Cattail Pollen Pancakes

[Tia Sukin]

The following link (and as pasted below) provides a recipe for Cattail pollen pancakes. Maybe we can make these next time we meet. However, I would suggest adding honey in the recipe and omitting the wheat flour.

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/mattjp/Lecture%20Notes/CATTAIL%20POLLEN%20PANCACKES.doc.
CATTAIL POLLEN PANCACKES



INGREDIENTS

Cattail pollen
Wheat flour (optional)
Eggs (whole or artificial)
Evaporated milk
Vegetable oil

Harvest a goodly amount of pollen * (at least a quart would be good). Mix in wheat flour as
needed to build up enough batter to produce the number of pancakes desired. Mix in 1 or 2
whole eggs or a comparable amount of artificial eggs (egg whites colored yellow). Begin
whisking mixture, adding evaporated milk to produce a thick batter.

Preheat a skillet and coat bottom with a modest amount of vegetable oil. When sufficiently
hot, spoon in portions of batter. Of course, the amount used determines the size of the
pancake. Turn once with a spatula, browning on both sides.

Serve pancakes hot with a dollop of butter and a generous amount of maple syrup or other
desired topping. Enjoy!


* Pollen should be harvested when male flowers are just about ready to open. Harvest too
early and pollen will not separate from anthers. Harvest too late and pollen will have
already been shed. Take spikes of male flowers indoors and place between folded
newspapers. Leave overnight with a desk lamp turned on over the spikes. The heat from
the lamp will accelerate the release of pollen. On the following morning, gently pat the
newspaper to encourage separation of remaining pollen from the anthers. Open newspaper
carefully in a quiet room (no wind or you’ll lose your breakfast!). Shake spikes until no
more pollen falls onto the paper. Have large bowl or wide-mouth jar at the ready. Carefully
lift folded newspaper and transfer pollen to bowl or jar. Cover receptacle to protect pollen
from blowing away. Now, you’re ready to proceed with recipe. Good luck!

[Candi Huber]

Yum, thanks Tia for the recipe.

[Candi Huber]

Is there any particular reason to use evaporated milk? I'd probably just use regular milk or cream.

[Tia Sukin]

I think it cuts down on the liquid/water content. Especially if you plan to cook them over a fireplace with a flat rock.

[Jason M]

I'll have to try this...thanks for posting it.

[Arthur Haines]

Most people I speak to and authors that I read discuss gathering the cattail pollen for making breads, etc. Though it is fun, it is also very slow. It is much faster to gather the entire pollen-bearing flowers. In fact, in good conditions, you can gather a liter or more of the flowers in 5 or 10 minutes and it is ready to go for use in baking and thickening soups. Timing is important. Look for the green spikes at the top of the plant and wait for them to start to tinge with yellow and become "lumpy" looking (this is when the pollen-bearing flowers are beginning to expand and will be shedding pollen in a couple of days). At this point, you can easily strip off the pollen-bearing bearing flowers with your thumbnail and gather handfuls to a time. It makes a wonderful bread (probably my favorite raised bread, combined with whole wheat flower). Once you learn to gather this food, you likely won't want to deal with gathering just the pollen again. The pollen in the flowers is rich in protein, fat, fiber, calcium, iron, and vitamin C. So eat up!

Arthur