”Been playing around with this for a while now as Tree Mallow (Lavatera maritima) has been on my mind moreso since being close to the coast.
GeorgeFlavour Fred
If you’ve been following along you’ll know I have made many dishes that traditionally use a type of mallow called Jute Mallow (Molokhia) such as Hubeza (green leaf patties), Molokhia soup, green shakshuka but I used common mallow it its place. This family (Malva sp.) has a lot of well known ingredients like Okra and cacao in it and all have a stickiness like a lot of plans being muscilaginous which holds many uses. Many know the use of mallow to help soothing throats, dry coughs and bronchitis.
I love the texture this plant brings and the entire mallow family have this interesting texture and ability to thicken, especially in the root. The original marshmallow was made from the root of the Marsh Mallow (now a protected plant in the UK) a delicacy sort after in Egyptian times made with the root and honey. Nowadays the marshmallow is very different going through stages of being made fluffy thanks to the folding in of whipped egg whites then gelatine was used and now synthetic.
The tree mallow leaves are very soft and once blanched they have a similar (but thicker) texture to vine leaves and the stickiness helps it for these Dolma which I love making. Trying to keep it traditional (and pronouncing badly) I made a wild cacık (yogurt based condiment) with sorrel to substitute the lemon, hedge garlic for the garlic, salad Burnett for the cucumber and wild oregano instead of the mint. As you can see I was happy with the result. More in depth videos being uploaded to YouTube later this week so stay tuned.
