We drove out to Mineral Lake on the weekend, to enjoy the 80 degree weather, have a picnic in the canoe, and pull cattails for dinner. Yes, cattails!I've read about using the hearts, stalks, heads, shoots, and pollen, in survival literature. Eaten raw, the tender stalks taste like cucumber; when cooked, they have the flavor of corn.
The tall stalks bent over in the wind as I pulled them out of the water (video) and pulled the outer leaves off the stalk (video). About four inches of lower stem is best for cooking.
Once sliced, cattails need to be cooked for about an hour to tenderize. They are similar to the texture of celery. I added onions, garlic, jalapeno pepper, green beans, pinto beans and whole matpe beans to the soup, an Indian Sambar.
To sweeten the broth, I added ground carrot pulp from a juicer. Once the turmeric, sambar spices, asafoetida and tamarind are added the sambar simmers gently for a half hour.
The flavor and colors are wonderful, rich and spicy.
These carrot muffins used up some of the carrot pulp.I also made Sambar on Friday, using finely chopped Swiss chard stems. They are colorful - red, yellow, and white - and offer the same kind of sweet/bitter that is characteristic of Sambar broth.
Here, I'm drying split matpe beans that were soaked for several hours. They are ground into a powder, for vadai and sambars.
Fried vadai, a doughnut made from chana dal, is served with sambars and chutneys. These were made with finely chopped spinach, green onion, cumin and jalapeno.I packed PBJ's and Sambar in thermoses for lunch on the lake.
We found a shady glade, positioned the canoe between driftwood logs, and enjoyed our lunch. 
( Photo-video Set on Mineral Lake in Flickr).
