courtesy Desert Harvesters
High quality food is available to Tucsonans, literally hanging all around us. The edible pods of two ubiquitous local trees, the velvet and screwbean mesquite, can be processed into tasty and healthful foodstuff available for the picking during the summer harvest. But how to do it?
Desert Harvesters (DesertHarvesters.org) has just released Eat Mesquite! A Cookbook - a compendium of all things mesquite.
A short chapter contains what you need to know about the harvesting, storing, and milling of the pods. Herbal uses of mesquite are also described, as well as other Sonoran Desert foods and harvesting methods. The potential for mesquite to alleviate world famine is explained scientifically, but Eat Mesquite! is most of all a cookbook, full of recipes using mesquite meal, broth and syrup.
At Desert Harvesters’ annual fall mesquite milling, pancake breakfast and fundraiser held in the Dunbar Springs neighborhood, they serve up mesquite flour pancakes to die for. Try your hand!
Visit the Eat Mesquite! site to buy the book or find locations for purchase.
(Until harvest, mesquite flour can be obtained at New Life Health Centers.)
Amy’s Mesquite Pancakes
by Amy Schwemm
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup mesquite meal, sifted
3-1/2 teaspoons baking powder, non-aluminum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup milk
Up to 1 cup water (or milk)
In a large bowl mix flours, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, oil and one cup of milk. Mix dry ingredients with the liquids. Add water (or milk) to desired consistency. Ladle 1/4 cup batter onto a lightly oiled griddle on medium-low heat. Watch the bottom of the pancake for the desired brown color. Flip and cook until done. Serve with butter and prickly pear syrup, agave nectar or mesquite honey.
Makes about 12 pancakes.
