Let the Sun Shine In: Cattail Pollen in the Kitchen
Photography by Marie Viljoen.
Enveloped in a rustling verdant stand of Cape Town cattails where they are known as bulrushes their seven foot long leaves moving gently above my head I am...
...kept company by the songs of small brown rush warblers that flit back and forth alighting on the reeds flowers heavy with pollen which drifts down as they land
This is how I catch sunshine, before tilting it into a jar, sealing it before it can escape, and releasing it on winter days that seem forever gray.
The cattail in the middle is just right—not too dry, not too green, and filled with pollen. In the United States I collect the early summer flowers of common cattail (T. latifolia) and the diminutive, narrow-leafed cattail, T. angustifolia.
Cattail flowers laid out on parchment for shedding pollen at home. In late spring, still sheathed in leaves, the flower is a cylinder, green and velvety.
Cattails in winter, with just the dry, brown brush (the female part of the flower) left atop each stem. All that is left of the flowers by winter is the dry brown brushy tail, filled with seeds, which puff away like parachutes.
Sifting cattail pollen from the male flowers (it is not fine enough to irritate sinuses). Cattail pollen is in season in early summer when the flowers are still young and just beginning to shed their warm yellow bounty.
An immature male flower, plucked, for griddlecakes.
Cattail pollen madeleines.
Cattail pollen biscuits.
Seared scallop with cattail pollen and sweet clover.
Top these versatile and blini-like griddlecakes with a fresh green salsa and a bite of chile. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and melt some of the butter to coat the bottom. Scoop a spoonful of the thick batter into the pan.
Cattail Griddlecakes
Cattail pollen biscuits, hot from the oven.
Makes about 10 3½-inch biscuits. Pour in the buttermilk and give the mixture as few swipes with a wooden spoon as possible, before bringing the biscuit dough together with your hands. Mix the egg wash and brush it gently over their tops. Best eaten at once, but they freeze very well, too.
Cattail Pollen Biscuits