Pluck its thorny leaves and this is indeed akkoub, a prized (by many) wild vegetable; also known as tumbleweed, cardon (French), or gundelia. Apparently this wild vegetable’s recent claim to fame is that its grains were identified by researchers on the shroud of Turin.
I got three recipes from local mountain folks; one way is to deep-fry them (coated in a batter), another is to cook them in lamb shanks like a stew, and the last one is to marinate and grill them.
These faintly taste like artichoke. The mere mention of akkoub here elicits a lot of excitement. After all, it is a wild plant, it is not easy to forage (you have to climb steep mountains), and it requires a lot of effort (plucking all these spiny leaves out).
7 Comments
As always, very well done.
I hope you don’t mind me posting this video of what some are going through to collect this. I’m posting it with tears, but also to share the very depth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1LX1TcdpBI
I tasted it today with a stew with lamb. My goodness, is it delicious! The taste actually kind of reminded me of cooked green beans. Yummy.
See, I read a few of your posts at once and backwards so I learn something new each time… and answer my own questions. This is a very cool discovery. So like Cardoons with a slightly artichoke flavor. Cool!
I had no idea that cardoon was the same as tumbleweed!
As you see, I am reading backwards… I just realized these are what we call “cardi” in italian. Yaay!
Voyage vers l’inconnu…..culinaire
a dear friend of mine is of Palesrinian ancestry, his dad and step Mother came from Palestine. When I was living and working in Syria, my friends mom, um Mazen, told me that we were having a Palesrinian dinner, one of the components was Akkoub! I was in heaven, absolutely delicious! It reminded me of a cross between Asparagus and Artichokes. The effort that she put into removing the thorns was well worth it, everyone in attendance at this dinner had a smile and a full stomach!