Dandelions: Sorely Underestimated and Hugely Versatile

Apparently it’s not uncommon for small children to put all sorts of things in their mouths, but it was a miracle I survived my childhood with all of the poisonous plants and flowers I had at my disposal out in the woods of Boring, Oregon. Although there was a bit of an incident with the Fox Glove flower, there are in fact flowers you can eat that won’t make you sick. Here’s a nice long list of some of the ones you can eat and how best to prepare them. My favorites include rose petals, clover, and nasturtiums—but today we’re focusing on dandelions.

Perhaps the title of a particular Ray Bradbury book clued you in that dandelions could be used as a food source, perhaps you already knew, or perhaps you’re shocked. The dandelion, although often regarded as a common weed, is a plant that can be prepared in many ways. One can harvest the flowers to make wine with, collect the greens to include in salads or other dishes, and even cook and eat the roots. There’s a lot of advice out there about how to harvest dandelions, but let me quickly go over some of the most important stuff:

First of all, never harvest dandelions from areas that may have been sprayed with pesticides, near roads, or where people often take their pets to do their business. Secondly, start harvesting the leaves of the plant at the beginning of the season when the plants are young. Apparently the leaves are less bitter at this time in the dandelion’s lifespan. Continue to collect dandelion leaves until they become too bitter for you, and make note of when that is so you can collect leaves of an agreeable nature in the future. However, be aware that if the leaves are too bitter, you can always blanche or steam them to get rid of some of the bitterness. This is particularly effective when adding them to other dishes, such as a French cream of dandelion soup or a tasty vegetarian dandelion quiche. Third, if it’s dandelion flowers you’re after for cooking or wine making, be sure to get them early, when they’ve just flowered. If you leave them too long, these will also become bitter. And, lastly, if you’re trying to harvest the roots, be sure to dig deep. The dandelion root is long and thin like a carrot, so bring a gardening tool with you to get at the long roots without snapping them. To prepare the roots, simply treat them as if they were carrots—although apparently there is a way to roast them and use them as tea and coffee substitute as well if you’re interested in that!

If you want to make dandelion wine, there are a lot of different recipes and methods for brewing it out there. See here, here, and here for the best three I found.

As you can see, this common garden “weed” has been sorely underestimated and is actually hugely versatile; much like a couple of protagonists in two of my favorite franchises, Kingdom Hearts and Phoenix Wright.

The protagonist of Kingdom Hearts is a boy named Sora. In the first game of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, the player is led to believe that Sora is the main character of the game because he is the wielder of the Keyblade. The Keyblade is a mythical weapon that is said to be able to open and close off hearts. Sora uses the Keyblade to seal off the hearts from shadowy beings without hearts—fittingly called “the Heartless”—who hunt down and devour the hearts of individuals and worlds. The game was intended to be a one-shot, but very quickly was retconned for a series.  As the series progresses, the player learns that there are many Keyblades and that anyone with a heart can learn to summon them. However, the Keyblades are passed down from Keyblade users who deem others worthy of the honor of possessing a Keyblade. Sora was never given a Keyblade by a previous Keyblade wielder. His friend Riku, however, was. When Riku was unable to claim his Keyblade when his and Sora’s home world of the Destiny Islands was attacked by Heartless, Sora “borrowed” the power completely by accident. In short, Sora isn’t special—but it is how he deals with not being special that makes him the main character of the series:

The people Sora is talking about, of course, are his friends. He goes on to say that his friends are his power. The camera swoops out to show all of them behind him, connected through their hearts. To see the full scene, click here. In a way, Sora is the main character of Kingdom Hearts not because he is special, but because he is the most versatile member of the story due to his normalcy and willingness to be part of something bigger than just himself.

Rookie defense attorney Phoenix Wright of the Phoenix Wright franchise is even more of a regular Joe than Sora. Phoenix is a lawyer, and the sort of bumbling sweetie that always smiles and tries his best. His opinion of himself isn’t very high though…

And neither are his friends’ opinions of him…

But everything changes the moment Phoenix enters a court room.

In being the sort of bumbling sweetie that always smiles and tries his best, Phoenix becomes a force to be reckoned with in the court room, because his best must be the exposure of the truth and the protection of the innocent. In every way he is underestimated in his day to day life, but in every case in his video game and manga series, Phoenix fights his way to the truth successfully every time.

The last bit of media I’d like to share with you today is a little more directly related to the dandelion than our last two examples: the sports day chapters of Cardcaptor Sakura in which the Flowery card appears.

Sakura, unlike our other two protagonists, actually is a chosen one—and it is her task to collect the escaped magical Clow Cards that could cause all sorts of havoc if left unchecked. This particular episode takes place during her school’s sports day activities. What’s funny about this episode, however, is that no one thinks anything of the beautiful falling flowers and flower petals until the flowers begin to interfere with the sports day activities.

Flowers are so commonly used as a background panel filter in manga, that even the readers have it pointed out to them by the characters that there’s something strange about all of the flowers all over the pages.

In the end, Sakura manages to capture the Clow Card. Her guardian beast Kero (currently assuming his “power saving” form similar in appearance to a stuffed animal) comments on how easy it must have been since the card is good natured and fun loving.

Just goes to show one should never underestimate the value of anything. Happy dandelion hunting!

Valentine's Day and Chocolate

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Regardless of your relationship status, there’s one very good reason to be excited about February 14^th, aside from Deadpool being in theaters: chocolate.

Unfortunately, due to the commercial nature of this holiday, sometimes the chocolate is a little pricey (unless you wait for the discount stuff on February 15^th). Plus, what says “I care about you” better than chocolates you made yourself?

