-inflammatory. 
 

KIRIBATI SASHIMI

Thin-sliced Florida lionfish with Kiribati sea salt and spices.

This recipe, which combines two ingredients that originate in the Pacific Ocean, help tell a complex story that interweaves the proliferation of invasive species, climate change, and the destruction of coastal cultures.

Climate change helps invasive species spread. Lionfish have been spotted as far North as Long Island Sound. After being released from aquariums, lionfish established themselves in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast of the United States and throughout the Caribbean. Protected by venomous spines, lionfish is a voracious apex predator that has decimated native fish populations of coral reefs that have already been suffering from the impact of climate change, pollution, and overfishing. 

The island nation of Kiribati is one of the world’s poorest countries, with few natural resources other than the salt from the ocean around it. At only 8 to 12 feet above sea level, Kiribati may become the first nation to be completely swallowed by the ocean due to climate change.
 

PIGYOZA

Momma’s dumpling recipe—with ground Texas invasive boar butt and wild onions. 
 

HILL COUNTRY BLUEFIN

Seared boar heart is dark and meaty like bluefin tuna but tastier and healthier to eat. Feral hogs, introduced by European explorers in the 1500s, are voracious eaters that consume native and endangered species. Unlike factory-produced meats, wild meats such as boar contain high levels of omega 3 fatty acids. Unlike most bluefin tuna, a threatened species that is high in contaminants, wild hogs are abundant and free of mercury and PCBs.

 

INVASIVE OFFERINGS FROM THE MIYA’S GENERAL STORE:

 

DREAMCATCHER SMUDGE STICK

In ancient cultures, from Asia to Europe, mugwort smoke was used to inspire dreams and visions, and to purify the spirit too.

Mugwort is one of the most widespread in sine plants in North America that is despised by farmers and lawn owners alike.
 

PICKLED KNOTWEED SHOOTS

Spicy, sweet, tart, and crunchy. One of the best pickles you’ll ever have!
 

KNOTWEED TEA

Tea made from young sun-dried knotweed leaves is pleasantly tart and tannic and verdant like green tea.

One of the most popular antioxidants is the polyphenol, resveratrol, for it’s suppressive effect on oxidative and inflammatory stress. 

Japanese knotweed, one of the most destructive invasive species, contains exponentially more resveratrol than red grapes. 
 

WILD WEED HERB VINEGAR

The secret to Miya’s salad is Chef Bun’s herb vinegar made from spring ramps, edible weeds, and homegrown herbs. Drink it straight up as a delicious digestif. 
 

WEED & GUTS PESTO

Chef Bun’s pesto of edible weeds and fish sauce made from Kentucky invasive silver carp guts and carcasses is tastier and exponentially more delicious than your Italian grandmother’s. Made by a nut but contains no nuts.
 

FLAMING COCK

Chef Bun’s spicy sake-based liqueur is a recipe that was given to him in a dream by a mythical Japanese fire-breathing rooster to help him spread the gospel of invasive species and food waste. Flaming Cock features invasive autumn olive berries, weedy sumac berries, fiery home- grown peppers, and a hoppy distillate made from beer waste at Continuum Distilling in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Enjoyed by ancient First Nations peoples as a scurvy-preventing lemony beverage with berries that are rich in vitamin C and other antioxidants, sumac is a shrub that is both a weed and invasive species in some regions.

Native to Asia, autumn olives that were planted to combat soil erosion have become disruptive to native ecosystems. Nutritionally, autumn olives are high in vitamin C,E, A, and the antioxidant, Lycopene. 

One third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted globally each year—which is more than enough food to feed nearly a billion of the world’s people who suffer from hunger, four times over.
 

FLAMING COCK HOT SAUCE

Chef Bun’s furiously spicy hot sauce made from homegrown peppers (reused from sake- making), tasty foraged weeds, and fish sauce made from guts and carcasses of invasive Kentucky silver carp.
 

FLAMING COCK BONE BROTH

Chef Bun’s spicy Texas invasive boar bone broth broth seasoned with roasted sesame and homegrown Szechuan peppers. This is the tastiest and healthiest bone broth you will ever put in your mouth; and it’s perfect straight up, or with tofu and vegetables, or ramen.

 

 

Lots of this looks really appetizing. We had hoped to catch and eat some lionfish in FL last spring but didn't see or catch any. We have eaten snakehead and it is really a good eating fish. Just need to catch more.

The squirrel racks sound interesting. Wonder what temperature they cook them. I wouldn't think that they would serve them medium rare.

[Quillback]

Didn't know jellyfish is edible.  

[Johnsfolly]

15 minutes ago, Quillback said:

Didn't know jellyfish is edible.  

We just watched a new episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike was working on one of the boats in GA that fishes for those cannonball jellyfish. I wouldn't mind trying them.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, DADAKOTA said:

Love some fried squirrel.  Looked at the pic in the article and I would not frequent a restaurant that brought me a plate like that.  Tiny bite of protein flopped on some unidentified mess complete with a couple swirls of who knows what for probably $50 a plate.  Too "gourmet" for my tastes.  Bring me good food served homestyle and I'm in.

                 Same here We are home cookers here. I would say we average squirrel on the menu at least once a month. Yesterday's meal was fantastic!

[BilletHead]

34 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

We just watched a new episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike was working on one of the boats in GA that fishes for those cannonball jellyfish. I wouldn't mind trying them.

          Seen that also!

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

 

The squirrel racks sound interesting. Wonder what temperature they cook them. I wouldn't think that they would serve them medium rare.

                           I would like to know that also. Unless a braise or pressure first it would have to be a very young one. From the looks of that picture it's not a youngster. 

[Quillback]

41 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

We just watched a new episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike was working on one of the boats in GA that fishes for those cannonball jellyfish. I wouldn't mind trying them.

Yeah, I'd try it.  

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, BilletHead said:

                           I would like to know that also. Unless a braise or pressure first it would have to be a very young one. From the looks of that picture it's not a youngster. 

I agree that the size would be indicative of a larger and older squirrel. Pressure cooker could make that tender but might not have a good mouth feel. Someone need to try this state side 😉