By Patricia Gruden
It has been quite difficult to find new recipes for the recipe column. Most of the original Slovenian ones which were used were from Toni Srsen’s Slovenian Cooking Class which was held at St. Mary’s Church in Collinwood for many years. We also featured other ethnic recipes from Italy, Poland, and Austria, along with American ones. Today there are many excellent recipes in magazines and newspapers but most of them are copyrighted and cannot be reproduced. So, we are asking you to help us by offering some of your recipes that may have been in your family for years. All recipes submitted will be tested before they are printed.
SAT has had a recipe column since at least the year 2014 and in that time featured over one hundred recipes. We plan to reprint some of the favorite ones as they were originally presented along with new material as we obtain it.
Send us your family specials, anonymously if you wish, or send us a short thought or hint to help us improve our cooking. I will start by presenting one of my family’s favorite salads, raw Dandelion, which my Dad always made like his family served when he grew up on the Slovenian Italian border.
This time of year is best because the dandelion plants are young and tender. Years ago you may remember ladies with baskets going into the fields to pick dandelions for the uncooked, raw salad. It is unfortunate today that we cannot pick our own since many of us have lawns that are dandelion gardens, but the soil has been treated with so many chemicals like fertilizers and weed and insect killers that it is not safe to eat anything grown there. Luckily, some of the supermarkets sell dandelions which my Dad always said are not real dandelions because the leaves are ten inches long and the real dandelion is a plant with smaller leaves like those in your lawn.
The preparation is very simple. Wash the raw leaves well and finely chop them through their stems. Add wine vinegar and oil and the most important thing, add GARLIC. Lots of it! Then, do not go out in public because everyone will know you have just eaten lots of garlic. Our family all ate the salad but we cancelled each other out.
Some cooks add finely grated coleslaw and less garlic. Others skip the vinegar and oil, and use pumpkin seed oil instead. Enjoy!
Do you have a family recipe you’d like to share?
Have a request for a recipe you’d like to have us feature? We’ll happily consider all submissions. Please include a best contact method if we need to reach out for clarification or questions about your submission.