To make your own chocolate, you’ll need a few things:

A pot and metal bowl that fits on top of your pot and won’t fall in (If you have a double boiler, just use that instead)

3.5 tablespoons Cocoa Butter

3.5 tablespoons Cocoa Powder

½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 tablespoon Honey or Sugar

Let me first begin with a warning: do NOT use a wooden spoon while working with this recipe. This recipe is ruined if any water gets into the mixture, and wooden spoons actually have moisture trapped inside of them! The best utensil to use is a rubber spatula that hasn’t been exposed to any strong foods like garlic or tomato sauce. If you use a utensil that has been exposed to such foods, your chocolate could come out tasting like chocolate and some really tasty spaghetti. On to the directions!

Fill the bottom of your double boiler (make-shift or legit) with water and bring that water to a boil. Even though we’re going to be boiling the water, be sure to keep the heat low—if you turn up the heat too high, you can scorch your chocolate and cause it to lose flavor.

Place the bowl or pan you’re using as the top of your double boiler on top of the bottom half and make sure that the bottom of the pan/bowl doesn’t touch the boiling water. If the water is touching the bottom of the pan you’ll be making your chocolate in, you could burn your chocolate.

Next, place your cocoa butter in the pan and melt it. Once your cocoa butter is melted, you can go ahead and add your vanilla and sweetener of choice. You can also adjust the level of honey/sugar to taste. Once the sweetener has been added, stir your cocoa powder into the bowl and mix well. Eliminate any clumps or grainy bits until your chocolate is has a smooth, glossy texture. Then, just take your chocolate and place it in your mold of choice. If you want to add things like nuts or dried fruit to your chocolate, you can add them now. Simply pour a bit of chocolate, place the nuts or fruit on top, and then fill up the rest of the mold. Give the mold a good shake to get rid of any air trapped in your chocolate, and then place in your refrigerator to chill and set for at least an hour. After the chocolate has set, pop it out of the molds and serve! Or, you can decorate them with frosting and chocolate drizzle.

If you’re looking for something a bit less dark, you can add milk to your chocolate to lighten it up. Powdered milk and liquid milk are both fine. Powdered milk can be added when stirring in your cocoa powder, but if you want to add liquid milk do it at beginning when melting your cocoa butter. Otherwise your chocolate will seize (become lumpy, grainy, and stiff) since it’s sensitive to moisture. 

There are some other ways to do this that replace the cocoa butter with milk and butter, allow you to make your cocoa powder from scratch with cocoa beans, or remove the need for a double boiler entirely. You can check out some of those other options here and here. 

For those of you that would rather skip the from-scratch way of doing things and just melt down some chocolate and set it in some cute molds, here are some tips for melting your chocolate. You can melt chocolate with everything from the double boiler to the oven to the microwave. Just be sure to grate or break up your chocolate into small chunks so it melts more easily, and keep the heat low. If you’re going to add milk, cream, or anything else to the chocolate you’re going to melt, be sure to add it to the chocolate BEFORE heating it. Otherwise, your chocolate will seize because of its sensitivity to moisture. Also check out that link if your chocolate seizes. Although your chocolate won’t be suitable for consumption on its own anymore, there are ways to recover it from seizing, and it can be used for things such as sauces, frostings, and batters.

Whew, there. No wonder nobody learns this in Home Ec. It’s complicated, and there are so many ways to screw it up! However, the making of chocolate for loved ones on Valentine’s Day is something I’ve been seeing in media since I was fourteen and started reading manga. 

In Japan, it’s common place for people to make chocolates for the special people in their lives on Valentine’s day. There’s a little more incentive to do this in Japan, however, because all of that hard work is traditionally rewarded on White Day, when the receiver of chocolates traditionally repays the giver of the Valentine’s chocolates with a gift.

This particular tradition is explored in CLAMP’s series XXXHolic. The X’s in this title are traditionally used in Japan as a place holder for a blank, so when the title is pronounced it is usually just ‘Holic. In this series, trans-dimensional witch Yuko grants wishes from her shop. One of the wishes she grants is the ability to travel to different worlds to the four main characters of CLAMP’s other series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles, Kurogane, Fai, and alternate world versions of the characters Syaoran, and Sakura from CLAMP’s other series Cardcaptor Sakura—keeping track of the different versions of CLAMP’s previous series characters that make apperances in Tsubasa and Holic can be as complicated as making chocolate! Due to Yuko’s involvement in the story of Tsubasa, the two series often crossover during their separate stories. One of the more humorous crossovers is a Valentine’s Day crossover. Yuko, having asked Watanuki to make chocolate for Valentine’s Day as part of his workerly duties, has some chocolate left over.

Yuko sending Valentine’s chocolate for White Day gifts.

As you can see, this is a ploy to ensure that she receives White Day gifts from the Tsubasa gang. When they don’t come deliver, she flies into a rage.

Yuko in a rage.

There are two types of White Day gifts; those given by someone accepting the romantic feelings of someone who confessed their feelings while giving their chocolates on Valentine’s Day, and those that are given out of obligation to people like family members, co-workers, and friends. Essentially, if you receive chocolates on Valentine’s Day that don’t have a romantic attachment, or intend to accept the romantic implications of chocolates you did receive, you’re required to give a White Day gift. It’s considered a social faux pas to forget your White Day duties.

Yuko sharing her feelings on not giving White Day gifts.

Of course, Japan being the role based society that it is, it’s usually women who hand make their chocolates in order to confess their feelings to men. What I love best about this portrayal of the Japanese Valentine’s and White Day ritual is that Yuko challenges these values outright.

Yuko breaking down gender roles like a boss.

So, no matter who you’re making chocolates for this Valentine’s Day, whether they be for your family, your friends, a special someone, or yourself, please enjoy them to the fullest.