Alrighty then….
Time for an episode of “Cooking with Leftwood”, brought to you by….. me!
So I have all these asiatic lily bulbs that are reject seedling hybrids from Sweet Surrender, Dots and Dashs, Prawn Tiger and and that one unknown I like to call “Lily from Harvey”. For once I have lots, and plenty to actually mash them up like mash potatoes. I still haven’t found any real “recipe” or even a mention of specifically doing this, but why not? It seems anything potatoes can do, lilies can do better (or at least as well).
--- This is where, if you don’t want to delve into all the nitty-gritties, skip down to the
Results below.
And true to my “hypothesis”, my first observation concludes that lily bulbs do store better (and easier) than potatoes. These are the ones that survived 11°F in the garage. Potatoes can’t be allowed to freeze, and they dehydrate quickly in warmer temps, compared to lilies. All of these bulbs were white when I first dug them, but the ones at the top of the pails and exposed to light turned a purple tinge.
I chose the bulbs grown in the loose sand and loam, rather than ones that lived in the clay based soil. There would be less dirt to clean off, and the dirt there would be easier to remove, too. Since part of what I wanted to do was see if there was any unpalatable part of the bulb, I wanted to keep as much as I could, that would include what I expected to be the dirtier parts. I discovered I couldn’t keep any of the basal plate where the roots actually attached; I couldn’t get that part clean of soil. So I cut the lower parts of the plates off but not so much as to allow the scales I was keeping to become unattached. For most bulbs, one layer of lower scales were removed due to normal scaring, abrasion, mechanical damage and brown edges that they incur. Other brown lesions were simply cut out.
This is an 8½ inch mixing bowl. Note that I left a lot with blemishes. Had I only kept the perfect scales, half would be gone. This proved to be completely inconsequential in the final product, and next time I will retain all blemished scales, no matter how “bad” as long as there is no brown.
In the garden, I treated all these bulbs as I do all of mine, whether they remain in the soil or are dug: fall stems are tugged and broken free from the bulb, rather than being cut, as some prefer. They always break where they attach to the basal plate. I found that with these bulbs being stored for so long before processing, the part of the plate where the stem attached was usually molded to varying degrees. So that part of the plate was discarded. There were always some scales that had to be removed simultaneously, but were still good. Hence the reason why the bowl is not full of whole bulbs.
All this preparation was tedious, compare to potatoes.
Results
Eaten raw, I have never tasted lily scales so incredibly sweet! And I’ve had a couple seasons of testing already. Think dessert sweet, like apple crisp! I found myself nibbling continually as I cleaned the bulbs, like a child in a strawberry patch. I can’t help but wonder if it is because the bulbs had gone through a cold conditioning, that they are so sweet. I wish I had thought to taste the bulbs when I first dug them in the fall, before exposure to cold, so I could compare. I certainly will next time. Della, a mission for you, should you choose to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible theme). Also, there was no aftertaste with these that I had detected in other years.
I don’t think I ever mentioned this aftertaste before. If I eat lily scales raw and without any salt, oil or anything, well, it’s actually more like a tasteless after
feeling. I can only describe it as a bit of a silkiness in the mouth, and it dissipates fairly quickly. I don’t find it unappealing, but for me, it is noticeable. Is it just me, Della?
So these were boiled for five minutes in enough water to cover, and then drained. It’s likely that I would have only cooked them for three minutes, but a phone call happened, and this is also why I didn’t get a pic of the cooking in the water. Mashing was easy, and even though it looks like their are still fibers in the mash (not as smooth as potatoes), you can’t detect it in our mouth. Here the silkiness is a definite asset. Absolutely no mealy texture on the palate, as there are with most potatoes. Mashed lily is as smooth in the mouth as can be. I wondered how the basal plates would cook up compared to the scales, but they are undetectable. I even looked for them as I mashed, but never found any that wanted to stay whole.
I had anticipated that mashed lily bulbs would be a rather bland dish, so I also sautéed some onions and cooked and sautéed garbanzo beans to mix with the mash. But all that was needed (if even that) was salt. The salt seemed to mellow the sweetness a bit, and it’s much more to my liking. Moisture content seemed to be the same as potatoes, and they accepted milk in the same way.
But I already had the onions and beans, so in they went, and the meal was set with a sprinkling of fresh ground pepper.
The preparation is tedious, but worth it. Lately I've been throwing them in soups (where they break down to add some body) and in curries. And those ultra tedious itty bitty bulbs I've been using whole.
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