Cool Mesquite Drink

Looking for a cool and refreshing late summer drink? Have you harvested up all your mesquite pods from the desert and now have to wait to have them ground into flour? This recipe comes from Chef Bob, and is a yummy way to use those mesquite pods now.

Mesquite Drink

4 c mesquite pods, broken into 2” pieces
10 c water
2 T lemon or orange rind
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground wild spicebush berries
agave nectar to taste

Break your mesquite pods into pieces and measure them out. Place broken pods, water, and lemon rind into pot to soak overnight (roughly 8 hours). Then put the pot on lowest heat setting, adding cinnamon and spicebush berries, making sure the mixture does not boil. Simmer for an hour and a half and strain. Add agave nectar and cool in refrigerator before serving. Garnish with a lemon or orange.

Mesquite, It Ain’t Just for Barbeque

That’s right, you might recognize the mesquite name for your favorite barbeque products, but this little tree ain’t just for barbeque! It’s a leguminous plant, fixing much-needed nitrogen into desert soils, and providing delicious pods. It’s similar to the carob in that it’s really the sweet flesh surrounding the seeds that you’re after. That said, you can grind the whole pods with seeds and all for a delicious and healthy flour. Pictured above are 3 native mesquites to the Sonoran desert; on the left are the pods of honey mesquite (Prosopsis glandulosa), in the center screwbean mesquite (Prosopsis pubescens), and on the right are the velvet mesquite pods (Prosopsis velutina).

At the Desert Harvesters Mesquite Milling Fiesta, freshly milled mesquite flour is poured into a container for Esperanza, a young desert harvester.

Cooking With Mesquite (or carob): Some Facts and Tips
By Anastasia Rabin

As I flip and serve pancakes at the Desert Harvesters pancake breakfast each year, I’m constantly questioned by those waiting in line about how and what to cook with mesquite flour. I am no expert, but here are a few facts and tips about cooking with mesquite that I have learned from my own experiments and from those of others.

The most commonly asked question I get asked is “Can you use it like regular flour?” The answer is yes you can, but don’t expect it to taste or behave anything like regular flour. There are several reasons for this and understanding them has helped to guide me successfully through my experiments with using mesquite flour.

The flours that we use are most commonly made from cereal grains such as wheat, rye, and barley. These grains all contain varying amounts of glutenin, a protein that is commonly referred to as gluten. Gluten gives dough its elastic qualities and is especially important for leavened dough because it allows gas bubbles formed by the leavening to be trapped. The dough stretches as the bubbles grow and the resulting effect is dough that rises well and bakes into something light and airy.

The light, chewy, and somewhat stretchy substance that most of us recall when we think of bread, is made with high-gluten flour. Gluten-free breads and baked goods (usually made for the sake of people with wheat or gluten allergies from rice or spelt flours) have a crumbly quality to them. This can be favorable in some recipes like pastries, cookies, and even muffins, but is typically considered an undesirable quality for breads since slicing or applying any sort of spread is likely to leave you with a pile of crumbs.

Mesquite contains no gluten and is therefore guilty of this same tendency. That is one of the reasons why it works best when mixed with wheat flour. I have noticed that having too much mesquite in my pancake batter has resulted in a super-wet batter that won’t really cook through. The pancake remains like pudding in the middle no matter how long I leave it on the griddle. (The same thing has happened to me when I used too much oatmeal in pancakes) I think that this might be a result of the leavening not having that critical amount of elastic structure in which to rise. The bubbles from the baking soda cook out too quickly leaving the center raw, wet, and sealed inside a semi-burned crust.

The ratio of mesquite to wheat can vary depending on what it is you are making and what the desired texture is. Playing around with varying types of flours and amounts of gluten will add yet another important variable in your experiments.

Another reason for diluting mesquite flour with wheat flour is that mesquite has a very strong flavor that can be overpowering. In its uncooked form I find it to be entirely palatable. It makes the best pinole that you’ll ever have and is also a great addition to smoothies as a protein powder. But when it is cooked it can have a “sharp” flavor to it that pinches the middle of your tongue. Try cooking a little bit of the straight flour as a mush or porridge and you will taste what I mean. The same flavor came through when I used it 50/50 with whole-wheat pastry flour to make pie crust one Thanksgiving. I like my cheese to be sharp but not my piecrusts. Although it is just a matter of taste (as are so many culinary experiences) I think that most would agree. Diluting it with wheat flour seems to take care of this potential problem entirely, and allows the true, tangy-sweet flavor of the mesquite to really be enjoyed without overwhelming the palate.

Mesquite flour contains more sugars than regular flour and therefore burns very easily. I suspect that this may have something to do with the funny taste that it can get as a result of cooking. Again, this is a challenge that can be mitigated somewhat by adding wheat flour. You may want to lower the cooking temperature of your recipe a little if you are adding mesquite to it. At the very least, keep a close eye on whatever you are baking. Solar ovens work great for baking with mesquite because burning is impossible!

You can start adding mesquite to your diet by trying out the recipes offered on this website. Carob flour can be used in much the same way as mesquite flour. Try substituting carob flour for mesquite flour for some variety.

http://desertharvesters.org/

Recipes

http://www.desertharvesters.org/recipes/

Aunt Marilyn’s Juneberry Pie

“If you truly love nature, you’ll find beauty everywhere.” -van Gogh

Welcome to North Dakota! A land kissed with beautiful sunsets, a famous International Peace Garden, and a wild wind that whips through its prairie wildflowers. I’ve been visiting some of my relatives here, all of whom are farmers. Their connection with the land runs deep, and I am grateful they have shared their stories. The photo above is of bee balm/bergamot (Monarda fistulosa). It was blooming profusely and I harvested a large supply, of which I will use the dried leaves as a cooking herb, and the flower tops for a medicinal tea.

Juneberries/saskatoons/serviceberries (Amelanchier alnifolia). My Great Aunt Marilyn  She, my Grandmother Jeanne, and their sister Joyce, spent many hours harvesting juneberries as children near their buffalo ranch in northwestern North Dakota.

Aunt Marilyn’s Juneberry Pie

Filling:
3 ½ c juneberries
¾ c sugar
2 T flour

2-crust pie shell:
2 c flour
¾ c butter-flavored Crisco
dash salt
5 T cold water

Mix flour, Crisco and salt in mixing bowl. Add cold water one tablespoon at a time, and do not overmix. Split dough into 2 pieces. Roll out first crust dough onto floured surface and place into pie pan. Mix filling in a mixing bowl and place into pie pan. Roll out your second crust and place on top of pie filling. Fold over crust edges, press with fork, and poke fork holes on top to allow pie to breathe. Sprinkle top with a bit of sugar and bake for one hour in preheated 400° oven. Cool for 2 hours and serve.

Magnificent Milkweed

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